Can mandates shape inter-municipal collaboration? : the Lombardy case

This paper seeks to assess the internal efficacy of the public policies designed to stimulate inter-municipal partnerships, adopting a perspective of the organisational type. Empirical data for the Lombardy Region in Italy shows that, despite the availability of funding and support from the regional administration to promote collaboration at local level, municipalities deliver only 16% of services in associative form. Lombard councils are reluctant to pursue more structured forms of cooperation and to share “internal” and/or strategic functions. Generally, extant local partnerships evolve very slowly. The paper claims that the general assumption of the mandates (i.e. more financial incentives = more collaboration) is deceptive and offers some preliminary answers to the question of why these incentives play a tactical not a strategic role in driving the creation and development of collaboration