Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the ‘most’ reformist one of all? Policy innovation and design coherence of the Renzi government

The Renzi government is currently under scrutiny by many scholars of Italian politics. Their main focus is either on the Prime Minister’s leadership and communication skills or on government legislative activity with a particular emphasis on the relationship between the government and parliament. However, these studies still lack an analysis of the Renzi government with regard to the quality of its main policy measures. Has the Renzi government produced innovative and coherent policy reforms? To answer this research question, this article focuses on three policy sectors: education, the labour market, and public administration. We compare the Renzi cabinet with two other Italian governments that are generally considered very effective in decision-making: the first Prodi government (1996–1998) and the second Berlusconi government (2001–2005). Thus, we are able to assess how much policy innovation and policy design coherence characterize 11 major reforms that have been approved by those same 3 governments over time. This in turn allows us to verify whether the rhetoric of the Renzi government as ‘the most innovative government’ of recent decades holds empirically.