On the many Ways Europeanization Matters: The Implementation of the Water Reform in Italy (1994-2006)

The research agenda of Europeanization is currently highly focused on issued related to what accounts for the 'horizontal' interaction between domestic actors and how these actors make use of stimuli originating from the EU. This paper aims to contribute to this line of inquiry through the case study of the implementation of the 1994 water reform in Italy in the period between 1994 and 2006. The analysis shows the role played by the use of monetary incentives provided by EU funding sources, by changes in the institutional context partially originating from EU factors, and by the rulings of the European Court of Justice.regulatory reform, public policy implementation, Europeanization, water sector, Italy

Implementing regulatory reforms in multi-level governance systems: the case of the reform of the water sector in Italy (1994-2006)

Within the field of regulation policy and politics, various scholarly works have examined policy reforms intended to change the regulation of large-scale infrastructure-based public service industries. Relatively little attention has been placed, however, on the jagged and ineffectual implementation of regulatory reforms that especially takes place when the implementation context includes features of a multi-level governance system. For reasons especially related to the technical, economic, and territorial characteristics of infrastructure and sub-national governments' political responsibilities towards local communities, within this type of scenario the implementation of regulatory reforms tends to exhibit high levels of political confrontation between actors of the reformed infrastructure industry, with respect to what is ordinarily experienced when a regulatory reform is implemented by public agencies or any body of the executive at the central level. This thesis aims to contribute furthering our understanding of the political economy of implementing regulatory reforms by conducting an exploratory case study whose episode is the implementation stage of the 12 year long (1994-2006) policy cycle to liberalise, re-regulate, and privatise Italy’s (drinking water and waste) water sector. The main explanatory issues at stake relate to why the implementation trajectory changed over time (i.e., a period of obstructed implementation was followed by one of accelerated execution of the policy reform content) and across space (i.e., implementation progressed faster in Alto Valdarno in Tuscany than elsewhere in the country). The analysis of the case is conducted by following two alternative theoretical approaches in turn, namely institutional rational choice and institutional processualism. Answers to these questions provide some evidence for qualifying existing generalised arguments about the policy. process of implementing regulatory reforms and for assessing the relative strengths and weaknesses of alternative theoretical perspectives

Managing Challenging Organizational Change: Introducing Active Labor Market Policies in Italian Public Employment Agencies

Managing organizational change in the public sector is extremely challenging when adverse conditions hamper the introduction of novel organizational practices. This study builds on the case of the implementation of active labor market policies in in Italy, in an attempt to help explaining the process of managing organizational change in the public sector. The case study shows how, despite contrary conditions that originate from the political context, the interplay between designed policy interventions, initial conditions, and features of the policy process can result in effective change of employment service practices

Aligning technological and institutional change: maritime transport in West Mediterranean Sea

Within the area of study of infrastructure, various works have addressed the issue of the development of technological and institutional systems of network industries. In a dynamic perspective, issues arise about how technology and institutions co-evolve, what stimulates improvement of infrastructure performance, and how formal institutions should be designed in order to facilitate technological and institutional co-evolution. Building on the coherence framework for performance in network industries, this study aims to contribute to the development of an improved theory of technological and institutional change in network industries. The theoretical developments are illustrated through the case of technological and institutional changes of the maritime transport industry in West Mediterranean Sea. The results suggest that more attention should be placed on the variety of private and public dimensions of performance of the network industry and by the mutual interaction between status quo conditions in the technological and institutional systems

Uncertainty, institutions and regulatory responses to emerging technologies: CRISPR Gene editing in the US and the EU (2012–2019)

This study aims to improve theoretical accounts of regulatory responses to emerging technologies by proposing a model of regulatory development, which incorporates a role for types of uncertainty and for existing regulatory institutions. Differently from existing theories of regulatory development, the model proposed here posits a sequence of cyclical activities where regulatory responses arise in incremental fashion out of efforts to make sense of emerging technologies and to ponder the applicability of existing regulatory tools. The model is discussed on the basis of the comparison between regulatory responses to the emergence of CRISPR gene editing in the US and the EU in the period 2012–2019. The comparison between the two cases suggests how regulatory responses to emerging technologies are affected by expectations of future technological and regulatory developments and by existing regulatory institutions

