In this paper I try to understand whether and why in the period of crisis and restructuring of Italian welfare state (1990-2005), some regions played a very important role in promoting a ‘strong’ model of welfare whereas others failed to do so. After providing a definition of strong welfare model, I test four alternative hypotheses, which consider the importance of institutional, socio-economic and political factors in explaining cross-regional variation. My conclusion is that not only institutional autonomy and levels of socio-economic development but also the existence of stable, politically distinctive and highly responsive governmental coalitions may explain why some regions invest more than others in the construction of region-specific welfare systems. At the same time, I show that traditional left-right politics does not play a crucial role in determining regional welfare development. Since I am trying to explain the ‘emergence’ of regional welfare regimes, I focus the pre-crisis period that goes from 1990 to 2005-2006. After this period, one can talk of crystallization and consolidation of these models. Of course, it would be interesting to see how regions are responding to the challenges posed by the current economic crisis. However, the way welfare regimes formed is likely to shape these responses. Therefore the aim of this study is to set the premises for further research on the role of regions in the new age of austerity.
