The Regional Politics of Welfare in Italy, Spain and Great Britain

"Davide Vampa's book provides a fine analysis of the political factors that have shaped variation in regional welfare development in Italy, Spain and Great Britain - three countries that belong to competitive regionalised systems. The analytical framework is simple and elegant. It uses a small number of well-defined factors and provides a neat configurational model for explaining outcomes in the evolution of sub-national welfare systems. Using mixed methods, Vampa provides a careful analysis of the effects of territorial and left wing mobilizations on welfare development." (Professor Laszlo Bruszt, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy) "Davide Vampa's book shows deep understanding of the cases studied, high standards of both qualitative and quantitative analysis and familiarity with the comparative method and its potential for drawing generalizable findings in the social sciences. The extensive research carried out is digested and presented in a structured way which leads coherently to a well-articulated conclusion." (Associate Professor Jonathan Hopkin, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)

This book will be of use to academics and policy makers interested in political economy, devolution/decentralisation, welfare, and party politics.

This book is a study of the increasing territorial variations in the development of sub-national welfare systems that have occurred as an effect of the decentralization of health care and social assistance policies in Italy, Spain and Great Britain. The author examines the political factors that underlie these variations by combining cross-regional and cross-country comparisons using mixed methods. Vampa’s main finding is that regionalist parties have played a key role in sub-national welfare building and have used social policy to strengthen their legitimacy in the political struggle against central authorities. In this context, functional political competition between Left and Right has been partly replaced by territorial competition between Centre and Periphery as the main determinant of social policy making. Additionally, mainstream left-wing parties have been torn between maintaining territorial uniformity in social protection and responding to demands for more extensive social services tailored to the needs and preferences of specific regional communities. This book will be of use to academics and policy makers interested in political economy, devolution/decentralisation, welfare, and party politics.