De l’État défaillant à l’État en personne

Research on disasters approaches the governance of reconstruction through two conventions of the State: the external State, when the State imposes its vision of the common good from above, and the absent State, when the State allows actors to coordinate themselves through the market. After the 2016-2017 earthquakes of the Central Apennine, the task of governing the reconstruction was entrusted to a “Special Commissioner” who was expected to act as an external State while at the same time supporting situated State action. Given the political and administrative complexity of the post-earthquake situation, this model of governance led to an impasse that reinforced a convention of the failing State. It began to work when the appointed Commissioner convincingly mobilized, with the support of both the central government and regional and territorial actors, a convention of the State in person, based on a form of charismatic legitimacy.