Varieties of Capitalism, Types of Democracy and Globalization by Masanobu Ido

Author:Masanobu Ido [Ido, Masanobu]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415671507
Goodreads: 13715073
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusions

During the last 15 years many changes modified the electoral rules and the party system; as a result of these changes, the Italian polity came closer to a bipolar system with the rise of two coalitions but both characterized by a very high degree of fragmentation and internal conflicts. This fragmentation affected the action of governments, hindering their capability of setting up effective reforms. Major economic and social reforms were carried out by “technical” governments – less affected by fragmentation, less exposed to political pressures and less influenced from political parties – at the beginning of the 1990s in a period of strong economic and political crisis. In the ensuing period new political coalitions were formed, but they continued to be characterized by an internal fragmentation and promoted mainly incremental changes (with two major exceptions: labor market regulations and the decision to join the euro). This led to what can be defined as “incomplete reformism,” which was not able to promote effective institutional complementarities and exacerbated some of the weaknesses of the Italian systems, such as the inefficiency of the public administration or the high costs for services.

The reforms of electoral rules and changes in the party system introduced significant changes in the Italian polity but without modifying the model of political economy. The Italian case continues to show a hybrid set of national institutions, with some similarities with the CME model and other features that are closer to the LME model; in addition, regional differences both in institutional and productive organization continue to play a strong role. However, despite the hybrid character of Italian capitalism and its inefficiencies, private firms and their networks have been able to start a process of restructuring that led to a partial but encouraging recovery, mainly driven by medium-sized firms.

The above-mentioned trends and changes show the possibility of a divergence between the macro and the micro level: on the one hand, during the 1980s and the 1990s the absence of institutional complementarity endangered the functioning of the macro political economy. But on the other hand, some Italian regions performed particularly well during the 1980s and interesting signs of regional and local development can be found also in recent years. Therefore, the Italian case suggests that it is important to adopt a “broader” approach than the Varieties of Capitalism, focusing not only on national institutions and on their contribution to the performance of firms, but also on the combinations of national and regional processes and adjustments, especially in some cases with strong regional diversities. This kind of approach may reduce the rigidity of the VoC model and may allow to recognize more sources of change and adjustment.

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