Evaluating the Reform of Social Services in Italy: A Comparative Analysis

In this article we report on how social service reform has been implemented in two different Italian regions (Lombardia and Toscana). The article focuses on four dimensions of analysis: political and administrative decentralization, organizational specialization, coordination mechanisms and the importance given by regional reform plans to public downsizing. The study suggests that it is inappropriate to talk about a unique model for the Italian social care as previous studies in the field have assumed: regional governments, in fact, have started to follow different trajectories in the restructuring of social care, often diverging significantly from the national guidelines.