Social services and deviation from the Bismarckian model in Italy: the absence of a nationwide trend of change

Abstract

This article analyses the processes of deviation from the Bismarckian welfare model in Italy, with a focus on social assistance. The sector was reformed in 2000, with new service provision functions being assigned to local institutions and the affirmation of a universalistic principle of access. However, an analysis of social expenditure data and a review of the process of implementation of the reform demonstrate that many local governments have been unable to enact the innovation and that a homogeneous nationwide trend of deviation from the Bismarckian tradition is absent. This absence is explained by looking both at the local institutional arrangements that have historically characterized the different Italian territories and at the present relationships among national, regional, and local governments.

Keywords:

• welfare
• social services
• Italy
• reform
• Bismarckian model

Notes

1. I have analysed this scientific debate more extensively in a previous article (Agostini 2005).

2. The social sector expenditure data are provided by the National Institute of Statistics (Istat 2009a; table 1), the data regarding the health care sector are available on the Ministry of labour, health and social policy website: www.ministerosalute.it.

3. Regarding third sector reform laws, see Saraceno and Negri (1994); Ascoli et al. (2003); Pavolini (2003).

4. The threshold of poverty, defined by Istat in terms of consumption ability, was 970 euros a month for a family of two in 2006.

5. All these studies show that Italian social assistance policy is characterized by the presence of different regional models, but in some cases strong territorial discrepancies can also exist among districts belonging to the same region (Agostini 2007).

6. The remaining 6.2% of expenditure is supplied by the Local Health Enterprise (Asl), which provides the services on behalf of the municipalities.

7. As for the other parts of Italy, in the Northeast the association expenditure is 21.4% and in the Islands only 2.4%.

8. ‘Small municipalities’ (i.e. those with fewer than 5000 inhabitants) constitute 72% of the overall number of Italian municipalities. This value rises to 89% and 74% respectively in Piedmont and Lombardy, which are the two biggest regions of the Northwest. These two regions have the highest number of ‘unions of municipalities’ and ‘mountain communities’, which are two different kinds of inter-municipal associations introduced by Law 142/1990 (Fedele and Moini 2007).

9. I have analysed this question more extensively in a previous article (Agostini 2008).

10. For an analysis of the main features of federal states, such as Italy, that are born ‘by separation’ — that is, produced by the transition from a unitary state to a federal one — see Ventura (2008), in particular the preface. A deep analysis of the characteristics of the Italian case is contained in the second chapter, edited by B. Baldi and G. Baldini.

11. This figure is contained in the Decreto di riparto del Fondo sociale nazionale 2005 (Decree on the division of the 2005 National Fund for Social Policy) available at the website www.solidarietasociale.gov.it.

12. The allocation of funds among the institutional actors in 2006 was as follows: INPS 46%, Ministry of Labour and Social Policies 3%, regions and provinces of Trento and Bolzano 48%, municipalities 3% (my elaboration of the data of the Decree on the division, www.lavoro.gov.it).

13. This explains the paradox that social expenditure moves in the opposite direction to needs: local governments in poorer regions have lower tax revenues and therefore fewer resources to provide social services than richer ones.

14. This category includes, by elimination, all the resources that could not be attributed to any of the others.

15. The difference between the ‘assegno sociale’ and the above-mentioned monetary transfers is that the former is a part of pension transfers provided by the central government while the latter are provided by local governments.