Regional Government: The Italian Example
| Author | GEORGE WOODCOCK |
| Published date | 01 December 1967 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1967.tb02046.x |
| Date | 01 December 1967 |
Regional Government
:
The
Italian Example
GE
0
R
GE
14’0
0
D
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0
C
K
Mr.
M~oodcock
is
a
Rescarch
Student
at
Nufield
College,
Odord.
The
1948
Republican Constitution of Italy makes provision for a
systcin
of
autonomous regional government. The whole country
is
divided into
nineteen regions, five Special Regions and fourteen Ordinary Regions,
each of which has a directly elected, unicameral legislative assembly
possessing legislative and administrative powers in a range of matters
of
regional interest.
In
1948,
it was widely believed that the regional reform would I)ring
about important changes for the better in public administration in Italy.
Regional government was viewed
as
a
means of streamlining the country’s
inefficient, over-manned administrative system and of relieving the over-
burdened national Parliament and central administrative machinr.
Introducing the draft Constitution to the Constituent Assembly meeting in
plenary session in
194.7,
the President of the Commission of the Assembly
responsible for drafting the document, described thc system of rcgioriaI
government included in it
its
‘
The most profound innovation introduced
by the Constitution’, and ventured the opinion that ‘it could have deciqive
importance for the history of the country’.l
Statutorily, all nineteen regions were to have bcen functioning by
1949.
Transitory Disposition n. VIII of the Constitution provides that ‘The
elections for the Regional Councils
. . .
have been arranged to take place
within one year
from
the dale the Constitution comes
into
cffect’.
‘The
Constitution came into effect on
I
January
1948.
The Special Region
of
Sicilia was established in
1946.~
‘l’hrce other
Special Regions, hosta, Sardegna and Trentino-Alto Adige were established
in
I
948.
The
remaining Special Region, Friuli-Venezia Giulia,
Tvas
not
established in
1948
bccause part
of
its territory
uas
the subject of
a
dispute
over sovereignty between Italy and Yugoslavia. Howevcr, thc Constitution
provided that until the dispute
wa3
resolved, Friuli-Venezia Giulia would
be established
as
an
Ordinary Rcgion.” This region was eventually estab-
lished as
a
Special Region in
I
963.
The Ordinary Regions were riot established in
I
949.
Transitory Ilirpo-
sition
n.VIII of thc Constitution
was
sirspended first in
1948
and again
ill
403
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