La tesi si occupa della rappresentanza degli interessi imprenditoriali in Italia, con un focus particolare sulle crisi 1989-1994 e 2007-2014, analizzando il mondo delle associazioni imprenditoriali private e delle Camere di commercio. / This work is about the representation of entrepreneurs interests in Italy, with a specific focus on 1989-1994 and 2007-2014 crisis, analyzing business associations and Chambers of commerce as institutions.

Con la fine della Guerra fredda, molti degli schemi interpretativi utilizzati per analizzare la politica internazionale hanno iniziato a essere oggetto di un’approfondita riconsiderazione teorica. Tutti questi elementi – la distinzione tra sistema internazionale e società internazionale (con la potenziale coesistenza di più società o regimi internazionali), il ruolo delle civiltà e quello delle religioni – sono stati quantomeno trascurati dal dibattito teorico successivo alla Seconda guerra mondiale. E, soltanto in parte, sono compresi in quello posteriore alla fine della Guerra fredda. Ognuno di essi è invece presente all’interno della teoria delle macro-trasformazioni politiche e culturali elaborata da Toynbee, fra gli anni Trenta e gli anni Sessanta del secolo scorso. / With the end of Cold War, many interpretative schemes used to analyze international politics started to be subjected to a deep theoretical reconsideration. All these elements – the distinction between international system and international society (with the potential co-existence of different societies or international regimes), the role of civilizations and religions – have been neglected by the theoretical debate after the Second World War. These issues, which have been only partially comprehended by the debate at the end of Cold War, are extensively discussed in the theory of political and cultural macro-transformation Toynbee elaborated between 1930 and 1960.

Oggi la Turchia occupa oggi una posizione cruciale nello scenario internazionale grazie al processo di profonda trasformazione politica, economica e sociale che è in corso da tempo ed è promosso dall’attuale amministrazione conservatrice-democratica dell’AKP -Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi. (Partito della Giustizia e dello Sviluppo). La sua recente affermazione come partito di centro-destra con radici ideologiche religiose è un esempio di trasformazione politica, anche se, rifiutando ufficialmente ogni riferimento all’Islam e definendosi un movimento politico “democratico conservatore” è stato più volte accusato di minare i fondamentali principi kemalisti su cui si erge la Turchia moderna. Dalla sua peculiarità e dai trionfi elettorali che hanno sancito il suo incontrastato successo nasce l’interesse verso questo partito, volto a far luce sulla particolarità del progetto di “Conservative Democracy” e a esplorare non solo i diversi aspetti sottesi a questo concetto- finora inesistente nella letteratura politica-, ma anche gli effetti sulla vita sociale e sulla politica turca. In altre parole, il successo dell’AKP e i dinamici cambiamenti riflessi dal sistema partitico sono la principale ragione per condurre un’analisi sulla sua organizzazione e strategia e rappresentano anche un interessante caso di studio riguardo il grado di compatibilità tra Islam (moderato) e democrazia liberale. / Nowadays, in the international context Turkey is in a crucial position because of its political, economic and social transformation process. This is the extent of the current conservative –democratic administration. The recent rise of AKP - Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi- ( Party oF Justice and Development) as center-right party with an Islamic background is a clear example of political transformation. However, even if it doesn’t refer to Islam and define itself as an conservative-democratic party there is suspicious that its performance aims to mine the kemalist principles of the Country. From its peculiarity and its electoral triumphs arises the interest towards this party and its idea of Conservative Democracy- a new concept in political literature-aiming to explore the effects on political and social life in Turkey. This big success and the change inside of Turkish party system are the main reason to explore AKP’s strategy and organization. Moreover, this is an interesting case study about the compatibility between moderate Islam and liberal democracy

