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2019, Rivista Italiana di Politiche Pubbliche
In this article, we analyze the influence that crucial interest groups had with regard to one of the most debated policy processes in recent years: the so-called «Jobs Act» (law no. 183/2014) enacted by the Renzi government. We focus on the interplay between the government and the main stakeholders in labor market policy, by reconstructing the decision-making process leading to the labor market reform of 20142015. Interest groups played a rather marginal role and reached very partial policy results, whereas the government was able to steer the policy process and to achieve (most of) its policy goals. However, the «Jobs Act» is not a story of wholesale disintermediation and unilateralism: the main stakeholders were invited to help finetuning policy measures and were able to deter the government from approving the disposition on minimum wage.
Rivista Italiana di Politiche Pubbliche
Lobbying in tempi difficili. Gruppi di interesse e policy-making nell'Italia della disintermediazione2019 •
This special issue is concerned with the study of interest groups in Italy, focusing on their roles in policy-making and on how lobbying varies throughout the policy cycle. This introductory essay illustrates the common analytical framework followed by all contributions to the special issue, which reconstruct five policy processes in the period of the so-called disintermediation (Renzi cabinet 2015-2016) between policymakers and interest groups in Italy. It combines politics and policy factors using the policy cycle as the main tool of analysis. The contingency of configurations in the interplay between cabinets and interest groups emerges as a common and dynamic trend: groups are resilient and able to adapt to the uncertainty and variability of the policy context, while cabinets – during their life cycles – need the resources of groups throughout the policy cycle.
Social Policy & Administration
The Italian Case: From Employment Regulation to Welfare Reforms2008 •
This article on the Italian case is based on recent trends in labour market reform. We critically review the reform approach adopted in recent years, mainly centred on marginal legislative reforms in employment contracts. The diffusion of flexible labour contracts, especially among the younger generations and women, together with a welfare system still based on employment seniority and job characteristics, have reinforced the segmentation of the Italian labour market and social inequalities. The absence of a negotiating strategy in introducing reforms has also increased social conflict. These trends ask for a comprehensive reform of the welfare system and for active policies to support labour market transitions, a reform which is increasingly considered in the current political debate.
ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops (Salamanca: 10th-15th April 2014)
How To Measure Interest Group Influence: Evidence From Italy2014 •
"The question of who wins or loses in the policy-making process lies at the very heart of recent research into both interest groups and public policy (Baumgartner et al. 2009; Klüver 2013). However, one of the most difficult challenges when empirically analyzing interest groups consists in knowing exactly how to measure their respective influence (Baumgartner and Leech 1998; Mahoney 2007; Beyers et al. 2008; Dür 2008; Lowery 2013): despite the fact that this question has been addressed by political scientists for decades (Truman 1951; Dahl 1961; Salisbury 1984; Verschuren e Arts 2004), significant problems remain regarding both the conceptual definition and empirical measurement of influence (Dür and De Bièvre 2007). In order to develop a better understanding of interest groups influence, I recommend as follows: a) that such influence be conceptualised as a degree of preference attainment (Schneider and Baltz 2003; Bernhagen 2012); b) that the degree of generality of the concept be downgraded, by breaking it up on the basis of two fundamental dimensions: the lobbying direction (pro-status quo or anti-status quo) and the policy-making stage (agenda-setting; decision-making; implementation); c) to proceed with a manual hand-coding in order to obtain a list of the policy issues around which interest groups lobby; d) to resort to an expert survey in order to evaluate – both qualitatively and quantitatively – these issues. Hence, it is possible to empirically measure interest groups’ influence if and only if: they are pro-status quo interest groups in the decision-making stage of the policy process; they face the same policy makers during the entire decision-making process; such a process is as brief as possible. This methodological approach is used to empirically measure the influence that Italy’s Professional Orders had on the liberalization process championed by the second Prodi Government in 2006."
European Journal of Political Research
The contentious politics of unemployment: The Italian case in comparative perspective2008 •
This article discusses the evolution of the public debate in Italy about unemployment over a period of almost ten years (1995–2002) that was particularly crucial for the Italian labour and political systems. From the early 1980s and throughout the 1990s, the country experienced major industrial change, which dramatically restructured its labour landscape. Moreover, this industrial earthquake occurred within internal (a deep political party system re-assessment and the fluctuating importance of unions) and external (European Union-driven state budgetary limits) political constraints that have heavily influenced the debate itself. The analysis of the public policy debates allows the authors of this article to portray the agendas, concepts and strategies introduced and discussed by experts, politicians and interest groups as pillars of a new edifice of public policies. Although other sources are more complete in presenting the policy-making process on unemployment issues, the focus in this article on the public debate in the mass media reflects a specific interest in the discursive interactions between the symbolic images promoted by different actors. To this end, the authors have combined claims analysis and semi-structured interviews. Through their combined use, the article describes the selective field of contentious politics as far as main actors are concerned: its effect on the policy issues addressed, and the repertoire used for making claims and influencing policies. The authors also single out the role of the European Union and its potential impact on Italian public debates. In particular, the authors are interested in learning how inclusive these public debates are with reference to weakly represented interests and precariously organised groups (particularly the unemployed).
