ABSTRACT

The research presented in this book was aimed primarily at understanding Italy's patterns of adaptation in three relevant policy areas: agriculture, regional cohesion and employment. The results show that all the Italian policies have been characterized by Europeanization-induced policy changes (at varied degrees of intensity) and that political-institutional relationships have also been – at least partially – modified as a consequence of Europeanization. Furthermore, beyond the Italian case, the analysis has covered three key elements: the conceptualization and operationalization of Europeanization; policy structure and policy change; and the ‘goodness of fit’ hypothesis. In this concluding chapter we will illustrate the main analytical – if not theoretical – implications of our study.