The Reins of Intra-Party Power in The Italian Political Parties (1990-2011)

The article investigates the power relationships within Italian political parties. Since Roberto Michels, the question of intra-party power relationships has been at the centre of political science and political sociology. Most of the contemporary research interprets the intra-party disequilibrium between leadership and followers as a question of internal democracy. Rather than concentrating on this aspect, our perspective emphasises the skewed distribution of power between different hierarchical levels of the political party. Focusing upon the formal rules concerning organizational structure, personnel selection procedures and party finance, the contribution analyses the level of “verticalization” in the intra-party distribution of power between the national and the sub-national level, with respect to the main Italian parties from 1994 to 2012

Resilient and Transition Strategies for the Post-pandemic City: A Multi-criteria Analytical Approach for the Case of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria

European cities face the challenges of planning their transition to achieve sustainable and resilient urbanization. However, operationalizing suitable urban strategies toward sustainability appears difficult, especially in the light of rising inequalities and disparities within and among EU cities and regions. Urban regeneration strategies appear to be a possible leveraging mechanism for cities’ green and digital transition in the mutated policy context for recovery after the pandemic. In this context, the paper explores how intermediate cities effectively design and implement urban development strategies toward resilience and sustainability in response to the current pressing challenges. The Metropolitan City of Reggio is examined by assessing the city’s ability to address context vulnerabilities in current urban development strategies through a multi-criteria analytical approach. Results point out priority factors that affect the case under investigation and should be prioritized in de-fining future development strategies and the potential role of urban regeneration in the city's future development strategies towards resilience sustainability

On the eve of ecological transition? The failed institutionalization of sustainable development in Italy (1992–2020)

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) adopted in 2021 by the Italian government is explicitly committed to push the country towards a 'radical ecological transition' and sustainable development. However, the institutionalization of the paradigm of sustainable development, in Italy, is a story of a failure. The aim of this contribution is to investigate the hows and whys that may help explaining the failed institutionalization of the paradigm. By combining an ideational approach with a political system perspective, our empirical investigation analyses the initiatives promoted by Italian national governments, by covering a time span of over 20 years (1992-2020). Thick historical description and process tracing are used to provide an in-depth reconstruction of the process. Our results show that adverse combinations of factors of a cognitive, institutional and political nature have hindered the adoption of substantive policy outcomes, thus leading the institutionalization of the paradigm along a disjointed path

"In the end they are all the same!". Party organizational and policy change in Italy (2013-2018)

1. introduction 2. Theoretical framework 2.1 Towards internally disintermediated organizations? 2.2 Party positional change: the predominance of the cultural-ethical dimension? 2.3 Party organizational change and party policy positioning: the missing link 3. Research question and method 3.1 Case selection and research hypotheses 3.2 Measurements of party organizational change 3.3 Measurements of party policy positioning 4. Results and discussion 4.1 Patterns of organizational change 4.2 Patterns of policy convergence 4.3 Discussion and conclusio

The excavation of a rural workshop and forge in the vicinity of the sanctuary of Monte Rinaldo (Comune di Monte Rinaldo, Provincia di Fermo, Regione Marche)

La Campagna di Scavo Archeologico 2021 nel sito di Monte Rinaldo ha permesso di scoprire una struttura rurale (dotato di un'officina metallurgica) prima ignota che va a sostituire in Santuario dopo la sua distruzione in età tardo-repubblicana e augustea. L'individuazione del nuovo complesso è frutto di una precisa scelta metodologica che è partita con le indagini geognostiche e aerofotografiche e solo in un secondo momento è approdata allo scavo stratigrafico. La scoperta pone nuove questioni sull'evoluzione del paesaggio della media valla dell'Aso e più in generale del Piceno quando si consolida il sistema di popolamento dei coloni romani incentrato sulla nuova rete municipale. Il contributo è edito in collaborazione con la British School at Rome all'interno di una rassegna internazionale che rappresenta un importante punto di riferimento per le ricerche sul campo in ambito italico

Expanding the spectrum of "mesenchymal" tumors of the central nervous system

: In this review, we summarize the clinical, histopathological, and molecular features of central nervous system (CNS) tumors with BCOR internal tandem duplication, intracranial mesenchymal tumor with FET/CREB fusion, CNS CIC-rearranged sarcomas and primary intracranial sarcoma DICER1-mutant, now included in the 2021 WHO classification of CNS tumors. Possible relationships between tumors occurring in the CNS and their systemic counterparts are discussed