Lo studio analizza la relazione tra la struttura del potere neo-patrimoniale (fondata sullo scambio tra distribuzione arbitraria di opportunità economiche e lealtà politica) e la debolezza del sistema inter-statale arabo. Combinando un approccio storico-istituzionalista e un approccio intermestic, lo studio considera il neo-patrimonialismo arabo prodotto della contraddizione irrisolta tra la cristallizzazione delle sovranità statali imposte dalle ex-potenze coloniali e il progetto politico mancato della ‘Grande Nazione Araba’. Questa dinamica ha prodotto l’illegittimità strutturale dell’ordine inter-statale arabo, che investe lo stato nella dimensione territoriale e nella dimensione del potere. A cavallo degli anni 70’, nei regimi arabi si osserva una transizione dall’autoritarismo populista ad un sistema neo-patrimoniale. Esaminando i casi-studio di Egitto e Siria, questa tesi si propone di analizzare il divario tra lo state-building ‘weberiano’(legale-razionale) e ‘neo-patrimoniale’: in quest’ultimo, la mancanza di istituzionalizzazione legale-razionale impedisce la formazione di un legame di cittadinanza e asseconda la persistenza di identificazioni sociali tradizionali. In riferimento all’Egitto e alla Siria ,l’analisi mira a mettere in evidenza la relazione tra l’indebolimento (o il crollo) del regime e il collasso istituzionale dello stato. Questo fenomeno in Siria, a differenza dell’Egitto, si accompagna ad una ibridazione della sovranità statale, in virtù della frammentazione politicizzata della società siriana. / This thesis investigates the relation between Arab neo-patrimonial power structures (based on the arbitrary distribution of economic opportunities in exchange of political loyalty) and the weakness of the Arab inter-state system. Combining a historic institutional and an intermestic approach, this study considers neo-patrimonialism as the outcome of the unsolved contradiction between the crystallization of western-imposed sovereignties and the missed political project of the ‘Greater Arab Nation’ (contesting colonial borders). This has, in turn, produced the structural illegitimacy of the inter-state order, affecting both the territorial and the authority dimensions of the state. In dealing with this ‘legitimacy problem’, post-1970 Arab regimes have tended to replace populist authoritarian (ideological-grounded) with neo-patrimonial (material-based) power strategies. Through the cases of Egypt and Syria, the study aims at analysing the gap between a ‘Weberian’ (legal-rational) and a ‘neo-patrimonial’ state-building: in the latter case, the missing legal-rational institutionalization hinders a social identification based on citizenship, seconding the persistence of traditional identities. By examining Egypt and Syria’s power structures, this study enlightens the relation between regime collapse and institutional collapse. Unlike Egypt, which enjoys a substantial societal homogeneity, in Syria we witness the hybridization of state’s sovereignty, stemming from the politicized fragmented character of Syria’s society.

La questione portante della mia ricerca è la verifica dell'eventuale appartenenza dei think tank a modelli di Comunità Epistemiche o Advocacy Coalition. La struttura della tesi rispecchia quindi parte del percorso che ho sviluppato, partendo da una analisi della definizione dell'oggetto di ricerca Think Tank, della sua struttura ed azione, con la finalità di influenzare il processo di policy making. La seconda sezione analizza gli approcci metodologici principali all'analisi del processo di formazione delle politiche pubbliche, mentre il terzo capitolo affronta la ricerca sui casi di studio selezionati: l'Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), l'Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI) e lo European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). / The fundamental question supporting my research is to verify the membership of the think tank to the Epistemic Communities or Advocacy Coalition model. The structure of the thesis, therefore, reflects the path that I developed, starting from an analysis of the definition of the research think tank, its structure and action, with the objective of influencing the policy making process. The second section discusses the main methodological approaches to the analysis of the formation of public policy, while the third chapter discusses research on selected case studies: the Institute of International Affairs (IAI), the Institute for the Study of International Politics (ISPI) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

