Pursuing defragmentation at the municipal level: signs of a changing pattern?

Bolgherini, Silvia; Casula, Mattia; Marotta, Mariano

doi:10.1017/mit.2017.44

Cited by 18 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…22 Translation of the Considerato in diritto p.to 14 is ours. 23 See Bolgherini et al (2018a), p. 85. 24 de Donno and Tubertini (2020).…”

Section: Territorial Reorganisation Policies (Mergers and Intermunici...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The System of Local Government in Italy: A Stress-Test to Traditional Paradigms?

Valdesalici,

Trettel

2023

Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice

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In 2001 a constitutional reform was approved with the aim to considerably increase the powers and the political autonomy of the Italian Regions. In championing the federalisation of the country, the relations between State and Regions were reshaped. Despite the presence of many typical federal traits, many other essential federal features are missing. The system of local autonomies is one of the most emblematic elements that distinguishes Italy’s decentralised model from traditional federations. According to the theorical approaches to federalism, federations usually adhere to a common paradigm when it comes to local entities: local governments are creatures of the subnational units, whereas non-federal countries follow a different path, in which local entities depend on the central State. Against this background, the chapter explores the hybrid nature of the Italian paradigm, i.e., a system in which relations with local governments cannot be situated in neither of these two groups. In addressing this fuzziness, the chapter gives evidence of the main characteristics of mixed paradigms by emphasizing the components that in the Italian case show significant deviations from the abovementioned dichotomy.

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“…22 Translation of the Considerato in diritto p.to 14 is ours. 23 See Bolgherini et al (2018a), p. 85. 24 de Donno and Tubertini (2020).…”

Section: Territorial Reorganisation Policies (Mergers and Intermunici...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The System of Local Government in Italy: A Stress-Test to Traditional Paradigms?

Valdesalici,

Trettel

2023

Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice

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“…The reform is part of a general effort by national governments across Europe in the last decade to reduce municipal fragmentation and the burden of administrative costs on state budgets (for an overview, see also Bolgherini et al, 2018;Swianiewicz et al, 2022: for Italy). The reform offers a unique opportunity to study the electoral consequences of public service deprivation.…”

Section: Study 2: Evidence From the 2010 Reform Of Municipal Public S...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of Discontent: Public Service Deprivation and the Rise of the Far Right in Italy

Cremaschi¹,

Rettl²,

Cappelluti³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Electoral support for far-right parties is often linked to specific geographies of discontent. We argue that public service deprivation, defined as poor access to public services at the local level, helps explain these patterns in far-right support. Public service deprivation increases the appeal of far-right parties by making people more worried about immigration and increased competition for reduced public services. We examine our argument using three studies from Italy, a country home to some of the most electorally successful far-right parties in the past decades. We examine cross-sectional data from municipalities (study 1), exploit a national reform forcing municipalities below a certain population threshold to jointly share local public services (study 2), and explore geo-coded individual-level election survey data (study 3). Our findings suggest that public service deprivation helps us better understand geographical differences in far-right support and the mechanisms underlying it.

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“…Many Regions additionally promoted amalgamations with own financial support and benefits, with targeted campaigns and deliberative democracy strategies. The amalgamation figures are still limited but evidently growing (Bolgherini, Casula & Marotta, ; Mauri & Ricciardi, ; Rumpianesi, ) and increased where the Regions engaged politically beyond the State legal framework, and thus promoted additional incentives and exhibited political and symbolic commitment through advertising, deliberative democracy procedures, etc.…”

Section: Change In the Model: Resources Of The Trilateral Gamementioning

confidence: 99%

From the Change of the Pattern to the Change in the Pattern. The Trilateral Game in the Italian Intergovernmental Relations

Bolgherini¹,

Giulio²,

Lippi³

2018

European Policy Analysis

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Studies on federalism, regionalism and devolution often tackle the processes of institutional change in a country's polity merely as transitions from an institutional pattern to another, thus mainly focusing on the role of legal frameworks and Constitutional setting in the transition from an equilibrium to another. Such an approach overlooks the role of incremental dynamics: what happens after a new constitutional equilibrium has been reached? Does it stand still, crystallized by formal institutions, or does it evolve in time? This article illustrates the relevance of incremental institutional changes that occur after a major Constitutional reform and shows how an alteration in the distribution of resources among actors may heavily affect the territorial arrangement and the intergovernmental relations (IGRs) of a country. It focuses on the Italian case and the change in its IGRs between 2001 and 2016. Through a secondary analysis, a scrutiny of the trilateral game among the State, the Regions and the Local Authorities – played by reshaping and implementing the initial arrangement through gradual, piecemeal and layered modifications – will be conducted. Evidence is displayed through Dente (1997) resources (legal, political, financial and cognitive) framework. The main finding is that the change in the pattern turns out to be less visible, sometimes ambiguous and sticky, and more uncertain than a change of the pattern, but equally deep and effective. In the conclusion, some interpretative hypotheses for further research on the relevance of change in the pattern and its generalization for multi‐level system countries are proposed.

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Pursuing defragmentation at the municipal level: signs of a changing pattern?

Cited by 18 publications

References 27 publications

The System of Local Government in Italy: A Stress-Test to Traditional Paradigms?

The System of Local Government in Italy: A Stress-Test to Traditional Paradigms?

Geographies of Discontent: Public Service Deprivation and the Rise of the Far Right in Italy

From the Change of the Pattern to the Change in the Pattern. The Trilateral Game in the Italian Intergovernmental Relations

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