Governing from the centre: the influence of the federal/central government on subnational governments.The Italian case. General Report

In this research report presented papers of the IACFS conference in Speyer, Germany, from September 29 to October 1, 2011. The conference papers explore the direct and indirect influences of vertical interventions and consider how such actions of the Federation affect the way in which subnational governments, regional and local, undertake their own responsibilities. The contributions cover various countries, some of them 'real' federal states, other unitary countries with a however considerable degree of decentralization of power under the label of regionalization and devolution. They deal with the political institutions and legal rules as well as with the intergovernmental financial relations and therefore provide a very broad insight into the vertical dimension of multi-level 'game of political powers'. In particular, this chapter is about problems regarding the distribution of powers between the Central and Regional governments following the amendments made to Title V of the Italian Constitution.