Asymmetries in the Italian regional system and their role model

The chapter illustrates the multidimensional and devolutionary asymmetry characterising Italian regionalism, both in terms of constitutional law and of powers transferred to and used by the regions. The chapter also argues that, over the past 70 years, the constitutional picture of Italian regionalism has become increasingly complex, considering that each special region has 6 Erika Arban, Giuseppe Martinico, and Francesco Palermo developed its own degree of autonomy, and the constitutional reform in 2001 has made it institutionally possible to differentiate the distribution of competences among the ordinary regions as well. The author sketches the trajectory and the current state of the art of the different forms of regional asymmetry, and contends that asymmetry in the books looks way different than it is in action, due to a highly different implementation of the constitutional instruments by the various regions. The chapter also explores the contribution of Italian asymmetric design to the development of federalism/regionalism worldwide. As a matter of fact, all recent federal/regional experiments place asymmetry at their core.