Abstract

Through the analysis of contemporary discussions involving scholars from different disciplines, politicians and administrators, the essay highlights the main problems faced by the design of the administrative districts in the new Kingdom of Italy: the legacy of the ancient pre-unification states; the territorial and administrative problems of the new state; with regards to natural or artificial districts, small or large provinces, weight of municipalities, projects of regionalization; the choice of administrative centralization, with its inevitable consequences on the boundaries of territorial partitions.