15. Local State-Society Relations in Italy

The consultative municipal bodies, the round tables for social programming, the round tables for metropolitan strategic plans, and different forms of development agencies are analyzed as typical examples of local state-society relations for Italy. The chapter dedicates a particular attention to the description of the evolution of these networks in the last decades, which allows to delineate the changes occurred in the country’s governance model. Apart from the consultative municipal bodies, these networks correspond to a flexible institutional map, beyond the municipal administrative boundaries. Considering them on the basis of the three dimensions of autonomy, coherence, and relevance, they can be described as communicative, influencer, and independent networks.