This paper aims to trace the policymaking process of the reform, reconstructing the various stages it went through, the interest-based coalitions that mobilized to support its various parts or to advocate changes, the way in which interests defeated in the negotiation stage tried, failed or succeeded to have their way in the parliamentary stage, the struggles occurring between the government and its reluctant majority. All this in the context of a new policy style by the Monti government, which forced decisions in the shadow of hierarchy and even took unilateral action, pursuing its policy recipes under the legitimacy provided by the international actors and the sense of urgency stemming from the sovereign debt crisis.
The Italian labor market reform makes an unparalleled venue to cast light on the role played by interest-based coalitions, economic ideas, state bureaucracies and international actors in domestic emergency policymaking, and more in general on the curbing of democratic politics in hard times.