Italy Today: The Sick Man of Europe
Labour and Welfare Reforms: The Short Life of Labour Unity in Contemporary ItalyXXII International Conference of Europeanists - Paris (France)
Changing Patterns of Social Concertation: Trade Union's Decline in Italy2015 •
The present article focuses on the interaction between political decision makers and trade unions in Italy through an historical approach, embracing two decades of welfare reforms. The aim is thus to shed light on party-group relationships, through a rigorous definition of the changing modes of interaction between the two and the study of the key endogenous and exogenous factors that have shaped it. The present contribution mainly confirms some broader trends of the interest group politics in Italy: above all, the progressive disentanglement of parties and interest groups and the decline of trade unions’ capability to play a major role in the policy-making. While the industrial relations literature has focused on the altered European constraints and the weakening of social partners to explain such a decline, here we look at the role of political decision-makers and their strategic interaction with trade unions. Policymakers’ (both political parties and technocrats) strategies have been largely neglected by contemporary studies. The present article, by contrast, sheds light on their decisive role in designing and implementing welfare reforms.
Contemporary Italian Politics
Organized interests and competition policy in Italy one step forward and two steps back2022 •
Free copies: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/NN3UFE4PXGPBYJJMK5KG/full?target=10.1080/23248823.2022.2045448 Competition policies are key for every government, the more so in times of economic crisis like the current one, because they foster recovery without having to increase the public debt. However, they imply thinly spread benefits, barely visible to the public, in the face of highly concentrated costs weighing heavily on specific interest groups, with the significant risk that politicians decline to pursue them. Nevertheless, in 2015 the Italian government announced the adoption of a competition reform affecting strategic economic sectors (pharmacies, transport, insurance, energy, postal services, communications, the legal professions). The allegedly wide-ranging consequences of the reform provoked the strong opposition of the interest groups involved, lengthening a decision-making process that only ended in 2017 with the adoption of Law no. 124/2017. This article aims at analysing the role played by the interest groups and their effective impact on the outcome. The work examines which interest groups mobilized during the decision-making process and the strategies they adopted to oppose the reform. It is argued that the type of interest groups involved matters: while, despite the Government's intentions, the reform's impacts were neutralized by those interest groups that acquired enough power during the decision-making process to mitigate the pro-competitive objectives of the Government, on the other hand, in some sectors, the interactions between varying interests led to different results.
Adopting a large-N research design and long-term perspective, the paper sheds light on the evolution of the political economy legislation in Italy from 1976 to 2015. Through providing evidences on the frequency of several types of law used to pass measures in the political economy sector, the study sheds light on the changing policy-making role of institutions over time, and specifically the government, the parliament and the European Union. The paper provides also evidences concerning the legislative evolution in three political economy sectors: macroeconomic policy, public finance, and regional and local finance (1976-2015). The key findings of this study can be summarized as follows: the decline of the overall legislative output from early 2000s; the marginalisation of the parliament vis-à-vis the executive and the EU; the quantitative increasing of the EU law in the last decade of the study; the increasing, over the whole timeframe and mainly via laws of conversion, of executive's legislation in macroeconomic policy, fiscal policy, and regional and local.
Since 1970 Article 18 provided important employment protection for workers in larger firms in Italy. Its core aspect (i.e. reinstatement in the case of unfair dismissal) was recently overturned by the Jobs Act for employees hired after its approval. To explain Article 18's abolition, the authors assess the explicative power of (1) stronger exogenous pressures from economic international institutions, and (2) weaker endogenous pressures from unions and business organizations. Documentary analyses and semi-structured interviews with key informants reveal that while these two forces are critical, they tend to 'read off' the state policy decision making role, which, the authors argue, is central to explaining the overturning of Article 18.
2018 •
Editora Ilustração
A busca pela efetivação da educação no contexto democrático2020 •
Electronic Journal of General Medicine
The Measurements of Intervertebral Foraminal Area and Angulation of Cervical Vertebra Before and After Anterior Cervical Discectomy2008 •
Revista De Administracion Publica
Silencio administrativo e impugnación jurisdiccional: la resurrección de un Lázaro administrativo2000 •
2009 •
Os Franciscanos no Mundo Português III. O Legado Franciscano
Ordem Terceira de São Francisco de Ovar. Procissão das Cinzas. Uma procissão com três séculos2013 •
Vietnam Journal of Diabetes and Endocrinology
Kết quả khảo sát một số chỉ số áp lực gan bàn chân ở người Việt Nam trưởng thành2021 •
Polígonos. Revista de Geografía
El turismo en los espacios naturales protegidos. Aproximación a una gestión inteligente basada en la sostenibilidad / Tourism in protected natural spaces. Approach to smart management based on sustainability2018 •
Intensive Care Medicine
Effects of dobutamine on systemic, regional and microcirculatory perfusion parameters in septic shock: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover study2013 •
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
The effectiveness of immersive virtual reality in physical recovery of stroke patients: A systematic review2008 •
Reproductive BioMedicine Online
Semen quality and intrauterine insemination2003 •
MedEdPublish
Relationship of Preceptor Ad-hoc Entrustment Decisions to Students’ Clinical Skills Performance2020 •
European heart journal. Acute cardiovascular care
Early aspirin desensitization in unstable patients with acute coronary syndrome: Short and long-term efficacy and safety2015 •
arXiv (Cornell University)
On generalized and fractional derivatives and their applications2018 •
Andrea Pritoni