Abstract
The paper deals with the Italian economic development, explaining the main features and the crucial variables in the long-term transformation process. The Italian economy has been analysed taking into account the different and changing international rules in medium and long-term to understand their role on the development strategies and on the changing competitive position of the country. The comparative international analysis on selected crucial variables shows some contradictions between expectations and effective outcomes of changing institutional rules and introduced economic policies. This underlines both the emergence of unexpected trajectories and economic performances and the lasting of structural differences among European countries. The selection of consistent economic policies in Europe, then, should take into account these phenomena. The paper underlines the crucial role of long-term economic analysis to fully understand not only the crucial structural variables but even opportunities and challenges for strategic decisions in the current economic crisis.