Dossier n. 255/2015 [Abstract] Evolution of regional welfare in the context of federalism

This work has three main aims, which are closely integrated.

• The first is to survey the social rights and the standard level of services in the welfare sector provided for by national and regional legislation.
• The second is to frame a general picture of the social protection expenditure in Emilia-Romagna as a first step to set the standard expenditure needs and to design monitoring of the provision of social services.
• Building on these bases, the third objective is to advance lines of review of regional intervention focusing on relevant sectors such as income support policies and infant school.

In all these paths of research a common feature clearly emerges: in the Italian institutional framework the welfare sector responsibility is assigned to a plurality of levels of government (Central government, Regions, Municipalities, social security institutions). This decentralized setting, where however the Central government retains significant decision-making power and financial control, should be strengthened in the perspective of the implementation of fiscal federalism reform.