The view prevailing among legal scholars - and endorsed in this paper - is that the coming into force of the reform of Title V, Part 2, of the Constitution introduced a multi-polar institutional framework in Italy, in which the various bodies making up the Republic are on an equal footing. Accordingly, this has made it necessary to re-consider the relationships between Regions and Local Authorities, which should rely on increasingly co-operative models. Regions are called upon to become policy-making bodies in charge of steering and planning activities for the respective territories. Given this scenario, the need is highlighted to introduce suitable decision-making, planning, and monitoring tools that can ensure an integrated system of governance. In particular, concerted action mechanisms should be implemented as regards the various entities concerned in order to determine the objectives, the procedures applying to Local Government, the responsibilities vested in the individual entities, and the co-operation mechanisms between Regions and Local Authorities. This is aimed at ensuring a certain degree of uniformity at regional level in a multi-tiered system that has to reconcile the requirements of differentiation resulting from the enhanced potential of locally autonomous bodies with the need to safeguard uniformity and consistency of the regional system
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