Explaining Welfare Reforms in Italy between Economy and Politics: External Constraints and Endogenous Dynamics*

Since the end of the ‘golden age’ of the welfare state, in Italy as in most European countries the reform of social protection has progressively emerged as one of the key issues in political debate. In this article we describe the evolution of the Italian welfare state over the past three decades, highlighting the distinctiveness of each decade. The analysis is mainly focused on three policy sectors: pension, health care and social assistance. After a policy stalemate, which lasted throughout the 1980s, far‐reaching reforms took place in the 1990s and in the early 2000s. We will argue that the sequence of reforms was the result of a change that had both endogenous and exogenous sources. In particular, relevant changes in the political system emerged after 1992 and international constraints on public expenditure and debt combined to stimulate co‐operation between the government and its social partners in the case of pension reforms and joint policy‐making between central government and the regions in health care and social assistance reforms. During the 2000s, actors continued to carry out agreed reforms to adjust the pension system, even though co‐operation was made difficult by the conflicts on the labour market front. In health and social care, which are matters devolved to the regions after the 1990s and the 2001 constitutional reform, central government and the regions sought to implement and stabilize new mechanisms for the governance of both sectors. Although conflict alternated with co‐operation, nevertheless both external and internal constraints induced actors, often reluctantly, to develop and institutionalize joint policy‐making.