Politica e politiche delle società partecipate. Le aziende dei comuni come unità di analisi della democrazia locale

Local Government in Italy is invested by an ongoing process of “corporatization" of public services through the creation of a great number of private-law companies fully or partially owned by municipalities. This trend indicates the political significance of such companies because it represents a shift toward an innovative and unobtrusive milieu for policies and politics. Corporatization is consequently intended not merely as a policy instrument, but also as a new opportunity for local politicians to adjust their preferences, to deal with various interests and to build unusual coalitions. Thus, corporatization may (and does) influence the concrete working of local political democracy. The essay shows the political relevance of corporatization in local political systems based on empirical research on public utilities in six Italian regions. It draws on a dataset including data on 1,335 companies, as well as on qualitative data on the boards of six companies.