Il presente lavoro di ricerca analizza il fenomeno della dispersione scolastica come oggetto del policy making di stati e regioni: in particolare e in chiave comparata si analizzano le politiche di tre Stati membri, Italia, Francia e Spagna e di due regioni per ognuno di essi, la Regione Lombardia, la Regione Puglia; la Région Aquitaine, la Région Rhone-Alpes, la Comunidad de Andalucía e la Comunidad de Madrid. Pur condividendo i tratti fondamentali del sistema di istruzione europeo meridionale, esse sono caratterizzate da un diverso sistema di attribuzione delle competenze legislative e amministrative in materia di istruzione ed un differente grado di decentramento in relazione all’applicazione delle policy di contrasto alla dispersione scolastica, degli strumenti implementati e dei risultati raggiunti. A partire dall’analisi dei documenti europei Strategia di Lisbona ET2010 e Strategia Europa ET2020 , il presente lavoro si concentra sul secondo dei due documenti e su uno dei cinque obiettivi indicati, ovvero la riduzione al 10% del tasso di dispersione scolastica per i giovani di età compresa tra i 18 e i 24 anni. Si fa riferimento al periodo di tempo compreso tra l’anno scolastico 2008-2009 e il 2015-2016, ovvero tra la fine della Strategia di Lisbona, rilanciata a seguito della grave crisi del 2008 per il triennio 2008-2010, la nuova fase decennale delle politiche comunitarie avviata con la Strategia Europa 2020, gli ultimi due cicli di programmazione comunitaria, mediante i fondi strutturali 2007-2013 e 2014-2020 e il biennio 2013-2015, quando i tre Stati considerati avviano, sia pur in modo molto diverso delle riforme del sistema scolastico. / The present work analyses the phenomenon of school dropout and the policy making of states and regions: particularly and in a comparative key, the policies of three Member States, Italy, France and Spain, involved with different reforms of the school system, and two regions for each of them, Lombardy Region, Puglia Region; Aquitaine Region, Rhone-Alpes Region, Andalucia Region and Region of Madrid. Starting from the analysis of European documents ET2010 Lisbon Strategy and ET2020 Europe Strategy, this work focuses on the second of the two documents and one of the five objectives indicated, especially the 10% reduction in the school dropout rate for young people aged between 18 and 24 years. Reference is made to the time period between the academic year 2008-2009 and 2015-2016, between the end of the Lisbon Strategy, the new ten-year phase of the Community policies launched with the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Establishment of the independent Republic of Armenia in 1991 has been a turning point in the Armenian history; except for the existence of an independent Armenian republic between 1918 and 1920, by the dissolution of the USSR, Armenians gained an independent state after more than six hundred years. The transition of the Soviet Armenia to an independent republic stimulated not only the radical dislocation of the established economic, political and socio-cultural structures in Armenia, but also transformed the routine in the Armenian diaspora communities. In this process, aiding the frail and infant independent Armenian republic became a paramount ethno-national cause among the diaspora communities and, by extension, one of the principal ethno-national binders, as well as a chief cause of controversies. Overall, the post-1991 era has witnessed the re-territorialization of the de-territorialized Armenian political imagination in the diaspora. This facilitated the post-1991 trans-state Armenian ethno-national re-construction along the Armenia-diaspora nexus. A parallel process to that has been the construction of the social reality of the post-1991 Armenia. This dissertation examines the construction of the Armenian ethno-national social reality of the post-1991 Armenia through the discursive social practices of the Armenian state, new generation diaspora organizations and the diasporic individuals within the communicative space formed along the Armenia-diaspora nexus. The examination demonstrates that concerns over the physical and cultural survival of the Armenian ethno-nation expressed in different ways are the main considerations that eventually result in the construction of the post-1991 Armenia as the guardian and the soil of the Armenianness. From an abstract point of view, the actual agent of discourses that speaks through the Armenian state, new generation diaspora organizations and the diasporic individuals is the “anxious Armenian” who searches stability and security, reclaims her ethno-national identity, and is concerned about the cultural survival of the Armenian ethno-nation. Besides all, she is the one who “remembers” the genocide. This “anxious Armenian”, instead, is the person that the social memory of the genocide speaks itself through. As such, genocide is not only the “defining and founding moment” of the contemporary Armenian identity, but also the “defining and founding moment” of the post-1991 Armenia.

