Development Trends in the Politics of Italian Labour Market Reforms: Between Continuity and Discontinuity

The aim of the paper is to analyse the evolution of the political dynamics that have characterized labour market reforms in Italy. We focus on three main phases: the “Golden Age” period (1950’s-mid 1970’s), the first wave of reforms during the 80’s and the last phase that we call the “new agenda on labour market activation” (since mid-1990’s). For each of these periods, we reconstruct the debate on labour market reforms, focusing on the main contentious political issues. Our analysis of the transformation of the labour politics will be based on these analytical dimensions: 1) the actors involved, in particular the relations between political parties and social partners; 2) the strategies adopted: what have been the main political strategies used by the political actors in order to support/oppose the reform proposals? 3) the drivers of the reform processes: what has been the role played by political exchange mechanisms? Have the reforms activated dynamics of learning? Have the reform processes been characterized by mechanisms of reshuffling or realignment of the main political actors? The aim of the paper is twofold. Firstly, we will reconstruct the debate on the evolution of Italian labor politics looking at the elements of continuity and discontinuity. Secondly, we will compare the politics of recent labour market reforms with the political dynamics that have characterized the previous waves of reform.