Measuring Progress of italian regions: a Classical Approach

The purpose of the paper is to apply a definition of ‘progress’ of the Italian regions based on the relationship between economic development and civil development, according to the lesson of Classical authors. Firstly, we analyze the interaction between economic development and civil development, in a circular cumulative causation, and the relationship of different nature between these two elements. Secondly, we propose a synthetic index of progress, which on the one hand takes account of the different components of development (social, civil, economic and ecological) and on the other hand is based on the concept of ‘social sustainability’ of progress, defined as balanced improvement of all its dimensions.