Abstract

The Constituent Assembly is considered almost a missed opportunity to move from the pre-war classic Meridionalism to the new Meridionalism emerged at the end of WWII. The Constituent Assembly debated the Southern Question on the occasion of the approval of Article 44, which prefigured an agrarian reform and, above all, in relation to the regional order. There exists, therefore, a link between Mezzogiorno and Region. The aim of this research is to read, once again, the Acts of the Constituent Assembly in the attempt to better understand the «Meridionalism of the Constitution», that is, the «compelling» indications that it provides to try to solve the old never-ending Southern Question. The paper is divided into three parts. In the first one we will analyse the Meridionalism and Regionalism of the political parties on the eve of the election of the Constituent Assembly. In the second, we will retrace different salient moments of the constitutional debate on the Meridionalism and Regionalism. In the last one, we will present some recent interpretations of the Southern Question and the related Regional Question.