Mettere in ordine le società locali: l’uso regolativo delle ordinanze comunali tra passato e presente

This article analyses municipal ordinances with the aim of showing how local authorities resort to them in order to regulate extensively and structurally individuals’ – and especially migrants’ – public behaviours. Moving from a socio-legal and socio-political perspective, this proposal first reconstructs the origins of the power of ordinance as part of the historical changes of the concept of ‘police’. It then retraces the history of ordinances by identifying their various meanings and showing their different uses. Finally, it focuses on the ordinances targeting migrants in particular. The conclusion of the article is that, similarly to what happened at the beginning of the Modern Age, ordinances are conceived of as the symbolic and material manifestation of the sovereignty of those who employ them, rather than as administrative tools aimed at concretely implementing the law.