Is Welfare Reform in Italy a Great Opportunity or is it a Loss of Opportunity? The Analysis of Law 328/00

Abstract

This paper is carried on in the current political institutional debate in Europe, starting from '90, concerning both local development incentives and promotion of innovative enterprises from bottom up. Among many policies in this strand, we focus on the welfare reform in Italy, essentially based on the decentralization principle intended not merely as a competencies delegation, but as a power devolution process, to local agencies and social communities. This new approach on welfare policy seems to be relevant for social inclusion, by increasing the opportunity-set of employment, promoting local partnership and sustaining a fair cooperation. We interpret the local welfare restructuring design in Italy (L.328/00) that represent the natural conclusion of a path towards policy decentralization, began with L.833/78 and L.287/97, in particularly we will try to put in evidence the novelty of the law and its principal issues.