Abstract

The presidents of the regional councils and Anci (the association of Italian communes) have presented the chairman of the Parliamentary Bicameral Committee with a proposal to "give greater flexibility to the structure and role of the provincial administrations", asking for their constitutional downgrading. The idea is inspired by the flexibility principle and assigns definition of the roles and functions of the provinces to the regional statutes. The regional administration will decide according to their local situations, and by assessing Anci's alternative, among communs wishing to delegate part or all of their administrative functions. The author argues that the size of a commune should be adequate to its functions, and the provinces (bodies constitutive of the Republic) should be autonomous and distinct entities of broad territorial scope. Cultural resistance has impeded mergers among communes (as has instead happened in Germany) and prevented the birth of a single metropolitan commune.