The Italian troublemaker: how Renzi’s European strategy is putting him at odds with Angela Merkel

Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, has voiced criticism of EU decision-making in recent months in relation to both the migration crisis and fiscal policy rules. Lorenzo Piccoli writes that although Renzi’s European policy is partly rooted in seeing off the challenge of Eurosceptic parties within Italy, he is also intent on playing a more assertive role at the European level as a counterweight to German influence

The outcome of Italy’s referendum may be decided in Castelnuovo di Porto

Many Italian citizens living outside the country will have the opportunity to vote in the constitutional referendum on 4 December. But what impact could these votes have in shaping the result? Lorenzo Piccoli highlights that with voters outside Italy accounting for around 8 per cent of the electorate, the count at the Civil Protection Centre in Castelnuovo di Porto, where the expatriate ballots are delivered, could be crucial in determining the outcome

How COVID-19 is altering our conception of citizenship

The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency, but it also has the potential to impact on many other elements of European societies beyond health services. Jelena Dzankic and Lorenzo Piccoli write on the effect the outbreak is having on the uses and meanings of citizenship

Traditions of regional citizenship : explaining subnational variation of the right to healthcare for undocumented immigrants

First published online: 5 December 2019Why does undocumented immigrants’ access to healthcare beyond urgent treatment differ across the territory of the same state? Through a comparison of Italian regions and Spanish autonomous communities, this paper contends that traditions of regional citizenship concerning the protection of vulnerable subjects shape policy choices in significant ways. Left-wing regional governments use traditions as building blocks that enable the protection of healthcare for undocumented immigrants, while right-wing regional governments invoke traditions to delegate intervention to civil society actors. By activating traditions of regional citizenship for different purposes, subnational governments define distinctive preferences concerning migration, healthcare and welfare

The politics of regional citizenship : explaining variation in the right to health care for undocumented immigrants across Italian regions, Spanish autonomous communities, and Swiss cantons

Defence date: 11 April 2018Examining Board: Prof. Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute (Supervisor); Prof. Maurizio Ferrera, University of Milan; Prof. Andrew Geddes, European University Institute; Prof. Liesbet Hooghe, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillOver the last forty years, regions in Europe have acquired an increasingly important role in the provision of rights that were traditionally used by states to define the boundaries of national citizenship. Despite this trend, there are still few comparative examinations of what citizenship means for subnational actors, how these affect the provision of rights, and what the consequences of this process are for internal solidarity, the democratic process, and ultimately the constitutional integrity of modern states. These are important questions at a time when ideas about membership and rights within multilevel polities are vigorously contested in courts, legislative chambers, and election booths. Instances of these contestations are the Spanish Constitutional Court’s decision on the legality of subsequent referendums on Catalan secession in 2014 and 2017; the ongoing standoff between the state of California and the American federal government over who ought to regulate the rights of undocumented immigrants; and the Scottish and UK referendums on independence and exit from the European Union, respectively. This dissertation sets out to explain under what conditions, how, and with what kind of consequences some regions are more inclusionary than others in their approach to what citizenship entails and to whom it applies. This is what I refer to as the politics of regional citizenship. The empirical analysis focuses on subnational variations in the realisation of the right to health care for undocumented immigrants in three multilevel states where regional governments have some control over health care and, within these, on pairs of regions that have been governed by either left- or right-wing parties and coalitions: Lombardy (Italy, conservative government from 1995), Tuscany (Italy, progressive government from 1970), Andalusia (Spain, progressive government from 1980), Madrid (Spain conservative government from 1995), Vaud (Switzerland, progressive government from 2002) and Zürich (Switzerland, conservative government from 1991). Evidence is collected via the analysis of over 31 legislative documents and 62 interviews with policy-makers, health care professionals, and members of NGOs. The comparison shows that the interaction of political ideologies at different territorial levels leads to the emergence of contested ideas about citizenship through the use that regional governments make of the distinct traditions of regional protection of vulnerable individuals like minor children, the disabled, and the homeless. The comparison also shows that the structure of the territorial system of the state plays an important role in determining the direction of the politics of regional citizenship. The value assigned to territorial pluralism within a country, in particular, determines whether regional citizenship is developed against the state, as a strategy to manifest dissent and mark the difference—as is the case in Spain and, to some extent, in Italy—or, instead, together with the state, as an expression of multilevel differentiation—as in Switzerland. Importantly, however, regional citizenship does never develop in complete isolation from the state because it always represents an attempt to weaken or reinforce the policies of the central government

Italian regionalist parties will find it difficult to import the ‘Scottish model’ in their push for independence

The Scottish independence referendum on 18 September was followed closely by independence movements in other countries across Europe. Lorenzo Piccoli writes on the impact of the referendum result on regionalist parties in Italy, particularly those in the regions of South Tyrol, Veneto and Sardinia. He argues that the different legal context in Italy, combined with the real policy differences between Italian regionalist parties and the SNP, will make it problematic for Scotland to act as a model for such movements in their push for independence

Multilevel strategies of political inclusion : the contestation of voting rights for foreign residents by regional assemblies in Europe

Over the last fifty years, eighteen regional assemblies in Europe have debated the extension of voting rights to foreign residents. Yet only Scotland and the Swiss cantons of Neuchâtel and Jura have adopted such legislation. What explains this variation? Through a comparison of debates that have taken place in Italy and Switzerland, I show that multilevel governance expands access to policymaking, but also multiplies veto points in the system. As a result, attempts by regional assemblies to directly give voting rights to foreign residents are generally doomed to fail. At the same time, multilevel governance can be used as a strategy to indirectly shape the political inclusion of different groups. Even if they are unsuccessful in giving the right to vote to foreign residents, these discussions can lead to broader reforms of political rights at the national level

The political determinants of the health of undocumented immigrants : a comparative analysis of mortality patterns in Switzerland

The health of undocumented immigrants is an important concern in most societies. However, there is no conclusive evidence that inclusive health care policies lead to better outcomes for this group of the population. The aim of this study is to analyse whether there is an association between inclusive health care policies and the mortality patterns of undocumented immigrants, or the distribution of different causes of death among those who have died. We analyse individual data concerning the deceased in Switzerland between 2011 and 2017. We proceed in two steps. First, we estimate and compare the patterns of mortality of Swiss citizens, documented immigrants, and undocumented immigrants. Second, we test whether there is an association between cantonal authorities’ policies and differing mortality patterns. We use logistic regressions and multinomial regressions to estimate the relationship between legal status and mortality patterns both in Switzerland and across different cantons. We find a difference in the patterns of mortality between undocumented immigrants and the other groups of the population. Specifically, death from circulatory system diseases is twice as frequent among undocumented immigrants compared to documented immigrants and Swiss citizens. However, this difference is smaller in the Swiss cantons that have more inclusive health care policies towards undocumented immigrants. We interpret these results as an indication that policies that expand access to health services lead to better outcomes for undocumented immigrants. This finding has implications for research on civic stratification and public health. Further analysis is needed to evaluate the effects of extending public health care for undocumented immigrants in different contexts