La riconfigurazione del sistema pensionistico italiano : vischiosità istituzionale, opportunity gates e processi di apprendimento

Many recent neo-institutionalist analyses have emphasized the importance of path-dependency in the evolution of social protection systems, and pension settings in particular. In spite of this, during the 1990s the Italian pension system underwent a deep process of trasformation under the impact of two major reforms – 1992 and 1995 - and a later adjustment – 1997. The article focuses on the reconfiguration of Italian pensions, oriented to the creation of a “multi-pillar” system via a two-fold initiative: the restrictive reorganisation of the first public PAYG pillar and the development of supplementary pillars. The underlying idea is that different factors played a role in such relevant reconfiguration of the national pension system: such change took place in a very peculiar context - charachterized by a multi-dimensional crisis - which induced substantial learning processes among political and social actors; moreover, institutional resiliency was weakened by the specific strategies adopted by political actors and by the existence, within the pension system, of an institution acting as “opportunity gate”.