The uncertain path towards social investment in post-crisis Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Focusing on the welfare reforms promoted by the centre left-led governments (2014–2018) and the short-lived Lega-M5s government (2018–2019) in three policy areas – the labour market, family, and education policies – the article investigates the politics of social investment (SI) in post-crisis Italy. Relying on a multidimensional theoretical framework for analysing policy reforms, the article shows that SI expansion in Italy remains very uncertain. At the same time, the article demonstrates that such uncertain expansion of SI policies is primarily the consequence of a set of interlinked political and contextual variables: the new voter-party linkage in the post-Fordist era; the Southern welfare regime’s policy legacies and the resulting electoral (dis)incentives; Italy’s economic and financial position after the crisis; the specific party competition dynamic, and the structure of the governing coalition. The Italian case suggests that the politics of SI in the Southern countries follow a logic different from the other welfare regimes.