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How Italian regulatory policy encounters Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2010

Alessandro Natalini
Alessandro Natalini*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Parthenope University of Naples, Via F. Acton, 38, 80133, Naples, Italy, Faculty of Law
*
* E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Improvement of regulatory quality has become one of the most important items on the European Union’s (EU) Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs. In this context, the European Commission has sought to influence the regulatory reform policies of the Member States, focusing on the implementation of better regulation principles and tools. This article explores the interactive nature of Europeanization, viewing domestic institutions as ‘users’ of European policies according to their strategies. The author performs a within-case study based on a bottom–up research design, analysing the impact of EU better regulation on Italy. The results show that the effects of Europeanization relate more to agenda setting than to implementation – the latter is still, prevalently, determined by domestic factors.

Keywords

better regulationEuropeanizationsimplificationtechnocracypublic policy
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , July 2010 , pp. 329 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2010

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