The citizens reporting: a comparison of Italy and USA

During the last decade the Italian local governments have become more interested in giving greater attention toward external accountability. This has given rise to the introduction of reporting tools aimed at satisfying citizens’ information needs. This article analyzes the model of Popular Reporting adopted by the City of Milan in comparison with that of the City of Memphis. The objective of the article is to verify if the structure and contents in the City of Milan report are suitable to transmit technical information to non technical readers, i.e. the citizens. Although the authors of the article consider the Milan experience positive, they do suggest the definition of a specific structure for the document, the involvement of the citizens for the writing up of some part of the document and the drawing up of the Citizen’ Report at the end of each fiscal year.