Italy has been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. National and subnational authorities have introduced several measures to tackle the resulting crisis, including social distancing and restrictions on economic activities. However, as we will show in this contribution, such measures have sometimes resulted in uncertainty concerning the allocation of decision making powers along the central-local government continuum and regarding the exercise of administrative tasks by public authorities, thus producing conflict and variation within the policymaking and policy-delivery processes in Italy. To show this, we review the relevant events that occurred during the pandemic in the country in light both of the literature on centralization and discretion and of the principles shaping the Italian legal system. Our analysis, based on a dialogue between political science and public law, allows us to read the Italian case as a mix of inadequate institutional coordination and insufficient and unclear central guidelines which ultimately produced uncertainty, which together had a direct impact on policymakers, policy-deliverers, and citizens in general. ?? ????????????????????????????????????,????????????????,?????,?????????????,?????????????????????,??????????????,?????????????????????????????,?????????????????,??????????????,??????????????????????????????????,????????????????????????????????????????,?????????,?????????????????????? Resumen Italia se ha visto muy afectada por la pandemia de COVID-19. Las autoridades nacionales y subnacionales han adoptado varias medidas para abordar la crisis resultante, incluido el distanciamiento social y las restricciones a las actividades economicas. Sin embargo, como mostraremos, tales medidas en ocasiones han sido portadoras de incertidumbre en cuanto a la asignacion de poderes de decision a lo largo del continuo gobierno central-local y el ejercicio de tareas administrativas por parte de las autoridades publicas, produciendo asi conflictos y variaciones dentro de la politica. y procesos de ejecucion de politicas activados. Para mostrar esto, reconstruimos los hechos relevantes ocurridos durante la pandemia a la luz de la literatura sobre centralizacion y discrecion, asi como de los principios que configuran el sistema legal italiano. Nuestro analisis, basado en un dialogo entre ciencia politica y derecho publico, nos permite leer el caso italiano como una mezcla de coordinacion institucional inadecuada y claridad de directrices centrales insuficiente que finalmente produjo incertidumbre, afectando asi a los responsables politicos, a los responsables de las politicas y a los ciudadanos. en general.
