Relazioni fra malagestione e dissesto degli enti locali: un caso-studio basato su interviste convergenti non-strutturate

This article aims to identify the possible relationships between maladministration linked to private purposes and bankruptcy of local authorities. For this purpose, following an extensive literature review of the possible causes of bankruptcy, a case-study is analyzed on the basis of unstructured, in-depth, convergent interviews aimed at corroborating the meaning of data extrapolated from accounting and legal documents. The available empirical research seems to have paid little attention to corruption phenomena as possible causes of local governments' failure. Following a thematic analysis of the contents of the interviews, this study identifies the adoption of harmonized public accounting as a revealing factor of pathological management practices that have lasted over time and, finally, resulted in the financial distress of the Municipality under study.