Abstract

The essay deals with the main problems of the regional form of government, in the light of the innovations introduced by Constitutional Law no. 1/1999 and the various critical issues it has highlighted, stimulating constitutional jurisprudence that is not favourable to the regions’ attempts to move away from the «transitional» form of government centred on the direct election of the President and the simul... simul mechanism. The prerequisites of the reforming intervention set out in Constitutional law no. 1/1999 are seen, on the one hand, in the attempt to experiment at the regional level with a reform potentially destined to be extended to the state level, and, on the other, in the illusion that through the direct election of the President of the Region it would be possible to recover a legitimising capacity to provide services that the social base was already clearly demonstrating at the time that it was loosing. In this sense, from the perspective of the democratic principle, the role of the Regions is considered relevant, in particular through the enhancement of the use of participation institutes and those of deliberative democracy.