Regional and Local Government in Italy: An Overview

Abstract

The organization and regulation of local powers in Italy have been debated over a long period of time. The topic, far to have lost is centrality and interest, is still considered crucial in the political agenda of both the right and left parties. Numerous attempts to develop a centralized rather than federal or semi-federal system have been alternatively proposed, discussed and eventually approved or rejected by the governing coalitions during the last fifty years.Using this complicated scenario as a starting point, the article works on a double track. A first and consistent part is mainly reconstructive. It contains, first, a summary of the main historical events that have contributed to the current make-up of the Italian regulation of territorial entities. Every period, or phase - three in total - is deeply analyzed in all its aspects. A second and essential part of the reconstruction is devoted to the normative part itself. The article focuses on the constitutional principles on the share of competences. This is particularly useful to introduce the second - and main - track of the article. This last is devoted to the key features related to the past and current legal systems of territorial entities. The discussion is broad. The regulatory areas on which it focuses are the following: the urban transportation, the public support to businesses, the health care and social activities, the system of education and research, the housing, the citizens' participation, the personnel and the regime financing. Together, the two profiles of the article lead to the conclusions. These conclusions are intended to show how tense and complex the Italian scenario is. Tensions are deriving from the multiple relationships between the different components of the national government, the local resistance against the implementation of the reforms and, finally, from the essential features of the constitutional reform and the concrete developments in the local and regional systems.