Biomethane Production and Utilization Pathways: an MDCA-based Impact Assessment in Sardinia, Italy

Biogas from the anaerobic digestion of organic substrates represents a renewable and sustainable fuel widely deployed in Sardinia, supported by the high share of rural areas and the generation of agro-industrial residues and by-products. On the wave of new economic incentives, interest is gradually shifting to biomethane. Nonetheless, the possible uses of biomethane are compelled by the local energy system, which defects in the implementation of the natural gas grid and gas fuelling stations. This is the reason why heat and power production may still be considered one of the most plausible biomethane utilization. Multiple options for upgrading biogas into biomethane exist. Chemical absorption represents an established and reliable upgrading solution. However, innovative alternatives such as biological methanation have emerged characterized by high sustainability and versatility. In the present paper, six scenarios for biomethane generation and utilization are presented and analysed to determine an integrated impact benchmark for each of them. The impact assessment is structured in criteria that depict the environmental, economic, technological and social dimensions. It is carried out using the Multi-criteria Decision Analysis. An in-depth literature review allowed to identify quantitative and qualitative indicators for each dimension according to a rationale described in the paper. The results describe the processes and technologies involved and determine the integrated impacts for the considered scenarios. The method adopted emphasizes the regional worth of the assessment process, and the critical importance of collecting technological data at the pilot or commercial scale, given the distinctiveness of the experiences developed at the laboratory-scale

Rivendicare l'appartenenza. Suppliche e domande di deroga allo Statut des Juifs nella Francia di Vichy

The article analyses a number of requests sent to the Vichy France authorities (1940-1944) by the victims of anti-Semitic persecution. In particular, it examines two types of requests identified in the CGQJ (Commissariat G\ue9n\ue9ral aux Questions Juives) files: applications for exemptions from professional restrictions, drawn up within set formalized procedures, and informal and dramatic supplications addressed to the state authorities, and often to Marchal P\ue9tain in person, by relatives of internees in concentration camps. The essay highlights that, beyond the variety of linguistic registers and deferential approaches used, the requests document efforts by writers to (re)establish a legal bond between themselves and the national community they claim to belong to and from which, in turn, they demand protection and justice. In highlighting that these appeals constitute an integral part of a \u2018competent\u2019 action, and are not simply emblematic of a naive or straightforwardly unrealistic response by victims, this article seeks to make a contribution to the debate on 20th century petitions and supplications

Scrivere alla Demorazza. Le domande di "discriminazione" delle donne "di razza ebraica" e il conflitto sulla cittadinanza nell'Italia del 1938

Interagendo con il vivace dibattito storiografico sulle scritture di \u201csupplica\u201d e le varie forme di appello alle autorit\ue0 in differenti contesti spaziali e temporali, l\u2019articolo ha per oggetto l\u2019analisi di un gruppo di domande di \u201cdiscriminazione\u201d inviate alla Direzione generale per la demografia e la razza dalle cittadine italiane \u201cdi razza ebraica\u201d, all\u2019indomani dell\u2019entrata in vigore della legislazione antisemita fascista. Rappresentando una minoranza all\u2019interno del corpus pi\uf9 ampio di richieste di deroga alla normativa antiebraica, le lettere delle donne costituiscono nondimeno una fonte di grande rilevanza, tanto per illuminare il carattere tutt\u2019altro che marginale della procedura di \u201cdiscriminazione\u201d nell\u2019esperienza di chi fu vittima della politica antisemita, quanto per riprendere da altre angolature il dibattito sul \u201cdilemma della cittadinanza\u201d femminile nel regno d\u2019Italia.Interacting with the lively debate on petitions and the various forms of appeal to the authorities written in different spatial and temporal contexts, the article deals with the analysis of a group of \u201cdiscrimination\u201d requests addressed to the General Directorate for Demography and Race by a sample of female Italian citizens qualified as belonging to the \u201cJewish race\u201d in Autumn 1938. Women\u2019s petitions represented a minority within the broader corpus of requests for derogation from the Anti-Semitic Fascist legislation. They are nonetheless a source of great importance, both to illuminate the relevance of the \u201cdiscrimination\u201d procedures from the persecuted point of view, and to shed fresh light on the \u201cdilemma of women\u2019s citizenship\u201d debate in unified Italy