Local government reforms in Italy and Spain: towards Institutional Sustainability or weaker local authorities?

Aim of this paper is to give an account of the evolution of local government in Italy and Spain during the years of the global crisis. A comparative analysis of the recent institutional reforms addressing the local level in both countries and the consequent challenges to representative institutions and territorial governance will be attempted. Starting from the concept of institutional sustainability, the argument proposed is that pre-reform local governments in both countries present a critical picture. Therefore, to what extent have the (recently approved) reforms impacted on local self-government and how? This paper aims at giving a theoretical contribution on this topic in four steps: first, by proposing a series of dimensions through with the concept of institutional sustainability can be detected; second, by linking these dimensions to the main challenges local governments have been facing since years; third by relating the types of local government reforms to these challenges and (fourth) to the Italian and Spanish cases. The final goal is to trace a map of the kind of local government reforms the two countries have chosen and to single out which are the expected effects on the local levels. The main conclusion is that whatever the over- or intermunicipality at stake (municipal union, fusion, province, metropolitan area, etc...), it may turn out to be effective only as long as institutional sustainability is pursued.