Local government Paolo R. Graziano Political Science AY 2011-2012 Lecture 22

1. Local governmentPaolo R. Graziano Political Science AY 2011-2012Lecture 22

2. Italian State-Building • ‘latecomer’ nature of the Italian state connected to strong territorial divisions • local elites where crucial in shaping the unitary Italian state… • …but tried to constantly negotiate expansion of local power within the unitary state (until early 1920s) • traditional strong nature of the municipal administrative units (even before the unitary state) • result: unitary but not united state

3. Italian territorial cleavages • cultural and political dimension (Banfield, 1958): ‘amoral familism’, i.e. egotistic maximixation of personal and familiar benefits with no regard to forms of collective cooperation, predominates in social and political life in southern Italy. Decentralization was seen as a way to ‘responsibilize’ subnational territories by bringing the public sphere closer to citizens • economic dimension: territorial economic dualism (questione meridionale then ‘tripartite’ Italy) and concentration of economic underdevelopment in the Italian south.

4. Italian local government • 1948: confirmation of a unitary state although the governance framework was based on: • municipalities (relatively autonomous, especially with respect to social assistance policies) • provinces (very limited competences) • regions (especially ‘special’ regions during the 1948-1970 period) • strict centralization of fiscal resources limited the overall powers of local administrations (1948-1990)… • …but some political functions performed by local administrations were crucial since they: • diffused public participation in public life • provided opportunities for politicians’ recruitment • institutionalized a closer relationship between politics and local communities

5. Italian regions (1970-1990) • with the exception of special regions, ordinary regions start to function during the ‘70s. • first regional elections in ordinary regions: 1970 • Italian regions’ main political features (1970-1990): • PR electoral systems • consensus parliamentary form of government • ambiguos power-sharing with state and provincial administrations • limited financial autonomy • regional elections played an important role as ‘second order’ elections • very different instititutional performances (according to Putnam, correlated to regional ‘civicness’)

6. Reforming subnational governance (1990-2010) • from the early ‘90s, several ‘decentralization’ reforms have been approved at the national level • from a general rearrangement of local governance (1990)… • …to fiscal federalism (2009). • overall increase in regional powers and autonomy. • explanatory factors of sub-national governance reforms: • growing citizens’ dissatisfaction • new (and old) political parties favor a ‘decentralization’ political agenda • regions operated increasingly as ‘institutional political actors’ and pressure groups • Europeanization

7. The main reform outcomes • competitive regional political systems • increasing sub-national decisional autonomy • regions have increasingly become ‘political spaces’ and ‘political actors’ • growing institutionalization of ‘cooperative federalism’

8. Conclusion • the Italian case has moved from a unitary state to a ‘cooperative federalist’ one • the implementation of ‘decentralization’ is still ongoing… • …and for the moment there are limited signs of territorial convergence with respect to: • economic development • institutional performance • party systems