[Rezension zu Francesco Invrea: Il comune e la sua funzione sociale]

Municipal Autonomy and Social Administration

Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen’s 1903 [Rezension zu Francesco Invrea: Il comune e la sua funzione sociale] examines Invrea’s account of the municipality’s constitutional position and social responsibilities, especially in Italy. The review presents the movement toward municipal autonomy as a response to state centralization and to the inadequacy of an increasingly extensive state administration.

Following the book’s two-part structure, Schullern first considers the municipality’s relationship to the state and its internal organization. Invrea’s emphasis on the referendum links expanded local autonomy with popular oversight: municipal independence requires institutions through which inhabitants can control administration.

The second part concerns social activity, distinguishing the municipal operation of public utilities, including water, lighting, and transport, from measures protecting workers. Schullern particularly values the treatment of worker protection and draws attention to municipal labor offices. Fiscal arrangements remain a comparatively compressed element of this account:

Endlich werden noch Fragen der kommunalen Finanzpolitik kurz angedeutet.

English translation: Finally, questions of municipal financial policy are also briefly touched upon.

The appendix extends the discussion of labor administration by comparing Italian municipal labor offices with their more narrowly defined German counterparts. The Brescia example gives such offices a remit beyond employment placement, encompassing measures for workers’ moral and material advancement. Municipal social policy therefore appears as an active administrative responsibility, not merely the provision of infrastructure.

The review closes by identifying the practical documents that complete Invrea’s institutional analysis:

Den Schluß des lehrreichen und sorgfältig gearbeiteten Buches bildet das Statut des Arbeitsrates und des Arbeitsamtes von Vercelli und das Verwaltungsstatut des Gemeindegasamtes von Asti.

English translation: The conclusion of this instructive and carefully wrought book is formed by the statute of the labour council and the labour office of Vercelli and the administrative statute of the municipal gas office of Asti.

The evaluative wording registers Schullern’s favorable judgment of the book’s instruction and care. His concise review connects autonomy, public oversight, utilities, and worker protection, while the concluding statutes ground these themes in concrete forms of municipal organization.