The Italian model of capitalism: on the road between globalization and Europeanization?

Rising Powers and Economic Crisis in the Euro Area

“…MMEs are characterized by 'the relative weakness of their educational and training systems and a real diffi culty in implementing industrial strategies designed to encourage the development of high value-added products' (Lallement 2011 : 637). Since the EA's MMEs lack coordinated systems of vocational training, they tend to be more specialized in the production of standardized goods with lower added value and quality (Schmidt 2003 ;Della-Sala 2004 ).…”

Living it on the skin: Italian states, working illness

“…Importantly, for the first time, employers in the late 1990s and early 2000s had a wide assortment of legal ways to hire short‐term workers as a viable alternative to offering the highly coveted lifelong contract (contratto a tempo indeterminato). As a result, many Italian workers suddenly found their “barrel of steel” contracts to be less than mighty, and, for those entering the workforce, such contracts were reduced to an unlikely aspiration (Della Sala 2004; Ferrera and Gualmini 2004). These policies have provoked much public debate and criticism.…”

“…Her rejection of the man's offer to volunteer in the clinic, I believe, was a rejection of the trade union for not having helped her when she was being mobbed. Scholars have noted a decline in the role of trade unions in Italy that is attributable to market‐oriented policies (Braun 1996; Della Sala 2004). During fieldwork, I observed many mobbing counselors grumble that trade unions were merely puppets for implementing employer desires.…”

“…At various historical moments, the Italian state appears to have uniquely combined seemingly contradictory programs, such as democracy‐friendly communism (Ginsborg 2003), social democracy as a “Third Way” between capitalism and socialism (Della Sala 2003; Giddens 1998), preindustrial industrialization (Hardt and Negri 2000; Krause and Marchesi 2007:352), and “elements of both liberal and co‐ordinated capitalism” (Della Sala 2004:1054) 27 . Italian scholar Carlo Vercellone suggests that Italian governance shifts between “poles” of “government and social control” and “autonomous self‐management … outside of state control” (1996:95).…”

One-size-fits-some! Capitalist diversity, sectoral interests and monetary policy in the euro area

“…As MMEs, by contrast, are generally defined by 'the relative weakness of their educational and training systems' (Lallement, 2011D 3 8 , 637), 'larger segments of [their] workforce are less skilled and continuous innovation is more difficult to achieve' (Hall, 320 2014 Q10 D 3 9 , 1226; see also Molina & Rhodes, 2007). As a result, traded sector firms in these countries tend to engage in low-cost production strategies leading to a comparative specialization in the production of standardized goods with lower added value and quality (Della Sala, 2004;Schmidt, 2003). Because firms usually produce goods with a high price elasticity, they were more harmed by the euro's nominal appreciation and more inclined 325 to cut profit margins when labor cost rise.…”