Davide Vampa Libri

The book delves into the Brothers of Italy party, analyzing its origins, ideology, and significant political dynamics. It highlights the party's rise within Italy's tumultuous political landscape, situating it at the intersection of post-fascist traditions and contemporary populism. The author emphasizes factors contributing to its success, including the influence of right-wing female leaders, the integration of far-right ideologies, and shifts in voter alignment. Ultimately, it portrays FdI as a key player in a larger trend of political transformation across Western democracies.

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.