Politicization without institutionalization: relations between State and Regions in crisis governance

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article considers how intergovernmental relationships (Igr) between the State and the Regions in Italy changed during 2021, the second year of the pandemic outbreak. Three events altered significantly the previous cooperative arrangements and opened a new phase: the vaccination campaign, the new government led by Mario Draghi, and the launch of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). These events helped to shift the former cooperative governance (grounded in joint decision-making in the development of provisions and policies) towards a centralized governance (grounded in the leadership of the Prime Minister and an ‘adhocracy’) where the Regions had mostly an implementation rather than a more active decision-making role. This change is visible through two analytic dimensions: delegation/autonomy and cooperation/conflict. Empirical evidence was gathered on both dimensions. The article argues that the new centralized governance implied no formal change at the institutional level. Political variables determined it, analogously with what occurred in 2020 with cooperative governance. This means that relations between State and Regions in Italy change according to the political climate: they are more prone to politicization, than to institutionalization and permanent consolidation.