Understanding how political parties and social movements interact and what are the results of these interactions is important for both scholars of Political Science and Sociology. This is particularly true for far-right actors since they are characterised by diverse ideological and organisational features. Understanding how parties and movements interact can help shed light on how these features develop and, ultimately, explain their success. In the dissertation a novel conceptualisation of party-movement interactions is presented, as well as a theory that aims to explain when parties and movements are more likely to develop stronger interactions on three different dimensions, frames, actions and organisations. This theory is tested by looking at two sets of far-right parties and movements, Lega Nord and CasaPound Italia in Italy and the United Kingdom Independence Party and the English Defence League in the United Kingdom. The analysis is carried out through a Political Claim Analysis and a document analysis of parties and movements documents for the period 2009-2019. The analysis finds that parties and movements have closer interactions on the frame dimension when issues they own gain prominence in the public debate and when political parties are weak electorally. In the actions dimension, interactions tend to be closer when parties are weak electorally and movement organisations moderate their repertoire of actions. Finally, in the organisational dimension, relations are closer when parties are weak electorally and in proximity of electoral campaigns. This research makes two contributions to the study of far-right parties and movements. The first is theoretical, for the paper advances a new theory of party-movement interactions that could be tested in different scenarios. The second is empirical, for the paper provides indications on when parties and movements are more likely to have closer interactions and how through these interactions they change and develop their features.

Increasing calls for regional independence are being made in several European countries, and such calls are accompanied by growing public support for secessionism. Over the last decade, Catalonia and Scotland have enjoyed the highest level of political mobilization for secession in the European Union. This research highlights the role of the media in changing attitudes toward independence and studies regionalist parties' strategic choices to understand their electoral success at the regional elections at a time of fast growth of independence sentiments among the population. This study employs different methods: process tracing to focus on the specificities of the independence process in a view to understand how the secessionist agenda transformed the cases; frame analysis of media links the theoretical arguments and their representation in the public discourse; content analysis of regional parties’ electoral programs via Regional Manifesto Project approach helps to define the strategic choices of regionalist parties which brought success to their secessionist agenda at the regional elections; most-similar cases comparative analysis allows to identify commonality and differences between the cases of Catalonia and Scotland. This dissertation uncovers how: the media communicate regionalist arguments to the audience; the media justify independence claims; regionalist parties strategize their secessionist programs. First, a strong pro-region bias is the main feature of media coverage. Secondly, saliency in influenced by the political process as a largely exogeneous factor, but the framing process may also influence reality by giving particular meaning to the major political events and by framing them as political opportunities or as having transformative power. Third, the political competition structure contributes to the strategic choices of political parties. My research contributes to the framing literature by considering the role of diagnosis, prognostic, and motivational framing in the independence discourse. It highlights the extent of pro-region message flows vis-à-vis pro-center and neutral messages in media communication. My analysis contributes to previous research on regionalist parties by making an in-depth case study to differentiate between subsuming and blurring strategies adopted by secessionist actors.

In the last three decades, civil conflicts have become more complex and intractable than in the past. One reason for this development is the proliferation of rebel groups within the armed oppositions involved in these conflicts. Today, armed oppositions are more likely to be movements composed of loosely connected or competing rebel groups rather than unitary blocs. Yet, despite their centrality to the dynamics of conflict, different structural characteristics of and competitive and power relations within armed oppositions have not been taken in adequate account as possible predictors of civil conflict outcomes. To further our knowledge and cover this gap in the scholarship, the dissertation investigates how and to what extent the fragmentation, internal competition, and internal power distribution of armed oppositions affect civil conflict termination. The dissertation develops a theory that sees the fragmentation of, a moderate and severe competition, and a dispersed distribution of power within armed oppositions as having an impact on the fighting effectiveness of the rebels, the countereffort of the government, bargaining problems, and the intensity of the conflict. This impact shapes, in turn, how civil conflicts end. This theory is tested with a nested analysis consisting of a large-N and a small-N analysis. Through the large-N analysis, the dissertation demonstrates that, at a general level, these characteristics of armed oppositions indeed affect how civil conflicts end. Through the small-N analysis, the dissertation further illustrates the causal mechanisms linking these characteristics to specific civil conflict outcomes. With these findings, the dissertation makes two important contributions. First, it provides generalisable conclusions that remedy the limited generalisability of the scholarship on the phenomena under study. Second, it provides indications on how to resolve conflicts in which the involved oppositions are fragmented and bedevilled by internal competition, thus helping disentangle the proverbial complexity of multi-party civil conflicts.