This book analyzes the impact of class and status groups versus demographic composition and political structures on the growth of welfare spending.

List of Contributors; Preface; Introduction: interests and institutions - forms of social regulation and public policy-making Peter Lange and Marino Regini; Part I. Models of Regulations: 1. Unregulated regulators: parties and party government Gianfranco Pasquino; 2. Politics and policies in Italy Bruno Dente and Gloria Regonini; 3. Protest and regulation: the interaction of state and society in the cycle of 1965-74 Sonia Stefanizzi and Sidney Tarrow; Part II. Regulation of the Economy: 4. Politics, institutional features, and the government of industry Maurizio Ferrera; 5. The Italian labor market: between state control and social regulation Emilio Reyneri; 6. The divorce of the Banca d'Italia and the Italian treasury: a case study of central bank independence Gerald A. Epstein and Juliet B. Schor; Part III. Industrial Relations and its Actors: 7. Criteria of regulation in Italian industrial relations: a case of weak institutions Gianprimo Cella; 8. The representation of business interests as a mechanism of social regulation Antonio Chiesi and Alberto Martinelli; Part IV. The Welfare State: 9. Public and private in the Italian welfare system Massimo Paci; 10. Public intervention and health policy: an analysis of tendencies in progress Elena Granaglia; Conclusion: the Italian case between continuity and change Peter Lange and Marino Regini; Bibliography; Index.