Provinces of Italy (grey borders), within Regions (solid borders)
The provinces of Italy (Italian: province d'Italia) are the second-level administrative divisions of the Italian Republic, on an intermediate level between a municipality (comune) and a region (regione). Since 2015, provinces have been classified as "institutional bodies of second level".[1]
There are currently 107 institutional bodies of second level in Italy, including 80 ordinary provinces, 2 autonomous provinces, 4 regional decentralization entities, 6 free municipal consortia, and 14 metropolitan cities, as well as the Aosta Valley region (which also exercises the powers of a province).
Italian provinces (with the exception of the current Sardinian provinces) correspond to the NUTS 3 regions.[2]
Overview
A province of the Italian Republic is composed of many municipalities (comune). Usually several provinces together form a region; the region of Aosta Valley is the sole exception—it is not subdivided into provinces, and provincial functions are exercised by the region.
The three main functions devolved to provinces are:
Transportation regulation (car registration, maintenance of local roads, etc.)
The number of provinces in Italy has been steadily growing in recent years, as many new ones are carved out of older ones. Usually, the province's name is the same as that of its capital city.
According to the 2014 reform, each province is headed by a President (or Commissioner) assisted by a legislative body, the Provincial Council, and an executive body, the Provincial Executive. President (Commissioner) and members of Council are elected together by mayors and city councilors of each municipality of the province. The Executive is chaired by the President (Commissioner) who appoint others members, called assessori. Since 2015, the President (Commissioner) and other members of the council will not receive a salary.[3]
In each province, there is also a Prefect (prefetto), a representative of the central government who heads an agency called prefettura-ufficio territoriale del governo. The Questor (questore) is the head of State Police (Polizia di Stato) in the province and his office is called questura. There is also a provincial police force depending from local government, called provincial police (polizia provinciale).
The Aosta Valley region is not divided into provinces due to its size, but straight to the comune level.
South Tyrol and Trentino are autonomous provinces, unlike all other provinces they have the same legislative powers as regions and are not subordinated to Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, the region they are part of.
Type
Based on the most recent legislation, contained in the law of 7 April 2014 n. 56,[4] the council and the presidents of the provinces of the regions with ordinary statute are elected by restricted suffrage by the mayors and councilors of the province's municipalities, while in the metropolitan cities, the equivalent of the president of the province is the (elective) mayor of the capital, called "metropolitan mayor".
There are other types of entities similar to the provinces in the regions with special statutes: the free municipal consortia in Sicily and the Sardinian provinces are governed by extraordinary commissioners appointed by the respective regional administrations, the autonomous provinces of Trentino-Alto Adige each elect its own president, and finally, in Aosta Valley, the functions of the province are carried out by the regional administration (whose president is elected by the regional council).
Sardinia — following the outcome of the regional referendums of 2012 it was decreed that such institutions should be reformed or abolished by March 2013 (thus remaining in office until 28 February 2013).[7] In January 2014 the Sardinian Regional Administrative Court declared "unconstitutional" the abolition of the Sardinian provinces, which occurred in 2013.[8] In 2016, Sardinian provinces were reformed by Sardinia regional executive: Cagliari became a metropolitan city; the provinces Olbia-Tempio, Ogliastra, Medio Campidano, and Carbonia-Iglesias were abolished.[9] In 2017, Regional council of Sardinia approved the institution of a new province, South Sardinia. It was formed by the municipalities of province of Cagliari that did not join to metropolitan city of Cagliari, and those which formed the provinces of Medio Campidano and Carbonia Iglesias.[10]
Friuli-Venezia Giulia — in 2016, the regional council of Friuli-Venezia Giulia approved a law which abolished the four provinces that formed the region, and replaced them by 18 territorial unions of municipalities.[12] In 2019, the regional council of Friuli-Venezia Giulia rebranded the four provinces as the four regional decentralization entities, with their own competences, powers, and capital.[13]
After the World War I, new territories were annexed to Italy. The province of Trento was created in 1923. Provinces of La Spezia and Trieste in 1923, while Ionio in 1924. In 1924 the new provinces of Fiume, Pola, and Zara were created, increasing the total number of provinces in Italy to 76.
