Form of association of Italian municipalities: some empirical evidence

For several decades, in Italy a process of transfer of functions and services from the highest levels of government to local authorities has occurred. This has resulted in new and broader responsibilities for Italian municipalities that are, in most cases, small (called "Dust Commons"), and, therefore, with difficulty able to manage services, to plan activities and to develop right strategies. A real risk occurred in recent years is that functions transferred to lower levels of government can not be carried out quantitatively and qualitatively as well as with excessive costs. It is understandable, therefore, as a possible answer to the above problems could arise from the implementation of associated forms of services and functions management, in other words, cooperation and associationism of municipalities. The aim of this paper is to show how this form of partnership has been and can be an instrument which meets the two requirements of management of functions and services in an associated form by reducing costs and improving the effectiveness of services.