Comparative Territorial Politics Series Editors Michael Keating University of Aberdeen United Kingdom Arjan Schakel Maastricht University The Netherlands Michaël Tatham University of Bergen Norway
Territorial politics is one of the most dynamic areas in contemporary political science. Rescaling, new and re-emergent nationalisms, regional devolution, government, federal reform and urban dynamics have reshaped the architecture of government at sub-state and transnational levels, with profound implications for public policy, political competition, democracy and the nature of political community. Important policy fields such as health, education, agriculture, environment and economic development are managed at new spatial levels. Regions, stateless nations and metropolitan areas have become political arenas, contested by old and new political parties and interest groups. All of this is shaped by transnational integration and the rise of supranational and international bodies like the European Union, the North American Free Trade Area and the World Trade Organization. The Comparative Territorial Politics series brings together monographs, pivot studies, and edited collections that further scholarship in the field of territorial politics and policy, decentralization, federalism and regionalism. Territorial politics is ubiquitous and the series is open towards topics, approaches and methods. The series aims to be an outlet for innovative research grounded in political science, political geography, law, international relations and sociology. Previous publications cover topics such as public opinion, government formation, elections, parties, federalism, and nationalism. Please do not hesitate to contact one of the series editors in case you are interested in publishing your book manuscript in the Comparative Territorial Politics series. Book proposals can be sent to Ambra Finotello (Ambra.Finotello@palgrave.com). We kindly ask you to include sample material with the book proposal, preferably an introduction chapter explaining the rationale and the structure of the book as well as an empirical sample chapter. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14910
Davide Vampa The Regional Politics of Welfare in Italy, Spain and Great Britain
Davide Vampa Department of Politics and Public Policy De Montfort University Leicester, United Kingdom Comparative Territorial Politics ISBN 978-3-319-39006-2 ISBN 978-3-319-39007-9 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-39007-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016951266 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: Terry Mathews / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland
PREFACE AND AC KNOWLEDGEMENTS In recent years, a number of European countries have undergone important processes of territorial reconfiguration in the administration and delivery of social services. This has produced substantial divergences in the levels and types of welfare development across regions belonging to the same country. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to talk about national welfare systems or national social models although most of the mainstream welfare literature continues to do so. The aim of this study is to explore the political factors that explain cross-regional variation in the development of health care and social assistance policies in three countries that have witnessed the gradual strengthening of regions as arenas of social policy-making: Italy, Spain and Great Britain. The research focus is on the effects of two political cleavages, centre-periphery and left-right, on subnational social policy. The findings of the quantitative and qualitative analyses presented throughout this research suggest that the main driving force in the construction of sub-state welfare systems is the political mobilisation of territorial identities through the creation and electoral consolidation of regionalist parties. Indeed, such parties may use regional social policy to reinforce the sense of distinctiveness and territorial solidarity that exists in the communities they represent, thus further strengthening and legitimising their political role. Additionally, the centre-periphery cleavage may also affect relations across different organisational levels of statewide parties and further increase the relevance of territoriality in welfare politics at the regional level. v
vi PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On the other hand, traditional left-right politics does not seem to play the central role that welfare theories focusing on nation-states might lead us to expect. For left-wing parties, the regionalisation of social governance may present either an opportunity or a challenge depending on the role they play in national politics and on the characteristics of sub-national electoral competitors. Generally, mainstream centre-left parties are torn by the dilemma of maintaining uniformity and cohesion in social protection across the national territory and addressing the demands for more extensive and distinctive social services coming from specific regional communities. This book is the result of four years of research at the European University Institute. I am particularly indebted to the academic and administrative staff of this prestigious institution for their constant support during my doctoral studies. In particular, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Stefano Bartolini for his help and advice throughout the duration of my research. My approach to the study of the politics of welfare owes a lot to his interest in the territorial boundaries of political competition. This book was also inspired by the groundbreaking work of Maurizio Ferrera, who provided excellent feedback and many suggestions for improvement. My regret is that some of his suggestions remain unrealised at this stage. My future research will be aimed at addressing most of his unanswered questions. Among the other persons who over the years read parts or early versions of my work, I am particularly grateful to (in alphabetic order) László Bruszt, David Hine, Liesbet Hooghe, Jonathan Hopkin, Hanna Kleider, Gary Marks, Nicola McEwen, Vassilis Monastiriotis, Luis Moreno, Arjan Schakel, Michael Tatham, Simon Toubeau and Alex Trechsel. Finally, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer of my manuscript for his constructive comments and the editorial team of Palgrave Macmillan for their help and encouragement during the publishing process.
CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 Adding a Territorial Perspective to the Study of Welfare Politics: Theories, Hypotheses and Case Studies 5 3 Territorial Mobilisation and Left-Wing Partisanship: The Two (Parallel) Paths to Welfare Building in the Italian Regions 37 4 The (Re)emergence and Strengthening of the Centre-Periphery Cleavage in Italy: (Old and New) Regionalist Parties and Sub- state Welfare Building 57 5 The Italian Left: Between National Weakness and Regional Policy Experimentation 83 6 Spain: Finding a Balance Between Territorial Equality and Strong Regional Identities 95 7 Ethno-regionalist Parties in Spain: Linking Regional Welfare Governance to Sub-state Nation-Building 115 vii
viii CONTENTS 8 The Spanish Left: Statewide Political Dominance and the Regional Challenge 135 9 Devolution, the Territorialisation of Party Politics and the Transformation of Welfare Governance in Great Britain 149 10 Scotland: Where Territorial Politics and Social Democracy Meet 169 11 Wales: Moderate Territorial Mobilisation in a Context of Social Democratic Consensus 189 12 Comparative Conclusions 205 Bibliography 227 Index 255
ABOUT TH E AUTHOR 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 articles and book chapters on the spatial transformation of welfare systems and multilevel party politics. ix
LIST OF ACRONYMS AC or AACC BNG CDC CiU DS EA ERC FI-PDL FVG ICV LN MPA PATT PC PCI PD PDS PNV PSC PSdAz PSOE SNP SVP UDC UV Autonomous Communities Galician Nationalist Bloc Democratic Convergence of Catalonia Convergence and Union Left Democrats Basque Solidarity Republican Left of Catalonia People of Freedom Friuli Venetia Giulia Initiative for Catalonia-Greens Northern League Movement for Autonomies Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party Plaid Cymru Italian Communist Party Democratic Party Democratic Party of the Left Basque Nationalist Party Socialist Party of Catalonia Sardinian Action Party Spanish Socialist Workers Party Scottish National Party South Tyrolean People s Party Democratic Union of Catalonia Valdostan Union xi
LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 2.1 Fig. 3.1 Fig. 3.2 Fig. 4.1 Fig. 4.2. Fig. 4.3 Fig. 5.1 Fig. 6.1 Fig. 6.2 When regions become arenas of welfare building: summarising the theoretical framework and the hypotheses 22 The strength of centre-left parties in Italian regions (average percentage of regional parliamentary seats controlled by centre-left parties in the 1980 2010 period) ( Source : Interior Ministry, www.interno.it ) 46 Strength of left-wing parties and development of regional welfare systems 48 Average saliency of the centralisation-decentralisation issue in the manifestoes of the main Italian parties (parties obtaining more than 4 per cent of the vote) ( Source: Volkens et al. (2013). Author s own calculation) 58 Locating South Tyrolean parties in the two-dimensional political map combining left-right and centre-periphery cleavages 65 Locating Lombard parties on the two-dimensional political map combining left-right and centre-periphery cleavages 73 The support for decentralisation of the main party of the Left compared to average support for decentralisation of all other Italian parties with more than 4 per cent of the vote 85 The strength of centre-left parties in the Spanish Autonomous Communities (average percentage of regional parliamentary seats controlled by centre-left parties in the 1980 2010 period) 104 Correlation between left-wing mobilisation and welfare development in Spanish Autonomous Communities 105 xiii
xiv LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 7.1 Fig. 7.2 Average saliency of the centralisation-decentralisation issue in the manifestoes of the main Spanish parties (parties obtaining more than 4 per cent of the vote at the statewide level) ( Source : Volkens et al. (2013). Author s own calculation) 116 Locating Catalan parties on the two-dimensional political map combining left-right and centre-periphery cleavages ( Source : Stolz (2009: 34). The map has been slightly modified since Stolz s version does not graphically show the sizes of the parties represented. Thus, in this map I also illustrate the size of electoral support enjoyed by each party in Catalan politics (a larger circle indicates greater support)) 120 Fig. 7.3 Number of private and public hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants in 1995. Comparing Catalonia with other Autonomous Communities and the Spanish average ( Source : Gallego (2003: 113). Author s own elaboration) 122 Fig. 7.4 Fig. 8.1 Fig. 9.1 Locating Basque parties on the two-dimensional political map combining left-right and centre-periphery cleavages 126 The support for decentralisation of the PSOE compared to average support for decentralisation of all other parties obtaining at least 4 per cent of the vote at the statewide level ( Source : Volkens et al. (2013). Author s own calculation (see also Chapter 5 )) 136 The saliency (see Chapter 4 for measurement of saliency) of decentralisation and centralisation issues in Great Britain from 1945 to 2010 ( Source : Volkens et al. (2013). Author s own calculation) 156 Fig. 10.1 Locating post-devolution Scottish parties on the two-dimensional political map combining left-right and centreperiphery cleavages ( Source : Stolz (2009: 44). The map has been slightly modified since Stolz s version does not graphically show the sizes of the parties represented. Thus, in this map I also illustrate the size of electoral support enjoyed by each party in Scottish politics (a larger circle means stronger support)) 175 Fig. 11.1 Locating post-devolution Welsh parties on the two-dimensional political map combining left right and centre periphery cleavages 195 Fig. 12.1 Summary: the development of sub-state welfare systems in Italy (a), Spain (b) and Great Britain (c) 210 Fig. 12.2 Sum of coefficient of variations in long-term care and hospital beds and health personnel in Italian, Spanish, French and German regions ( Source : Eurostat. Author s own calculations) 219
LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Applying the multiplicative index to Italian regions: measuring the level of development of regional welfare systems (focus on health care and social assistance) 41 Table 3.2 The political strength of regionalist parties from 1980 to 2010 (per cent of council seats controlled by regionalist parties). Averages by region 44 Table 3.3 The determinants of welfare development (health care and social assistance) in the Italian regions (1980 2010) 50 Table 3.4 Parsimonious model including the three most important independent variables 52 Table 3.5 Measuring the level of development of labour market policies across the 21 Italian regions (multiplicative score) 54 Table 3.6 The determinants of development of labour market policies in the Italian regions 54 Table 6.1 Applying the multiplicative index to Spanish Autonomous Communities: measuring the level of development of regional welfare systems (with a focus on health care and social assistance) 100 Table 6.2 The political strength of regionalist parties from 1980 to 2010 (per cent of council seats controlled by regionalist parties). Averages by region 102 Table 6.3 The determinants of welfare development (health care and social assistance) in the Spanish Autonomous Communities 107 Table 6.4 Parsimonious model including the three most important independent variables 109 Table 6.5 Indicators used for spending and legislation 111 xv
xvi LIST OF TABLES Table 6.6 Indicators used for implementation (part 1) 112 Table 6.7 Indicators used for implementation (part 2) 113 Table 7.1 The coverage of renta mínima de inserción (per cent of the population that benefited from the scheme) in the Autonomous Communities and levels of unemployment in 2010 and 2011 131 Table 7.2 Index of development of social services in Spanish Autonomous Communities. Post-crisis evolution: comparing 2012 and 2013 132 Table 9.1 The three main parties of Great Britain and their support for decentralisation by decade 160 Table 9.2 Expenditure on health and personal social services per head in Scotland, Wales and England 163 Table 9.3 Implementation of health and social services in Scotland, Wales and England 165 Table 9.4 Development of sub-state welfare systems in Scotland, Wales and England 166 Table 12.1 Summary of the types of strong welfare systems that emerge in the regional cases analysed in this study 214 Table 12.2 Adding the policy legacy variable to the model explaining variation in welfare development across Italian regions 217 Table 12.3 Parsimonious model including the three main independent variables 217