Government In Italy Research Articles

Andata e ritorno: l’educazione e la cultura nelle politiche locali e regionali in Italia

Educational policies and cultural activities by local governments in Italy is not always recognized that the thickness. After a brief period of expansion in the age of Giolitti, fascism marks a caesura of strong centralization that arrives to post-war Italy. Only duringt he governments of the Centro-Sinistra, and especially with the regionalization during the 70s, it makes a real modernization.

Cyclically Adjusted Local Government Balances

The paper provides an analysis of cyclically-adjusted budget balances of local governments in Italy for the period 2002-07. We find that local government balances appear to be relatively sensitive to the business cycle. In particular, a shock of 1 per cent in GDP changes their resources by approximately 0.6 billion. Within the sample period, both central and local policies concerning local government budgets had a sizeable impact on local government balances in cyclically-adjusted terms.

Convictions Leave Italy's Civil Protection in Chaos

Italy's government lacks experts to advise it on natural hazards following the conviction last week of six scientists and a government official for advice they gave ahead of the deadly earthquake in L'Aquila in 2009.

The challenge and the future of health care turnaround plans: Evidence from the Italian experience

Over the last two decades, health policy and governance in Italy have undergone decentralisation at the regional level. The central government was expected to play a guiding role in defining minimum care standards and controlling health expenditures at the regional level in order to keep the entire Italian National Health System (INHS) on track. Although health performance trends have been consistent across regions, public health expenditures have been variable and contributed to a cumulative deficit of 38 billion Euros from 2001 to 2010. To address the deficit, the government called for a resolution introducing a partial bail-out plan and later institutionalised a process to facilitate a turnaround. The upturn started with the development of a formal regional turnaround plan that proposed strategic actions to address the structural determinants of costs. The effectiveness of this tool was widely questioned, and many critics suggested that it was focused more on methods to address short-term issues than on the long-term strategic reconfiguration that is required for regional health systems to ultimately address the structural causes of deficits.We propose an interpretative framework to understand the advantages and disadvantages of turnaround plans, and we apply the findings to the development of policy recommendations for the structure, methods, processes and contexts of the implementation of this tool.

There’s no hope : The global economic crisis and the politics of resistance in Southern Europe1

Since 2010 Southern Europe has become the epicentre of the second phase of the global economic crisis that began two years earlier as a consequence of the bursting of the mortgage and financial bubble in the United States. In critical commentaries, this crisis has been understood as a crisis of neoliberalism as a mode of economic-political regulation. In the first part, this paper analyses the transition to a neoliberal mode of economic governance in Italy, understood in terms of “concerted neoliberalism”, particularly looking at its implications for the North-South divide. In the second part, the paper looks at the effects of the global crisis in the Sardinia region, through the lens of the politics of resistance that has taken shape in this context. The paper concludes by reflecting on the limits to a regionalised politics of resistance, calling for an imaginative politics of renaissance at a cross-Southern European scale.

Confidence returns to the eurozone

Tensions surrounding the eurozone have eased markedly in the early part of 2012 following the atmosphere of crisis that persisted through the second half of 2011. There is instead a new confidence that financial and economic disaster can be averted. Several developments have contributed to this optimism, including a change of government in Italy, a large injection of liquidity into the banking system by the European Central Bank (ECB), and a ‘fiscal compact’ among governments. The euro itself has strengthened on currency markets, and the perception of reduced risk can be seen in lower market yields on Italian and Spanish government bonds.

Evidence-based guidelines for mental, neurological, and substance use disorders in low- and middle-income countries: summary of WHO recommendations.

Funding for the mhGAP Programme, under which the work reported in this manuscript was done, was provided by the following: American Psychiatric Foundation, USA; Association of Aichi Psychiatric Hospitals, Japan; Autism Speaks, USA; CBM; Government of Italy; Government of Japan; Government of The Netherlands; International Bureau for Epilepsy; International League Against Epilepsy; Medical Research Council, UK; National Institute of Mental Health, USA; Public Health Agency of Canada, Canada; Rockefeller Foundation, USA; Shirley Foundation, UK; Syngenta, Switzerland; United Nations Population Fund;World Psychiatric Association

Lift High the Cross? An American Perspective on Lautsi v Italy

The European Court of Human Rights has upheld Italy's policy of displaying crucifixes in its public school classrooms. In Lautsi v Italy, an atheist mother of two state school children challenged this policy, in place since 1924. After losing in the Italian courts, she appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the presence of these crucifixes in schools violated her and her children's rights to religious freedom and to a secular education guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. On 3 November 2009, a unanimous seven-judge chamber of the European Court held for Ms Lautsi. On 18 March 2011, the Grand Chamber reversed this decision and held 15 to 2 in favour of the Government of Italy.

