Il sistema delle piccole e medie imprese e il “modello Emilia”

The Emilia-Romagna region is an exemplary case of industrial development based on systems of small and medium-sized enterprises. Since the 1980s it has become a common reference in the international debate on PostFordism. This paper analyzes the role of small and medium-sized enterprises in the development of region’s economy. After presenting a short profile of the dynamics and structural features of the region’s industrialization, the paper reconstructs the debate among economists and politicians about the role of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Emilian economy: from the dominant positions in the mid-20th century economic theory that saw them as unavoidably backward and inefficient, to Togliatti’s innovative proposal for a strategic alliance between the working class and the small entrepreneurs, the debate on productive decentralization, the discovery of industrial districts up to the more recent analysis on the rise of district lead firms and medium-sized firms of the «forth capitalism».