1. After being a member of the PRIN "Democratic institutions and administrations of Europe: cohesion and innovation at the time of the economic crisis", I have dealt in particular with the theme relating to the transformations that have taken place, in recent years, in regional administration and local.
My work has focused on the forms of the Vast Area, Metropolitan Cities and the Strategic Planning function. Two volumes (with Franco Angeli and Il Mulino) and a series of essays on the subject are expected to be published by the end of 2018.
On the merits, despite the many criticisms, I believe that the objective of the Delrio reform (Law 56/2014) intends to give life to an integrated and coherent reform of the local government that responds to the need of society, the environment and the economy of have new institutions with full autonomy and direct responsibility in the planning and development of essential services (school, health) of transport, innovation and research, new business, land maintenance, etc. What I intend to deepen is therefore - the new territorial governance system; - the reorganization of functions and roles on the territory between local authorities and the wider area; - the strategic planning function as a distinctive element of the new entities.
2. I am currently writing a volume on digital administration in Italy, for an editorial project already approved by the publisher il Mulino.
3. After having published two works (an essay in volume and a contribution to the work on the 150 years since the administrative unification of Italy) on the subject, I began to study the theme of cultural production, its importance in institutional evolution and his evaluation. A volume on intellectuals and constituent thought is currently being published. Furthermore, the publication of a manual (with R. Bin and G. Pitruzzella) on the Public Law of Cultural Heritage and Activities is scheduled for 2022.
4. My work on the subject of relations between public and private institutions ended with the publication of a monographic work “Il paradigma sussidiario”, published in 2013 by Il Mulino.
The volume aims to determine the scope of the provision referred to in art. 118, paragraph 4 of the Constitution and to define its effects on the administrative system, through a careful consideration also of the dynamics relating to public, general and collective interests. On the merits, in the twelve years that have passed since its constitutionalisation, there has probably been no other principle at the same time more cited and less defined than horizontal subsidiarity. Recalled with insistence in the current discourse when discussing the relationship between administration and private autonomy, the principle appears, on the other hand, very rarely in state legislation, while in regional legislation it is connected from time to time with very different purposes and interpretations, and is always kept distinct from the vertical declination of subsidiarity, which has so far proved to be much more fertile.
My study tries to construct an objective and legally solid reading of the subsidiarity principle that allows one to pass from its mere (and often inappropriate) statement to a (so far very little attempted) full implementation. Starting from the philosophical debate and from the suggestions present in the European Treaties, we come to break down the text of Article 118, 4th paragraph of the Constitution and to recompose it, also thanks to the analysis of the dynamics of the juridically relevant interests, in a framework that aims to be both of theoretical reflection and of concrete utility in relations between citizens, businesses and public institutions.
An archetype, therefore, a paradigm, capable of accommodating a multiplicity of phenomena, all possible, on the basis of precise assumptions, and of excluding others (such as governance or participatory democracy) often confused or intertwined with subsidiarity which, taking the form of a relationship of a non-antagonistic nature between institutions and forces active in society, it finds its key in an unprecedented synthesis of solidarity and individual freedom.
5. I have published the fourth edition of the manual of Public Welfare Law, of which I am the author of the second part, dedicated to the health and social fields (the first part is by Roberto Bin and Giovanni Pitruzzella). The text includes an analysis of
- The constitutional bases of the system of services to the person
- Health organization and health services
- Social assistance