Following the annexation of a part of Yugoslavia in 1941, during the World War II, the province of Zara was enlarged and joined the Governorate of Dalmatia (comprising the province of Zara, and the new provinces of Spalato, and Cattaro), while in the occupied central part of the present-day Slovenia the new province of Ljubljana was created. This lasted only until 1945, when Yugoslavia regained the lost territories after the end of the World War II.
After World War II
In 1945, after the end of the World War II, the province of Aosta changed its name to Aosta Valley and Littoria to Latina; the new province of Caserta was recreated.
Moreover, the province of Trieste was occupied by United States and British forces. The Italian Republic therefore had 91 provinces at its birth. The province of Ionio was renamed as Taranto in 1951, and in 1954 the province of Trieste was returned to Italy.
In May 2012, a referendum abolished the eight provinces of Sardinia, and this suppression was to take effect on 1 March 2013. On 6 July 2012, new plans were published to reduce the number of provinces by around half.[14] In January 2014 the Sardinian Regional Administrative Court declared "unconstitutional" the abolition of the Sardinian provinces.[15]
In 2014 the Delrio Law[16] transformed the provinces of Italy in a reduced number of broader administrative entities.[17]
In 2014 the Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Debora Serracchiani was the first Italian region to pass a law for abolishing its provinces, while implementing the national reform in the local administrative level.[17] The Friuli region has multiplied four provinces in 18 unions of the Italian administrative unit called comune.[18] After rejection of the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum, the provinces of Italy were still kept alive under provisions of the Delrio Constitutional Law to be merged in a smaller number of union of provinces.[19]
Province of Terra di Lavoro (Italian: provincia di Terra di Lavoro) (1861–1927). It was divided into the current provinces of Frosinone, Latina, and Caserta.
Province of Fiume (Italian: provincia di Fiume) (1924–1947). Created after World War I in Kvarner. Enlarged during World War II. It was occupied by Germany in September 1943 and it was administered as a part of the German Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral.
Province of Cattaro (Italian: provincia di Cattaro) (1941–1943). Created during World War II. It was a part of the Governorship of Dalmatia. It was occupied by Germany in September 1943 and partially annexed by the Independent State of Croatia.
Province of Rhodes (Italian: provincia di Rodi) (1923–1947) or Italian Aegean Islands (Italian: Isole italiane dell'Egeo). It remained nominally a part of the Italian Social Republic after the Italian capitulation.
Italian Libya was divided into four provinces and one territory (Southern Military Territory or Territory of Saharan Libya). From 1939 onward the provinces were a part of metropolitan Italy.
Province of Corsica (Italian: provincia della Corsica). Planned to be created after World War II Axis powers victory, with Petru Giovacchini as possible "governor".
Province of Ragusa in Dalmatia (Italian: provincia di Ragusa di Dalmazia). Planned World War II province to be created of the Italian-annexed Dalmatian territories that were areas of the ancient Republic of Ragusa.
Provinces in islands of Greece: provincia delle Ionie; provincia delle Cicladi; provincia di Samo. Planned World War II provinces to be created of the Italian-annexed islands of Greece (Ionian Islands, Cyclades, and Samos).
Provinces are often deemed useless by its critics, and many proposals have been made in the 2010s to eliminate them.[21][22][23] The difficulty of changing the Constitution of Italy and the opposition of groups of politicians and citizens halted any proposal of reform.[24][25]
In 2013, during his speech to the Chamber of Deputies, Enrico Letta, the newly appointed Prime Minister of Italy, announced that a revision of the second part of the constitution was needed, in order to change the bicameral parliamentary system and to abolish the provinces. The proposal, presented during the Renzi government, was rejected in the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum held on 4 December.
↑ Regio Decreto Legislativo n. 1/1927, 3 January 1927, "Riordinamento delle circoscrizioni provinciali".
Related Research Articles
The province of Carbonia-Iglesias was a province in the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy. It included the historical area of Sulcis-Iglesiente and it was the smallest province of Sardinia. It is bordered by the provinces of Cagliari and Medio Campidano. All three provinces have been suppressed by the regional decree in 2016, integrated into the newly founded province of South Sardinia.
The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the Italian Republic, constituting its second NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, five of which are autonomous regions with special status. Under the Constitution of Italy, each region is an autonomous entity with defined powers. With the exception of the Aosta Valley and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (2018–2020), each region is divided into a number of provinces.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, a bay of the Adriatic Sea.
