Choosing the right moment: On the success and failure of Upper Chamber reform attempts in Canada, Italy, and Belgium
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24965/gapp.11501Keywords:
institutional reforms, federal systems, senate, success of reform’s policies, multiple streams framework, Canada, Italy, BelgiumAbstract
Objectives: From a comparative perspective, institutional reform attempts of the upper chambers of Belgium (2014), Italy (2016), and Canada (2015) are analyzed with an aim to identifying factors that either hinder or facilitate the success of these reforms. Methodology: The article proposes a multidimensional conceptualization of success –that goes beyond formal approval, to include programmatic success, political support, procedural legitimacy, and durability– and an explanatory framework based on multiple streams; both elements are subsequently applied to the systematic comparative analysis of the three cases. Results: The study reveals great variation in the results of success through the cases and seems to provisionally confirm the hypotheses on both the existence of various causal configurations for different dimensions of success and the necessary coupling of facilitating conditions from the different streams. Conclusions: This way, the study shows the advantages of applying contributions of research on public policies to the analysis of institutional reforms, as well as the usefulness of configurational explanatory approaches since they allow to acknowledge the joint effect of several explanatory factors to reforms of different types and with different degrees of success.
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