The Inter-Related Roles of the Regional and Local Government in Developing Local Partnerships in Italy

Building partnerships is becoming an important issue at the local level of government in many countries. Different experiences can be traced throughout Europe, as well as in other OECD countries. This is because partnerships, especially when the size of the single local government is small, can help to manage services in a more efficient and effective way. Nevertheless, building a relation is difficult, nor is it always successful, as many scholars emphasise. For a number of reasons, higher levels of government may then play a significant role in supporting partnerships between different stakeholders. Given the shortage of empirical studies on this subject, this chapter combines conceptual and empirical analysis, and is based upon: - the direct observation of a number of partnerships in Italy, with particular reference to those Regions in which the birth and the development of partnerships has been positively influenced by the regional level of government; - surveys of other partnerships which have been formalised in Italy; - literature review and analysis of official documents. The issues analysed most carefully in the chapter are the critical aspects of partnership building, and the role played by higher levels of government in activating or facilitating partnerships. It is in fact clear that higher levels of government may gain considerable benefit from the development of partnerships at the local level. Finally, the chapter deals with comparative aspects, and investigates the existence of common patterns and trends in the different regional experiences examined