I Comuni e l'esternalizzazione dei servizi pubblici locali: opportunità e rischi

OUTSOURCING IN THE LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICES: BENEFITS AND RISKS IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF MUNICIPALITIES. In modern society, local public services are key-factors in defining people’s life quality and in strengthening opportunities of communities’ economic growth. The choice of proper provision patterns is included in Municipalities’ tasks and it’s a crucial phase in order to guarantee the essential services universality. The liberalization and the privatization processes, that have characterized local utilities for the last two decades, seem to encourage Municipalities on the way of the outsourcing. But this solution, like all the other provision patterns, isn’t without weaknesses. Starting from those premises, this paper first objective is to analyze the main potential benefits and risks of outsourcing, compared with the direct provision. Then, the theoretical analysis findings are compared with some Italian Municipalities’ experiences; the second objective is to verify if Italian Municipalities are aware of outsourcing pros and cons and adopt this provision pattern fruitfully.