Organizational Response to Emergencies: Italian Civil Protection and Civil Defence Service

Abstract

This chapter describes the evolution of the Italian Civil Protection Service and its theoretical and operative frameworks through the consideration and analysis of laws and decrees that established the actions, skills, roles, and competencies for this fundamental system. In particular, since the end of World War II, the Civil Protection Service was considered the main operative and methodological service in terms of crisis and emergency response: in this period civil protection actions were aimed at response and recovery activities. During the past few decades there has been a change of perspective, and attention became focused on the peculiarities and communication needs during the prevention, preparedness, and warning phases. The Italian Civil Protection Service also is presented according to the institutional framework of the vertical and horizontal principle of subsidiarity. With regard to this organizational structure, all civil protection activities are related to four contexts of application: local, provincial, regional, and national. A last feature of this system is the presence of civil defense and the fire service within the same organizational framework as the Italian Civil Protection Service.