Parlamenti analitici

In this article, we describe the effects of strong nonpartisan legislative offices on the procedures and outcomes of the parliaments they serve. We consider four disciplinary approaches used to provide legislatures with information and analysis independent from the executive: the law, the budget, the management and the policy perspectives. We highlight how these competencies and their advice intervene in the pre-legislative scrutiny and in the post-legislative oversight. Our comparative analysis includes United States, United Kingdom, and Italy. The results confirm the substantial indifference to the policy analysis and program evaluation by the Italian parliament

Le assemblee legislative e la sfida della conoscenza

Gli ultimi due decenni hanno visto la diffusione di profonde modificazioni nel rapporto tra conoscenza e funzioni delle assemblee legislative. Queste trasformazioni hanno reso insufficienti o obsoleti alcuni degli strumenti informativi che hanno storicamente affiancato l'attivit\ue0 legislativa dei parlamenti e dei consigli regionali, quali le interrogazioni o le indagini conoscitive. Dopo aver identificato le caratteristiche della domanda di conoscenza del legislativo, la ricerca analizza le caratteristiche dell'offerta, attraverso una lettura comparata delle seguenti realt\ue0 internazionali: - gli Stati Uniti, sia a livello federale, che nazionale; - la Gran Bretagna, a livello nazionale e con specifico riferimento alla Scozia

Scienze del pubblico e istituzioni

This introductory article illustrates the focus of this special issue, devoted to the relationship between political institutions and disciplinary knowledge. The basic idea of this research is that 'first order institutions', with a constitutional relevance, may be strongly influenced by a particular kind of 'second order institutions': the organization of competencies parliaments and governments need to articulate their functions. In this frame, four scientific paradigms deserve special attention: the law, the budget, the management, and the policy perspectives. Their relevance is confirmed both from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective. We examine their institutionalization through processes of accommodation and assimilation, with a core emphasis on the emergence of the policy sciences

Policy Analysis in Italy – A Remark

This paper has three aims: 1. to emphasize the importance of the mechanisms for the 'institutionalization of expertise\u2019 to understand the actual functioning of political and administrative systems 2. to outline the actual degree of institutional recognition of policy analysis and evaluation (PA & E) in Italy, in a comparative perspective 3. to identify the causes and effects of the substantial absence of this discipline among the analytical \u2018tools of government\u2019 in our country

Delving into the reducing effects of the GABAB positive allosteric modulator, KK-92A, on alcohol-related behaviors in rats

Recent studies have demonstrated the ability of the positive allosteric modulator (PAM) of the GABAB receptor (GABAB PAM), KK-92A, to suppress operant alcohol self-administration and reinstatement of alcohol seeking in selectively bred Sardinian alcohol-preferring (sP) rats. The present study was designed to scrutinize the suppressing effects of KK-92A on alcohol-related behaviors; to this end, four separate experiments were conducted to address just as many new research questions, some of which bear translational value. Experiment 1 found that 7-day treatment with KK-92A (0, 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg, intraperitoneally [i.p.]) effectively reduced alcohol intake in male sP rats exposed to the home-cage 2-bottle "alcohol (10% v/v) vs. water" choice regimen with 1 hour/day limited access, extending to excessive alcohol drinking the ability of KK-92A to suppress operant alcohol self-administration. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the ability of KK-92A to reduce lever-responding for alcohol was maintained also after acute, intragastric treatment (0, 20, and 40 mg/kg) in female sP rats trained to lever-respond for 15% (v/v) alcohol under the fixed ratio 5 schedule of reinforcement. In Experiment 3, acutely administered KK-92A (0, 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg, i.p.) dampened alcohol-seeking behavior in female sP rats exposed to a single session under the extinction responding schedule. Experiment 4 used a taste reactivity test to demonstrate that acute treatment with KK-92A (0 and 20 mg/kg, i.p.) did not alter either hedonic or aversive reactions to a 15% (v/v) alcohol solution in male sP rats, ruling out that KK-92A-induced reduction of alcohol drinking and self-administration could be due to alterations in alcohol palatability. Together, these results enhance the behavioral pharmacological profile of KK-92A and further strengthen the notion that GABAB PAMs may represent a novel class of ligands with therapeutic potential for treating alcohol use disorder

Introduzione

Come mai in Italia il settore dei policy studies ha conosciuto uno sviluppo ritardato di almeno un quindicennio rispetto agli indirizzi di ricerca affermatisi dall'altra parte dell'Atlantico

Politiche pubbliche e potere

Questo contributo si propone di individuare alcuni nodi fondamentali dell'intreccio tra la ricerca orientata allo studio del potere e quella orientata allo studio delle politiche pubbliche, con il dichiararto intento di convincere il lettore che entrambi questi campi hanno molto da guadagnare da una maggiore attenzione reciproca