Subsidiarity: positive anthropology and social organization

Over the past three legislative periods, the Lombardy government has largely based its action on the affirmation of subsidiarity. This has been translated into policies having different forms and solutions, which were affected both by the level of innovation of the concept – basically unknown in the Italian and international political panorama in the early nineties – and the many institutional and administrative contingencies. Sometimes there have been structured and structural solutions, other times coragious intuitions, and still other times adjustments, adaptations and necessary approximations. The result has been a rich and articulated choice of political, legislative and administrative initiatives, which we considered to be worthwile discussing in order to better understand their reach and limits. 
For this purpose, beginning in autumn 2006, studies have been promoted to define and theoretically systemize the underway experience involving top managers of the Lombardy Region. To ‘define’ and ‘systemize’ the experiences meant to critically reflect upon the policy actions promoted, to understand their costituing elements (purpose, receivers, objectives, methods, etc.), the  results and perspectives. 
The objective was to further analyze the awareness of the same players with respect to the subsidiarity model and, thus, to develop the implementing capacity, discussion and communication
of such a model. The studies, under the guide of IReF-Scuola Superiore di Alta Amministrazione (School for Higher Administration Education), IReR and Fondazione per la Sussidiarietà (the  Foundation for Subsidiarity, presented in the appendix of this book) have allowed to reassess the most symbolic policy initiatives, with respect to subsidiarity, in particular in the education, training and labour systems, and the social-healthcare and healthcare sectors.