Abstract

This article investigates the evolution of the local development partnerships in Italy. In particular, we focus on a specific aspect of these cooperative experiences, i.e. their consolidation as governance instruments of territorial development policy. The main aim is to reconstruct the internal processes that characterize the partnership experiences before and after their creation and to single out the main factors that affect them. On the basis of the empirical evidence provided by the study of the Territorial Pacts of the Province of Turin, the article presents an analysis of the political dynamics that have accompanied the evolution of these partnerships, focusing at the same time on the conditions that seem to facilitate or impede the persistence of the cooperation among public and private actors in local development policy.