Regional and Local government in Italy

The Italian constitution provides for four types of territorial bodies: regions, provinces, metropolitan cities and towns. The Constitution dedicates all of Title V (Articles 114-133) to them, as well as the first phrase of Article 5, which recognizes and promotes local autonomy. Article 114 considers these territorial bodies together with the State as the constitutive elements of the Republic. Moreover, five regions (Valle D'Aosta, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trentino Alto Adige, Sicily and Sardinia) together with two autonomous provinces (Trento and Bolzano) are granted of a special legal regime of autonomy. The political organization of regional and local bodies. Regions, provinces and towns are political entities, empowered therefore to protect the interests of their respective communities. They all have a very similar governmental structure, consisting of three main bodies: the council (consiglio), the giunta and its president (or the mayor in the towns). Competences: this analysis of the law governing the allocation of competences is divided into two parts. I will focus here on general principles, and then follow with an examination of some specific sectors. Reform Implementation and Constitutional Amendment: Metropolitan Cities vs. Regions? The actual impact of metropolitan cities on the Italian local government system firstly depends upon the full implementation of the Delrio Law and in particular on how Regions have been, and will be dealing with the allocation of administrative functions originally assigned to the old Provinces. It is, secondly, dependent on the entering into force of the constitutional amendment by means of which the Italian government cuts out the provincial layer of government as one of the constitutive layers of the Republic and upholds the guarantee of local autonomy for metropolitan cities only.