Functions, governance and coupling in the integrated system of interventions and social services in Italy: the intertwining of the State and a regional case

The paper proposes a reflection on social policies (which necessarily have an effect on the social work organisation), in particular on the construction and implementation of the integrated system of interventions and social services in Italy, promoted by the Framework law for the implementation of the integrated system of interventions and social services (Law no. 328 of 8 November 2000). The proposed reflection problematises this construction process in view of the fact that Constitutional Law 3/2001 reforming Title V of the Italian Constitution makes Law 328/2000 in force, but not binding on the Italian Regions. The paper aims to unravel the ill-defined and complex intertwining of the national and regional levels, choosing to analyse a regional case ‒ Sicily, a Region with a special statute in the south of Italy ‒ in order to analyse whether and how it refers to Law 328/2000. In this direction, it focuses on the inspiring principles of the regulatory framework of reference and on the governance structure that the regulatory framework and the planning acts outline through the division of tasks and functions among the public actors of the national, regional and local levels. Furthermore, the paper proposes to trace the relationship (coupling) between the institutional actors involved in the process of construction and implementation of the integrated system of interventions and social services, on the basis of four ideal-typical coupling dimensions proposed in the literature ‒ choosing to adapt them to the proposed analysis considering exclusive legislative power in the field of social policies as the dimension of institutional distinctiveness and governance structures (network decisionmaking process) as the dimension of responsiveness ‒ and to outline the possible effects of these dimensions on the homogenisation and fragmentation of social policies on the national territory.