Bulletin n. 3/2014 | ||
February 2015 | ||
Wilson Alex |
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Re-scaling of Interest Groups in Modern Italy | ||
in Territory, Politics, Governance , Volume 2, Issue 3, Special Issue: Rescaling Interests , 2014 , 249-269 | ||
This article compares the re-scaling of interest groups in Italy after institutional reforms that increased the policy competences and financial resources of regional governments. Regional units have substantially increased their autonomy within the group organisation, becoming exclusively responsible for managing an intensified relationship with regional governments. Provincial units nevertheless continue to control financial resources and membership ties, while the central level determines strategic choices. The study confirms a highly fragmented interest group environment with a huge disparity of resources between actors. Financial resources of the same interest groups in different regions vary enormously, reflecting the divergent economic dynamics between northern and southern Italy. This raises questions of representative legitimacy for groups claiming to advance nationwide interests. Political parties remain important ties of reference for interest groups; yet relations between these actors are more fluid and less dependent than in the past. In northern regions, bureaucratic actors are viewed as more impartial and defensive of their sector than politicians, introducing new access points for marginalised groups. Regional governments take a territorially differentiated approach to structuring their relations with interest groups: pluralism with privileged access for business associations in northern Italy, neo-corporatist arrangements based on the notion of concertazione in central Italy, and more clientelist patterns of behaviour in southern Italy. | ||