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Poteri forti? Banche e assicurazioni nel sistema politico italiano
No full textNell’ambito della ricerca politologica sui gruppi d’interesse, nessuno studio era mai stato dedicato a due attori socio-economici molto rilevanti nel processo di policy making nazionale: l’associazione delle banche (ABI) e quella delle assicurazioni (ANIA), associazioni comunemente ritenute i «poteri forti» per eccellenza. Una lacuna che il libro viene a colmare. A partire da solide basi teoriche, l’autore conduce una approfondita analisi empirica di tre dimensioni fondamentali per ogni gruppo di interesse: la struttura organizzativa, l’attività di lobbying, l’influenza sul processo di policy-making. Ne emerge un quadro che solo in parte conferma l’opinione che banche e assicurazioni siano davvero quei poteri forti che si pensa, in grado di incidere profondamente sulla legislazione italiana
Decision-Making Potential and ‘Detailed’ Legislation of Western European Parliamentary Governments (1990-2013)
No full textThe first and foremost task of all governments is to make decisions. Consequently, studies on governments should deal above all with their ability to produce legislation. To this respect, this article analyses the legislative productivity of 112 parliamentary governments in 12 Western European democracies (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom) from 1990 to 2013. My independent variable is an index offering an immediate picture of the decision-making potential of parliamentary governments, while the dependent variable is the ‘detailed’ legislative production of those governments. If we are able to differentiate between governments who decide, and governments who do not, we could answer a considerable number of interesting questions: which Western European parliamentary democracies tend to produce more (detailed) laws and which – on the contrary – are used to facing greater difficulties for achieving that goal? What are the reasons behind these opposing trends? The empirical results largely confirms that the more a parliamentary government has got decision-making potential (in terms of the proposed index), the more likely it will pass ‘detailed’ legislation
Da Forza Italia e Alleanza Nazionale al Popolo della Libertà, e ritorno: dinamiche territoriali e contraddizioni politiche
No full textLess than five years after its formal establishment, the National Council of PDL – which met on 11-16-2013 at the ‘Palazzo dei Congressi’ in Rome – decided for the dissolution of the party and the subsequent confluence of all its members and leaders in a new political entity which was called again Forza Italia. A party that – in the first two years of its political life – had proven to be a powerful tool with respect to various majoritarian electoral disputes, was definitively dismissed without any regret. Aside from the considerations linked to the gradual weakening of Silvio Berlusconi’s leadership, which is certainly a major issue, this article examines the impact of territorial dynamics – in particular, intra-party competition and party territorial roots – on the electoral results obtained by PDL in the 2013 Italian parliamentary elections. Unlike what argued for a long time, these dynamics have much affected those electoral results. Although the largest Italian center-right party still remains inextricably tied to the fluctuating fortunes of its founding leader (Silvio Berlusconi), in the future the so-called ‘moderate coalition’ will have to pay greater attention to the relationships with the territory than what it did so fa
I gruppi di interesse nel settore del credito e delle assicurazioni
No full textThis article deals with the empirical analysis of a policy sector which – for a number of reasons (last but not least the recent economic and financial crisis) – in recent years has become an increasingly important one: that of banks and insurance companies. In doing so, I focus on eighteen interest groups that can be differentiated in employers groups, trade unions, and consumer associations. For each of these groups I propose an organizational analysis that will shed light on both formal structures and actual resources; in addition, I present some regularity with respect to groups’ lobbying activities; finally, I try to recognize the greater or lesser influence these groups have been able to exercise in relation to three very important policy-making processes (D. Lgs. 252/2005; l. 27/2012; l. 5/2014)
How To Measure Interest Group Influence: Evidence From Italy
No full textThe 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 (Baumgertner 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
Parties and interest groups in Italy: The case of pensions policy
No full textThe present contribution aims to shed light on the interaction between political decision-makers and interest groups (IGs) through an historical approach, embracing two decades of Italian pension reforms. The aim is thus to focus 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 confirms, on the one hand, some broader trends in IG politics in Italy: the progressive disentanglement of parties and IGs, and the fragmentation of the policy arena. New actors see a role in the reform process. On the other hand, we also outline some peculiarities of the field. This is the case of the changing role of IGs between the 1990s and the more recent reform processes in the 2000s and 2010s. Party–group relationships have gone through social concertation, where social partners played a key role, in the 1990s; the articulation of a more complex policy arena with the new financial and banking sector playing a role in pension funds and the increased competition between political and social actors in the 2000s; and the increased hostility of decision-makers towards the social partners and a political and economic context that has favoured a more unilateral governmental approach to reforms in the last decade. These varying party–group relationships appear to be linked to some potential explanatory variables: among them, the most relevant one seems to be the role of the European Union
Exploring the determinants of higher education performance in Western Europe: A qualitative comparative analysis
No full textAs a result of domestic pressure or international prescription, many national higher education systems (HESs) in Europe have undergone structural changes over the last 30 years. These changes have been made primarily to enhance the overall performance – defined as students’ access, quality of teaching, and excellence in research – of universities. As such, almost all of these countries have decided to adopt similar policy strategies to foster institutional autonomy and differentiation, and greater managerial steering. However, although similar policy patterns have been replicated, performance indicators are remarkably variable across Western European countries. Thus, many of the proposed explanations may be oversimplifications of reality. This issue leads to our main research question: Which factors are associated with (teaching) performance improvement in HE? This paper focuses on university-level education to explore the possibility that this association is conjunctural in nature. In other words, when considering the performance of university systems (i.e. teaching), it is important to identify the most effective combination of institutional autonomy, evaluation, internal governance, and public funding. Qualitative comparative analysis was employed to test this expectation on developments (1988–2008) in 12 HESs in Western Europe: Austria, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden. The results suggest that giving more institutional autonomy to universities is much less important than expected, whereas severe evaluation, generous public funding, and verticalized governance emerge as more relevant
What really happens in higher education governance? Trajectories of adopted policy instruments in higher education over time in 16 European countries
Full text linkOver the past three decades, governments have recurrently intervened in higher education. Over time, significant changes have occurred in inherited national governance modes. These reforms have been assessed in different ways, such as by emphasising the shift to the more supervisory role of the State, or the increasing privatisation and marketisation following the neoliberal paradigm, or the overall process of re-regulation. This paper sheds light on these different judgements by addressing the governance shift by focusing on the sequences of policy instrument mixes adopted over time in 16 European countries. By analysing 25 years of policy developments, it is shown how the content of national governance reforms consistently varied over time and that no common template has been followed
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