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

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Introduction

   • Davide Vampa

   Pages 1-4

3. Adding a Territorial Perspective to the Study of Welfare Politics: Theories, Hypotheses and Case Studies

   • Davide Vampa

   Pages 5-35

4. Territorial Mobilisation and Left-Wing Partisanship: The Two (Parallel) Paths to Welfare Building in the Italian Regions

   • Davide Vampa

   Pages 37-56

5. The (Re)emergence and Strengthening of the Centre-Periphery Cleavage in Italy: (Old and New) Regionalist Parties and Sub-state Welfare Building

   • Davide Vampa

   Pages 57-82

6. The Italian Left: Between National Weakness and Regional Policy Experimentation

   • Davide Vampa

   Pages 83-94

7. Spain: Finding a Balance Between Territorial Equality and Strong Regional Identities

   • Davide Vampa

   Pages 95-113

8. Ethno-regionalist Parties in Spain: Linking Regional Welfare Governance to ‘Sub-state’ Nation-Building

   • Davide Vampa

   Pages 115-134

9. The Spanish Left: Statewide Political Dominance and the Regional Challenge

   • Davide Vampa

   Pages 135-148

10. Devolution, the Territorialisation of Party Politics and the Transformation of Welfare Governance in Great Britain

    • Davide Vampa

    Pages 149-168

11. Scotland: Where Territorial Politics and Social Democracy Meet

    • Davide Vampa

    Pages 169-188

12. Wales: Moderate Territorial Mobilisation in a Context of Social Democratic Consensus

    • Davide Vampa

    Pages 189-204

13. Comparative Conclusions

    • Davide Vampa

    Pages 205-225

14. Back Matter

    Pages 227-259

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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 socialservices 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. 

• Regionalism
• Decentralisation
• Health care
• Social assistance
• Territorial politics
• Social policy
• Social services

“Vampa's book remains a very persuasive effort to measure and explain the interesting phenomenon of the regionalization (or de-nationalization) of welfare systems, by linking politics with policy. It will be of interest to scholars of comparative politics, as well as of public policy and administration. In addition, the study also raises questions on the changing meaning of social citizenship in contemporary states, providing empirical evidence which calls for (normative) theoretical reflections.” (Emanuele Massetti, Public Administration, 2017)

“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)

• Department of Politics and Public Policy, De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom

  Davide Vampa

Davide Vampa is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Politics and Public Policy, De Montfort University, UK. Previously he was Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham, Teaching Fellow at SOAS and Guest Teacher at LSE. He has published several papers on the spatial transformation of welfare systems and multilevel party politics.

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