Italian irredentism was a political movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Italy with irredentist goals which promoted the unification of geographic areas in which indigenous peoples were considered to be ethnic Italians. At the beginning, the movement promoted the annexation to Italy of territories where Italians formed the absolute majority of the population, but retained by the Austrian Empire after the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866.
Northeast Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency. Northeast encompasses four of the country's 20 regions:
The province of Pordenone was a province in the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, subdivided from the province of Udine in 1968. Its capital was the city of Pordenone. The province was abolished on 30 September 2017; it was reestablished in 2019 as the regional decentralization entity of Pordenone, and was reactivated on 1 July 2020. It has a total population of 312,794 inhabitants.
The province of Trieste is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Trieste. It had an area of 212 square kilometres (82 sq mi) and it had a total population of 234,668. It had a coastal length of 48.1 kilometres (29.9 mi). Abolished in 2017, it was reestablished in 2019 as the regional decentralization entity of Trieste, and was reactivated on 1 July 2020.
The province of Udine was a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia, with the capital in the city of Udine. Abolished on 30 September 2017, it was reestablished in 2019 as the Regional Decentralization Entity of Udine, and was reactivated on 1 July 2020. It has a population of 530,849 inhabitants over an area of 4,907.24 square kilometres (1,894.70 sq mi).
The Julian March, also called Julian Venetia, is an area of southern Central Europe which is currently divided among Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia. The term was coined in 1863 by the Italian linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli, a native of the area, to demonstrate that the Austrian Littoral, Veneto, Friuli, and Trentino shared a common Italian linguistic identity. Ascoli emphasized the Augustan partition of Roman Italy at the beginning of the Empire, when Venetia et Histria was Regio X.
The languages of Italy include Italian, which serves as the country's national language, in its standard and regional forms, as well as numerous local and regional languages, most of which, like Italian, belong to the broader Romance group. The majority of languages often labeled as regional are distributed in a continuum across the regions' administrative boundaries, with speakers from one locale within a single region being typically aware of the features distinguishing their own variety from others spoken nearby.
A regional council in Italy is the elected legislative assembly of a region of Italy. In Emilia-Romagna and Sicily, the legislative bodies are called the Legislative Assembly of Emilia-Romagna and the Sicilian Regional Assembly, officially nicknamed as Sicilian Parliament, respectively.
The Governorate of Dalmatia was an administrative division of the Kingdom of Italy established in from 1918 to 1920 and from 1941 to 1943. The first Governorate of Dalmatia was established following the end of World War I, given the London Pact (1915), and was disastablished following the Treaty of Rapallo. The London Pact also promised Italy part of Dalmatia. However, both the peace settlement negotiations of 1919 to 1920 and the Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson, who advocated self-determination, took precedence, with Italy being permitted to annex only Zadar from Dalmatia, with the rest of Dalmatia being part of Yugoslavia. Enraged Italian nationalists considered the decision to be a betrayal of the promises of the London Pact, so this outcome was denounced as a "mutilated victory".
Istrian Italians are an ethnic group from the Adriatic region of Istria in modern northwestern Croatia and southwestern Slovenia. Istrian Italians descend from the original Latinized population of Roman Histria, from the Venetian-speaking settlers who colonized the region during the time of the Republic of Venice, and from the local Croatian people who culturally assimilated.
Italian irredentism in Dalmatia was the political movement supporting the unification to Italy, during the 19th and 20th centuries, of Adriatic Dalmatia.
The Corpo della nobiltà italiana, sometimes referred to as CNI, is a private association established in 1957 to protect heraldic and nobility rights of Italian nobles after the republican constitution put an end to official recognition of nobility and noble titles.
The Metropolitan City of Venice is a metropolitan city in the Veneto region of Italy, one of ten metropolitan cities in Italy. Its capital is the city of Venice. It replaced the province of Venice in 2015 and includes the city of Venice and 43 comuni. It was first created by the reform of local authorities and then established by Law 56/2014.
The province of South Sardinia is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia, Italy, instituted on 4 February 2016. It includes the suppressed provinces of Carbonia-Iglesias and Medio Campidano, a large part of the old province of Cagliari, and two other municipalities.
1 2 Called "enti territoriali di area vasta". See "L'attuazione della legge 56 in ambito regionale"[The implementation of Law n. 56 in the Italian regions] (in Italian). 5 February 2016. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
