Policy making e apprendimento di capacità politiche della società civile. Il terzo settore nella riforma lombarda dell’assistenza

After a period of general fervour for social capital, civil society and NGOs’ involvement, current literature is more cautious, trying to test the outcomes of networks’ participation on the quality of democracy. Third Sector political capabilities for voice, negotiation, lobbying and campaigning are very important variables. The article focuses on the formation of these capabilities in a contentious process of policymaking. Starting on a case study in the Lombardy Region, it shows how conditions, mechanisms and processes of Third Sector engagements play a role in the learning and gradual change of political capabilities. Particularly, it stresses the relevance of deliberative arenas for third sector coordination and reflexivity. Looking at the political outcomes in the implementation of the Social Care Reform at the Regional level, the article formulates a hypothesis about the policy dependency of Third Sector legitimate power.

Conclusion

Development entails sustained enhancement of economic and political capabilities across a society’s members and groups. This text presents a conceptual framework, fully developed in Chapters 8 and 9, that addresses the social scientist’s dilemma concerning how to approach systematic inquiry into the myriad complexities of political-economic development. To address pertinent contexts, this framework systematically addresses interactions between asymmetric distributions of power and institutional evolution. It relates distinct types of political settlements to distinct sets of developmental CAPs that shape development. Related inquiry can then focus on how principles from the five core hypotheses operate in specific political-economic contexts. Such analysis can uncover how specific types of policy innovations relate to prospects for successful adoption within specific contexts. This framework can also underlie broad research programs with many theoretical and modeling extensions, as well as multiple testable empirical hypotheses.

The Impact of Technological, Governance, and Political Capabilities on Firms' Performances Under Economic Turbulence

Although there have been various studies exploring the effects of capabilities on firms' performances, it is not clear whether particular capabilities would create more competitive advantage for firms under recessionary periods compared to expansionary periods. The main focus in this chapter is to examine the impacts of technological, governance, and political capabilities on firms' performances under recessionary and expansionary periods. The aim of this chapter is to explore these effects by drawing upon resource-based theory, transaction cost theory, and resource dependence theory.