Abstract

The introduction presents the research that gave origin to the essays in this issue, which examines the financing of the Italian local authorities in recent decades. In the last twenty years the system of Italian local government has undergone profound changes, ranging from the abolition of taxable capacity and the consequent introduction of a policy to standardize measures by means of transfers (1971-1973), through the gradual restoration (from the 1980s onwards) of tax-raising autonomy, to the introduction of Ici in 1993. Apparently bereft of administrative logic seem to be two other types of local finance measure implemented in the 1980s: the granting of sero-interest financing for the undertaking of investments by the communal and provincial administrations; tax equalization for small communes with high unitary costs.