Europeanization and territorial representation. The Italian Regions

The article aims to examine how, and to what extent, the process of Europeanization affected the reshaping of territorial representation in Italy. Indeed, European Cohesion Policy and structural funds exercise a potential influence over the key dimensions of representation by providing regions with the opportunity to strengthen their role as both “actors” and “arenas” of representation. Empirical research carried out through several interviews and analysis of documents in all twenty Italian regions, however, revealed that each region has reacted to structural funds in a distinctive way because of different internal factors, such as the legacy of pre-existing policy styles and political structures, and the attitudes of the political/administrative élite. The paper discusses this point in detail, focusing on changes occurred (or not occurred) at the regional level as far as all the above dimensions of representation are concerned.