While hypotheses frame explanatory studies and provide guidance for measurement and statistical tests, deductive, exploratory research does not have a framing device like the hypothesis. To this purpose, this article examines the landscape of deductive, exploratory research and offers the working hypothesis as a flexible, useful framework that can guide and bring coherence across the steps in the research process. The working hypothesis conceptual framework is introduced, placed in a philosophical context, defined, and applied to public administration and comparative public policy. Doing so, this article explains: the philosophical underpinning of exploratory, deductive research; how the working hypothesis informs the methodologies and evidence collection of deductive, explorative research; the nature of micro-conceptual frameworks for deductive exploratory research; and, how the working hypothesis informs data analysis when exploratory research is deductive.

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By combining the traditional literature on public administration and public management with that on Human-Computer Interaction, this paper contributes to the debate about how digital technology can support the co-creation of public value in co-production activities. We examine two case studies of participatory requirements elicitation for a technology aimed to support the co-design of a childcare service. By observing that the digital technology is requested to satisfy "ancillary values" that constrain how the coproduction is operated, our analysis clarifies how the instrumental and the institutional roles of the technology intersect and fulfill each other.

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This article aims to discuss the possible actors that can determine public policies, and the influence of new decisional arenas on politics. This theoretical work presents the evolution of different models of producing public policies, to the transformations taking place with the adoption of the governance model. Using empirical evidence from the Italian case, the study of new decisional arenas for the determination of public policies shows that there are still several problems to be addressed. Such problems are connected, above all, with the uncertain democratic nature of these arenas, as well as with the impossibility to clearly attribute political responsibility to the choices adopted in these spaces. These are issues and future research questions to be resolved, limiting the analysis to specific case studies, preferably related to the local sphere. Keywords: public policies; governance; participatory democracy; deliberative democracy; Italy. Quem governa na governança (local)? Reflexões teóricas e evidências empíricasO objetivo deste artigo -de natureza teórica -é discutir os possíveis atores que podem definir políticas públicas, bem como a influência que novas arenas decisórias exercem em relação à política. O artigo resgata a evolução de diferentes modelos de formulação de políticas públicas, até as transformações que vêm acontecendo com a adoção do modelo de governança. Por meio de evidências empíricas obtidas a partir do caso italiano, o estudo das novas arenas decisórias que influenciam na definição de políticas públicas mostra que existem diversos problemas relacionados, acima de tudo, a incerteza sobre a natureza democrática dessas arenas e a impossibilidade de claramente atribuir responsabilidade política pelas escolhas feitas. Essas são questões e futuras perguntas de pesquisa que devem ser respondidas e que limitam a análise a estudos de caso específicos, relacionados preferencialmente a esfera local. Palavras-chave: políticas públicas; governança; democracia participativa; democracia deliberativa; Itália. ¿Quién gobierna en la gobernanza (local)? Reflexiones teóricas y evidencias empíricas El objetivo de este artículo -de naturaleza teórica-es discutir los posibles actores que pueden determinar polí-ticas públicas, así como la influencia que nuevos espacios decisorios ejercen con relación a la política. El artículo rescata desde la evolución de diferentes modelos de producción de políticas públicas hasta las transformaciones que están teniendo lugar con la adopción del modelo de gobernanza. Por medio de evidencias empíricas obtenidas a partir del caso italiano, el estudio de los nuevos espacios decisorios que influencian en la determinación de políticas públicas muestra que existen diversos problemas relacionados, sobre todo, la incertidumbre sobre la naturaleza democrática de esos espacios y la imposibilidad de atribuir, claramente, responsabilidad política por las decisiones tomadas. Esas son cuestiones y futuras preguntas de investigación que deben responderse y que limitan el análisis a estudi...

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In recent years, Italian policy-makers launched several austerity policies to rationalize local government. One of the most controversial of these is obliging small municipalities to manage local services cooperatively, 1 due to the historic Italian tradition of local self-government. Its first provision (decree-law No. 78/2010), extended a number of times, is that municipalities must compulsorily manage their basic functions in municipal unions (MUs) or in covenants, each representing a different degree of institutionalization. While the former are enti locali (local entities) with their own political and technical bodies, the latter are simple formal agreements for managing one or more services. Following Hulst and Van Montfort (2007, p. 12), public and private actors in the context of inter-municipal cooperation are assumed to be goal-oriented and rational, pursuing their interests, using their powers to achieve their goals. In the current Italian inter-municipal cooperation context, local administrators' main objectives are to conform to regional/national regulatory ABSTRACT despite the historical tradition of inter-municipal cooperation in several regions, the italian policy maker has for the first time decided to oblige small municipalities to co-manage their basic functions. although controversial because of its overly top-down logic, this provision is driving a "new" era of inter-municipal cooperation in italian regions: around 70% of italian municipalities must choose between a municipal union and a covenant in order to manage these functions. Regions can direct their municipalities towards different forms of inter-municipal cooperation with the use of monetary incentives, regulatory restrictions or persuasion. the paper develops an analytic framework to explore this process in two regional cases. the analysis highlights that despite the national constraints, the different regional strategies are increasingly conditioned by the legacies of the past.

Municipal fragmentation is a real historical issue in Italy but its relevance has been differently perceived over time. With a focus on the municipal unions and amalgamations as the main tools for defragmentation, we will present an overview of the last quarter century (1990–2017) of territorial policy at the local level. The reforms introduced since 2010 marked a step change in this area: in fact, empirical evidence shows that the most recent defragmentation attempts have had a certain success. This article, by maintaining a descriptive approach, will try to answer why the most recent defragmentation policy achieved some results, in contrast to those of the past. Some explanatory factors will be presented by reviewing the stances of the main actors in this policy field and their interaction with national policy-maker goals and approaches as well as with normative elements and external conditions