L'evoluzione del ruolo dell'ente locale nella gestione dei servizi pubblici

[Autom. eng. transl.] The long and significant reform process that has affected local public services in recent years has been driven by the need to transform the structure of the sector through the progressive introduction of entrepreneurial forms of management and the separation between direction and control, due to the local authority, and production-management of services, due to the company. Greater efficiency and quality of services and redefinition of the territorial and sectorial mix of activities, according to the logic of economic optimization (Massarutto, 1999), rather than exclusively of political opportunity, they represented the fundamental guidelines of change. The opening of local markets to competition and privatizations have been the driving force behind this change. The current regulatory framework identifies joint-stock companies as the most suitable tool for managing services in a competitive context, able to better respond to the needs for greater efficiency in satisfying the needs of citizens. The progressive evolution of the management forms of local services through the establishment of joint-stock companies with public participation has led to the birth of local public groups, with the consequent role of top management of the municipal holding headed by the local authority. In this arrangement, based on decentralization in the management of services and on the emergence of municipal holding companies, it is appropriate to question both the function of the public enterprise, i.e. the role required of it within the context that defines the field of action of territorial public institution-owner of the company itself, both on the new role that the latter is called to play.