1st Edition
Federalism and Constitutional Law The Italian Contribution to Comparative Regionalism
This volume examines the relationship between central government and local institutions, taking Italy as a case study to present a comparative perspective on how the Italian experience has influenced the global developments of federal and regional states.
As the country with the longest standing regional system, Italy has a lot to tell countries that are dealing with similar issues in present times. Adopting a theoretical/analytical approach coupled with comparative analysis, this volume critically reflects on the changes brought to the Italian system of government by the reform of Title V of the Italian constitution, the reasons why further decentralisation has been resisted and offers a comparative overview of the place and contributions that the Italian experience has brought to the global debate on regionalism and federalism. The book is divided into two parts: Part I distils the essence of the evolution of Italian regionalism and the respective debate before and after 2001. While focusing on Italy, the various chapters situate it within the global framework of discussion. Part II reflects on how the Italian regional constitutional architecture contributes to the global debate, particularly focusing on the main innovations brought about by constitutional reform.
The book will be essential reading for researchers, academics and policy-makers working in the areas of constitutional law and politics, and federalism.
Chapters 5 and 8 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003104469
Introduction: why is the trajectory of Italian regionalism comparatively important and what does it have to offer? Arban, Martinico, Palermo
Part I: Federalism and regionalism: the Italian context
1. An intellecual history of Italian regionalism Arban
2. The new “form of government” in the reforms of the Italian regional system Fasone, Piccirilli
3. Federalism and regionalism in constitutional adjudication Delledonne
4. Intergovernmental relationships in Italy: a feeble but useful model Ceccherini
5. Financial relations in the Italian regional system Valdesalici
6. Party systems in the Italian regions Wilson
Part II: Italy’s major contributions to the global discussion: Italian regionalism in the global debate
7. The Italian regions in the European Union: story of an unaccomplished relationship Baraggia
8. Asymmetries in the Italian regional system and their role model Palermo
9. Local governments and metropolitan cities: the Italian experience and its comparative relevance Longo
10. Loyal cooperation: systemic principle of Italy’s regionalism? Woelk
11. Federalism, regionalism, and the principle of subsidiarity Martinico
Concluding remarks: Regionalism: Italian lessons offered to complex states seeking legitimate and effective governance while being reluctant to federalism Belser
Biography
Erika Arban is Postdoctoral Fellow at Melbourne Law School, Laureate Program in Comparative Constitutional Law, and Lecturer in Comparative Federalism at the University of Antwerp.
Giuseppe Martinico is Professor of Comparative Public Law at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa.
Francesco Palermo is Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Verona and Director of the Institute for Comparative Federalism at Eurac Research in Bolzano/Bozen.
"despite mainly focusing on the Italian case, the book is clearly ambitious in its scope and its significance goes beyond one country. All contributors bring new evidence and offer original insights to debates on federalism, regionalism and decentralization. …one key lesson can be drawn from this collection of studies: a regional state can provide a flexible (and original) model of autonomy and territorial governance for countries that seek to accommodate cultural or socio-economic diversity without formally splitting sovereignty."
Davide Vampa, Publius: The Journal of Federalism 52:1, e5
`The book is … warmly recommended not just to scholars interested in Italian constitutional law, but to a global audience of federalists, regionalists and others dealing with the constitutional accommodation of diverse territories in a nation state.’
Anna Gamper, European Public Law 28, no. 2 (2022): 321–32
