The recent incident involving the former Minister of Culture, Sangiuliano, risks slowing down public and private investments in the cultural and creative industries cluster, a sector of paramount importance for the country’s economic and social development.
This situation highlights an aspect of the cultural and creative industries in Italy that requires a short-to-medium-term correction: the need to reduce the relative weight that politics and the public sector have in the sector.
Since the beginning of the new millennium, Italy has had a total of 12 governments: one every 2 years. Under the current rules, a stable political situation would have resulted in a total of 5 governments (a government can remain in office until the end of the legislature, which lasts 5 years).
In this scenario, it is therefore quite evident that the Sangiuliano affair is merely a specific case, and that the problem lies elsewhere. The country’s political unreliability, in fact, is not only to be found in the central decision-making organisms. Although not committing any illegalities, it spreads through a series of uncertainties and inefficiencies that, in addition to involving Ministries, are present in local authorities, public companies, and finally in that heterogeneous group of “entities, agencies, and subjects” that in various ways participate in the country’s economic and cultural life.
A condition that, given its geographical and temporal extension, can rightly be considered as structural, and consequently difficult to modify in the short term.
Since it is not possible to reduce the randomness of the political system, it becomes necessary to strengthen the entrepreneurial and private component of the Italian cultural and creative cluster.
By creating an industrial backbone, the political oscillations, that could be considered as “natural” in such a turbulent global period, can be better cushioned.
Currently, the CCI sector in Italy presents a strong fragmentation both in terms of business demographics and legislation. The effects of this randomness are therefore visible in the large differences in terms of capitalization between companies operating in the same sector, as well as in the tools that the Italian legal system has put in place for its development.
A concrete example can be helpful: at a global level, the cultural specialization of the country is widely recognized. More so than its technological and IT specialization. It is therefore counterintuitive that, in such a condition, it is the innovative start-ups that are fully regulated, while the legislation on cultural start-ups is still awaiting implementing decrees.
All this does nothing but slow down investments in the cultural and creative sector, which could instead represent an important cluster in terms of both quality and economic-financial and employment.
It is the industrial weakness that is the real wound of culture. Resolving this criticality means consolidating a sector that can truly help the national economy, both in terms of domestic consumption and exports
