ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS IN SICILY FROM THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE PRESENT

A JOURNEY THROUGH STRATEGIC FUNCTIONS, LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES AND «GATTOPARDISMO» IN THE GOVERNANCE OF THE TERRITORY

Abstract

The author writes about the administrative divisions in Italy and Sicily were inspired by the political-administrative, judicial, ecclesiastical functions and census from Roman times until the mid-twentieth century. In the mid -Nineties the new industrial revolution and the supremacy of economic liberalism contributed to giving strength to the local dimension of the territorial government and the processes of economic development. On the one hand the increase of the global economic flows and, on the other hand, the international crises have highlighted many limits of the municipal governance of the territory. Thus, the governance of the metropolitan area has replaced municipal governance in importance. The author explains how these recent issues must be integrated with constitutional autonomy in Sicily. An autonomy that has not been used to strengthen economic structures by means of the administrative divisions but, on the contrary, this autonomy has been used to pursue institutional transformation to preserve positions of power.