Still engaging in corporatism? Recent Italian experience in comparative perspective

This article argues that, in the 1990s, the long decline of concertation between governments and organized interests over economic policies has been reversed in several European countries. This can be seen most visibly in Italy, where highly successful tripartite agreements have been reached and major 'reform laws' have been passed after negotiation with the social partners. This re-emergence of concertation calls into question some assumptions of neo-corporatist theory. In fact, concertation between governments and interest associations is developing more powerfully in countries which lack the supposed political and organizational 'preconditions' of neo-corporatism, and to a large extent because of such differences. By challenging the assumptions of old neo-corporatist theory, this article offers an explanation not only of where this theory went wrong, but also of why recent attempts at concertation might be more successful than those of the 1970s.