FRANCESCO MANGANARO e ANDREA PIRAINO

La partecipazione popolare negli statuti dei comuni capoluoghi di regione

N. 166

Summary — In order to get institutions and social system nearer, laws n. 142/1990 and 241/1990 have introduced a new prescriptive regulation for popular participation.

It is a complex system in which the old model of political participation is partly put aside while the social organization is revalued both as control of government activities and prompt intervention not only for general but also for specific decisions.

From the analysis of the statutes of the capital towns of the regions, this trend is confirmed, in fact they get the popular participation as a political procedure of control (free forms of associationism, popular consultations and civic defender) sometimes as co-management (consultations, consultive referendum) and finally as guarantee for private citizens (access to documents, intervention in the administrative procedure).

The limits between these three different forms of participation are often weak for some institutions and can form three different categories in many institutions. It does not contradict the trend that assures the popular participation as a means of control by the community about the decision taken, developing a kind of passage from "political democracy" to "community democracy" that is the possibility to contribute to decision by private citizens, without making confusion of roles and responsibility, not to take decisions but to control.

Therefore, according to the local rules, there is an innovation that moves from the interventions of a few citizens into the institutions (that take care of the public interests) to interventions and cooperation between citizens and public power, while determining political decisions and carrying out administrative functions.