Fratelli d’Italia: Differences and similarities in social values between Italian macro- regions

The 2011 sesquicentennial celebrations of Italy’s unification painted the country as one that remains, in many respects, divided. The most frequently perceived division is that there are substantial cultural differences between the North and the South. These cultural dissimilarities are considered to be the main obstacle preventing the emergence of a more cohesive society. There are, however, no recent studies that have explored the alleged differences. This study aims to analyse cultural differences across macro-regions in terms of the endorsement of social values. Differences in attitudes towards economic conservatism, authoritarianism, democratic values and ‘generalized trust’ are examined using multi-level variance components analysis. The findings suggest that dissimilarities between macro-regions do exist, but that they are limited to some dimensions, and that they do not appear so large as to suggest a national cultural homogeneity, which has often been misrepresented in Italian political and cultural life.