Local Development and a Free Competition in the “Market of Politics”

Defining, measuring and evaluating in economic, social and political terms, those mechanisms at the base of development represent a methodological foundation in approaching to development itself even at local level. To these factors, two critical variables have to be added: the management of complexity which is amplified by uncertainty. The parallel action of these elements determines the real framework of the problematic characters of a given territory to be considered as a natural, social and cultural context composed of material resources (population, landscape, environment, biodiversity, institutions, economic resources and actors, etc.) and immaterial resources (traditions, cultures, religions, languages, dialects, etc.) which may be translated into expressions of local material culture or economy (artistic expressions, handcrafted products, agrofood products, traditional architectures, archaeological sites, etc.). This means that development interventions and measures for a given area should keep proper attention to a large number of facets and intervention levels. One may however ask: how many local administrators in Italy are likely to detain sufficient knowledge and awareness about these issues? Does the economic, social and ethic degradation in many Italian areas depends on “bad luck” or on the incapability of local administrators? Do development/underdevelopment/deviated development in Italy really depend on fate or on the presence/lack of isolated good will individuals, or on the prevalence of particular interests? The most obvious reply is: local administrators are elected by common people and consequently they have the politicians they have chosen. I’m actually tempted to ask: considering that in Italy politics attract only bad individuals (because honest people are unable to be involved in the perverse mechanisms of italian politics at any level) why don’t we do like in soccer? Why don’t we engage local administrators and politicians abroad (however with EU citizenship)? It is better to have a public administrator with Austrian or Dutch citizenship (but honest) or an Italian public administrator (but dishonest)? Why do our politicians always speak about free market for others and the “market of politics” actually works as an oligopoly? Why don’t we force Italian parties to face an European political competition? Any suggestion is welcome.