Interest Groups and the “Amended” Liberalizations of the Monti Government Source: Italian Politics, Volume 28, Number 1, Summer 2013 , pp. 227-248(22) Publisher: Berghahn Journals

This article is dedicated to the liberalization of public services promoted by the Monti government with a law at which the government attached great importance arguing that liberalization would bring significant improvements to the economy and to consumers within a few years .In fact, the innovative capacity of the decree has been significantly reduced by the amendments adopted in parliament that proved open to the requests for the status quo made by organized interests threatened by liberalization. This outcome is explained with reference to the lack of cohesion of the parliamentary majority which supported the caretaker government and to its permeability to the influence of organized interests.