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What has caused this strange predictability? Since the publication of Robert Putnam’s book “Making Democracy Work” in 1993, the main explanation put forward has been that the self-governing communes and city states that sprang up in the north of the country during the late Middle Ages built up reserves of social capital (or trust in fellow citizens) that have proved remarkably enduring. The south of the country, ruled by a monarchy and characterised by large landholdings worked by peasants, lacked this crucial resource. Three economists who studied this subject recently, Luigi Guiso of the European University Institute, Paola Sapienza of Northwestern University and Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago, found that at least half of the gap in social capital between the north and south is due to the absence of free city-states in the south.
This argument quickly becomes defeatist. If Italy’s problems really date back to the political vacuum created by the collapse of the Roman Empire and the emergence of the three main types of government, then perhaps it is time to give up and sip Campari with orange on the Amalfi coast instead. Fortunately Italy’s complex history can explain only so much.

A. 어휘
predictability 예측가능성. publication 出刊(출간).
self-governing communes 자치단체. reserves 備蓄(비축), 적립금.
trust 신뢰. remarkably 놀랄만하게. enduring 지속하는, 내구성이 있는.
characterised 특징이 되는. landholdings 토지소유. crucial 결정적인, 중대한.
Institute 연구소, 대학. defeatist 패배주의자. date back 거슬러 올라가다.
political vacuum 정치적 공백. collapse 崩壞(붕괴). emergence 출현.
sip 홀짝 마시다, 흡수하다.