Local Government

The course aims to provide conceptual tools for the knowledge and analysis of local governments and local policies in contemporary democracies. We analyze the new inter-institutional relationships in multilevel systems, demonstrating the increasing degree of complexity of the decision-making process.The course is structured in two interconnected teaching units.The first one is related to the understanding and analysis, in a comparative perspective, of the territorial powers through the division between center and periphery, taking into consideration the structure of the different levels of government (local, regional, national and supranational) and their relationships, the development of local democracy and the forms - traditional and innovative - of citizen participation. We analyze the transfer of functions from the center to the periphery through political (or devolution) and administrative decentralization, as well as ways to address and resolve collective problems in the territorial area in question, conceiving local government as both an institution and a government activity . The second didactic unit analyzes a new protagonism of the cities. In a context of high economic, social, cultural and political interdependence, it is interesting to note a transformation of both government and city governance, understood as global cities, cities - regions and, in some cases, as a city-state. This means rethinking the functions of cities and intermediate and local bodies, not only aimed at managing local public services in terms of municipal or local welfare, but above all at formulating an international strategy.

The course aims to provide a thorough and systemic knowledge of the role of local governments, and especially of cities, in a much more dynamic and interdependent context than even in the recent past. It intends to provide students with the tools to participate in territorial marketing projects, to understand the dynamics of the decision-making with a view to multi-level governance, and finally to be able to understand the policy network on a glocal scale.