The models of municipal governance in the experience of Italian Republic. Local communities and self government

The choice to focus on the actual organization of the governmental organs of the Comune and their political-institutional relationships, origins from the consideration that the general organization of the Republic is aimed to give full dignity and expression to the concept of the local autonomies, on which puts the basis the political dimension of the Comune. In this scenario, the Comune is considered as both the local government and the political subject that represents its Community. The core of the self-government in the Italian Republic bases on the significance of both the art. 1 and 5 taken together. Taking together these findings, the Italian Constitution consider the people as the resultant of all the local Communities, guarantied by the Constitution and constructs a complex form of Government made up of a central government and of local governments. The link between local government, local communities and the structure of the Republic, constitutes the fundament of the interpretation of the art. 1 and 5 of the Italian Constitution in that it attributes a major role to the individual Comuni. Following this interpretation, we link the art. 5 to the fifth title, second part, of the Italian constitution in which the attention focuses on the structure of local government and on the three needed elements: the existence of multiple local subjects, the regulation and the government organization. The Comune has been the first level of Government to test the election by universal and direct suffrage of the mayor as a proof-of-principle for the direct election of the prime minister. The election by universal and direct suffrage of the mayor, puts in severe crisis the central position of the town council. At this point it is interesting to establish whether the coexistence of a mayor and of a town council both elected by universal and direct suffrage is a confusing element or, otherwise, it represents an innovative point of the local government. The relation between the mayor and the town council is regulated both by rules regarding their election that by rules that take care of the power organization. In the relationships between mayor and town council exists a constant represented by the election by universal and direct suffrage but there is also a variable that is represented by the council election that could brings to a council majority more or less supporting the mayor or a majority adverse to the last one. It is possible that the majority of which the council is constituted could be the expression of a unique electoral list – this will be the case in the minor Comuni as an obligate condition – or, alternatively it could be the result of a coalition of different electoral lists. In both the cases this majority which is born homogeneous and that supports the mayor, not necessary could persists in the future. On the opposite, when the majority of which the council is constituted is the result of more than one connected lists, the same lists are in competition on two levels: the electoral level, in that each list competes for the election at the council; and the institutional level, for which in the body of the council, each list can form a proper group so that each political part of the majority can participate to the government assessment. The relationships between the political parties of the coalition of the majority, are the political predominant variable with which the major has to face. The major, for his side, can be more or less expression of a political part. If the electoral results produce not homogeneous majorities between council and mayor, the political variables become crucial and the politic mandate can start on the basis of an agreement of “not-no confidence” but with a political programme strongly affected by the choices of the majority of the council that not supports the mayor. In this scenario, the mayor has a vantage: if the town council will force the mayor to the resign, the council well knows that the fall of the mayor is followed by that of the council and as a consequence this so leads to the election again of both the mayor and the town council. The cohabitation of mayor and town council bases on flexible models of consensual type. The complexity and flexibility of this model, is the outcome on the political and institutional level of the complexity of the plural societies of which the Comuni represent an expression. In conclusion, to solve the problems of the local government, it is not needed to simplify the system but it will be better, to introduce different and multiple government systems on the basis of the complex realities of the reference communities.