CONTEMPORARY LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN POLAND AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

This work presents modern local governments in Poland and selected European countries. This paper shows the local power structure, organizations and their competences as well as tasks and Government control. There are also indicated values of local democracy of the European Charter of local self government and legal problems of territorial self – government in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Austria and Belgium.

Performance Review and Assessment of Public Managers: Some Evidence from Local Governments in Italy

Performance review and assessment (PRA) of public managers has been adopted in several countries, but we still lack detailed knowledge of what affects the effectiveness of PRA systems. Based on interview data and on a survey of Italian public managers, this article aims to investigate this issue by developing and testing a preliminary model of perceived effectiveness of PRA. The results suggest that PRA perceived effectiveness seems related to the clarity of the organizational design, the quality of the PRA process, the involvement of public managers in the PRA process, and the use of PRA results for tightening control.

Agency Issues in a Family - Controlled Corporate Governance Structure - The Case of Italy

This study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between dividend payout ratios, executive compensation and agency costs in Italy. Corporate governance in Italy is distinguished by the fact that a large number of Italian firms are family-controlled, which may theoretically reduce asymmetry of information and associated agency costs. Using a panel of listed manufacturing firms, we find evidence that family control plays a significant role in resolving agency issues (e.g. that increases in family control of the firm lead to a higher dividend payout). Nevertheless, we also find that managerial compensations are negatively related to dividend payout ratios, even in this family controlled environment, dividends do play their role in mitigating agency problems.

Matching Higher Education with the Labour Market in the Knowledge Economy

It is argued that in the knowledge economy and in the context of the current restrictions on public finance, matching the output of higher education with the needs of the labour market is not simply one of many key issues for policy makers addressing the sustainability of higher education: it is ‘the’ issue. As the sources of funding for universities are almost entirely domestic and, in most countries, primarily governmental, politicians are expected to ensure that increasing public investment in higher education is justified in terms of the benefits accruing to the domestic workforce and investors. In so doing, they must avoid disrupting the international, free community of scholars and students engaged in the pursuit of knowledge and, thus, destroying the historical source of wealth creation that academia represents. This article considers the current debate in Europe and recent research on the interactions between universities and labour markets. The reform of university governance in Italy, regarded as much-needed and overdue, is evaluated in this context; and the assumptions on which such reform might be based, and the potential for aligning higher education more closely to the labour market, are examined.

A Party for the Mezzogiorno: The Christian Democratic Party, Agrarian Reform and the Government of Italy

AbstractIn the 1950s the Christian Democratic party turned its attention to agrarian reform projects and development funding for southern Italy. Its social and economic objectives were the destruction of latifundia, the creation of a class of small landowners, industrial and commercial development and the reduction of territorial inequalities. The ultimate goal, however, was political: to gain loyalty, allegiance and electoral consensus. To manage the economy and direct change, the party had to strengthen the organisation, form a ruling class, lay down territorial roots and widen the scope of its propaganda beyond anti-communism. Elections became the testing ground for the party's new reform strategies.

Confrontation between De Gaulle and Kennedy and its Impact on the Italian Politics: Focused on the Birth of the First ‘Centre-left’ Government in Italy

Confrontation between De Gaulle and Kennedy and its Impact on the Italian Politics: Focused on the Birth of the First ‘Centre-left’ Government in Italy

I piani di liquidazione del centro-sinistra nel 1964

The plans for liquidating the centre-left government in Italy in 1964 examines the difficult process of formation of the second Moro government. Using new archival evidence, the research aims at providing an original perspective of those events by enlargement to the economic dimension of the crisis. The alarm for the deteriorating economic situation was a key element in the management of the political crisis in July 1964. The A. argues that it was not by coincidence that the political crisis coincided with one of the most serious balance of payments crises of Italy since 1945.

