Abstract

Due to its boundary-spanning nature, the COVID -19 pandemic is a powerful stress-test for all multi-level systems of government. This holds particularly true for countries like Italy where key regulatory competencies for pandemic management are shared between State and regions, but in a context of unfulfilled federal reforms and increasing autonomist drives which hamper intergovernmental loyal cooperation. Based upon this premise, the article critically examines the development of Italian law-making and State-regions financial relations in the first six months of the COVID -19 pandemic crisis. The aim is twofold: on one hand, using the pandemic as a litmus test to assess the current profile of Italian regionalism; on the other, to engage in a lesson-drawing exercise to reflect on what corrections could be considered for future reforms.