IL NUOVO RUOLO DI STATO E REGIONI NELL'ORDINAMENTO DEGLI ENTI LOCALI

Our country’s institutional reforms seem to have been at the top of the ruling class’ political agenda for over thirty years. Already at the creation of Regions with Ordinary Statute, at the beginning of the seventies, it was seen as an opportunity of a total renewal of the public powers and the administrative machineries: on the other hand there is a tendency of the strengthening of the sub-national government levels in almost all the contemporary States, whereas the great challenges of the last century revitalized the question of the territorial division of the power: in this sense the booming and the welfare state crises, the globalization and the European integration process, the multi-level policy making, are only some of the factors which have started the processes of devolution of power also in States which have always been considered centralized and unitary. The decentralization and the federalism, therefore, represent today one of the dominant topics in the political debates, having been widely acknowledged the role that the local governments carry out in the national and international arena, in relation to the production of public politics which interest the life of the citizens. If the Reform of Title V of the Constitution has laid the groundwork for an organization with a truly autonomous system, nevertheless the delayed implementation, as well as the inconsistencies of the same, so far haven’t lead to the desired results. However it should be pointed out that it in the last legislature the reforming process experienced a new impetus thanks to the implementation rule of the article 119 Constitution (law 42/2009) and the bill on the Local Government code (A.S. 2259): if the first one finally opens the doors to the so-called fiscal federalism, the second one arises as a rationalization and simplification of the institutional system as a whole, outlining, among other things, the new regions’ new role in dealing with local authorities. However, the global financial and economic crisis and the community obligations have “imposed” on the legislator the adoption of economic rationalization measures, who have established some aspects concerning the local authorities system. At this point it’s worth wondering: what faith is there for the autonomous experience in our constitutional system? In which direction is the federal reform of the Italian state moving? Or better, one could ask oneself: “towards which of the many federalisms?” In this work, divided into four chapters, the prospect was to show the evolutional tendencies, which, starting from the constitutional plan, concerned the relations between the different governmental levels of our system, in particular examining the power exerted on the local authorities system by the state and regions. Therefore, the first chapter begins with an analysis of the regulations which were present in the Constitution of 1948, which on one hand outlines a certain role for the regional government in the system of the local autonomies, on the other establishes a direct relationship between the state and the local authorities. In the next chapter, after having reviewed the most important innovations introduced in the regional and local authorities system following the Reform of Title V, Second part of the Constitution of 2001, will be examined the administrative function issues assigned to the town districts and provinces by state and regional laws. In the first part of the third chapter the regulations of the new regional statutes regarding the relationship between regions and local authorities will be examined, particularly as regards to the local authorities participating in the regional choices through the Local Autonomies Council (CAL). Instead in the second part of the chapter, the regions’ new role in the local authorities system will show through the power exerted by them on the associative forms of the local authorities, taking the case of mountain communities in consideration. Finally, in the fourth and final chapter, full account will be given of the attempts to implement the reform of 2001, culminating in the Government bill AS 2259 (the so-called Local Government code), of which all the main points will be analyzed, taking a look at the position of the regions outlined by the bill. In the final part an account will be given of the last laws on the subject of local authorities, considering the effects and consequences these laws and the abandonment of the Government bill (Local Government code) are having on the institutional reform of our administrative system.