Environmental reporting and accountability in the Lazio Region between national guidelines and pilot experiences of local governments in Italy

The need to support traditional annual financial balance sheets with environmental balance sheets is a strong priority for public organizations in order to communicate the use of public resources to their citizens through the processes of governance, and from the perspective of sustainable development. Currently environmental reports are still not widespread, yet a lot of social reporting experiences have taken place in regions, provinces and municipalities (at present over 150 nationally). APAT (the Italian Agency for Environmental Protection and Technical Services, now ISPRA), which coordinates a network of 20 regional environmental agencies, has recently begun a process to harmonize environmental reporting methods at a local level by analyzing the implemented experiences. This led to the formulation of the Guidelines for the preparation of reports on the state of environment at a local level. This work examines the experimental application of the methodological guidelines proposed by APAT for defining a model of integrated environmental reporting in the Lazio Region. In particular, the case study analysis of the regional government of Lazio is linked with a preliminary analysis based on the methodology of previous case studies carried out by the authors (investigating social reporting in Lombardia and Veneto (Veneto Region, 2003, 2004), not presented in this paper).

The Managerial Work of Italian City Managers: An Empirical Analysis

Among the measures taken to reform local government in Italy, one of the most significant is the introduction of the post of city manager. In this paper we outline the personal and professional traits of city managers in today's Italy. The study provides a snapshot of a situation marked by increasing dynamism, but still with a certain degree of conservatism. A picture emerges of a manager with multiple roles, spending most time within the organisation and whose work seems typically orientated towards internal stakeholders rather than external constituencies. However, the changing role of municipalities in the Italian context poses new challenges and these will probably influence the evolution of the content of the managers' work.

Regulatory intervention and the effect of changes in corporate governance on firm decisions and market reactions

This paper investigates whether Italian companies that cross-list in the United States between 1993 and 2005 show (1) a change in their internal policies as anticipated by the bonding hypothesis, (2) an increase in market value, or (3) an increase in the access to capital funds. We use the unique environment created by the 1998 Draghi reform which significantly improved the protection of Italian listed companies’ minority shareholders and we further examine the impact of legislated changes in corporate governance in Italy on the decision of Italian companies to cross-list in the United States. Our results indicate that following the Draghi reform (1) firms that cross-list in the United States modify their dividend and cash policies as anticipated by the bonding hypothesis. Contrary to prior research, (2) we do not find evidence that cross-listing serves to enhance shareholder value or (3) is used as a vehicle to more easily access capital funds either before or after the domestic corporate governance is improved. The results of this study provide evidence that country level legislative innovations intended to enhance a weak corporate governance system can be a valid and effective substitute to the bonding mechanism by providing an alternative signal of a firm’s quality.

Quarterly Estimates for Italy's Government Accrual Data

In this paper we calculate quarterly estimates for ten yearly budgetary items of the Conto Economico Consolidato della Pubblica Amministrazione (CECAP) published by ISTAT, covering the period from 1980 to 2007. The unknown high frequency pattern of fiscal variables is derived by the pattern observed of quarterly related series available in the CON-ISTAT database. We apply a dynamic extension of the Chow-Lin (1971) temporal disaggregation model, which is the method actually used by ISTAT for the estimation of quarterly national economic account data. As dealing with flow variables, the time constraint underlying the model imposes that the sum of quarterly estimates is equal to the yearly observation. The estimation strategy is based on the state space representation of a first order Autoregressive Distributed Lag model (Adl), which transforms the distribution problem into an unknown observation one. The choice of data assures that our quarterly estimates are fully comparable with quarterly government accrual data of major industrialized countries based on ESA95 and SNA93, both for institutional coverage, accountancy rules and definition of budgetary items.

Regional and Local Government in Italy: An Overview

The organization and regulation of local powers in Italy have been debated over a long period of time. The topic, far to have lost is centrality and interest, is still considered crucial in the political agenda of both the right and left parties. Numerous attempts to develop a centralized rather than federal or semi-federal system have been alternatively proposed, discussed and eventually approved or rejected by the governing coalitions during the last fifty years.Using this complicated scenario as a starting point, the article works on a double track. A first and consistent part is mainly reconstructive. It contains, first, a summary of the main historical events that have contributed to the current make-up of the Italian regulation of territorial entities. Every period, or phase - three in total - is deeply analyzed in all its aspects. A second and essential part of the reconstruction is devoted to the normative part itself. The article focuses on the constitutional principles on the share of competences. This is particularly useful to introduce the second - and main - track of the article. This last is devoted to the key features related to the past and current legal systems of territorial entities. The discussion is broad. The regulatory areas on which it focuses are the following: the urban transportation, the public support to businesses, the health care and social activities, the system of education and research, the housing, the citizens' participation, the personnel and the regime financing. Together, the two profiles of the article lead to the conclusions. These conclusions are intended to show how tense and complex the Italian scenario is. Tensions are deriving from the multiple relationships between the different components of the national government, the local resistance against the implementation of the reforms and, finally, from the essential features of the constitutional reform and the concrete developments in the local and regional systems.