Urbanities,
Vol. 4
·
No 2
·
November 2014
© 2014
Urbanities
48
Conclusion
The discussion of water management in Italy has highlighted how this specific sub-area of
society is complicated by structural difficulties in the relationship between law and society. It
has also highlighted the constitutional issues raised by the recent processes of privatization. In
this scenario the action of social movements is a form of resistance, the resistance of social
practices to the new economic regime of privatization. This resistance could produce a new
‘civil constitution’, in the sense that Teubner derives from David Sciulli (Sciulli 1992); that is,
to protect, in Law, a logic alternative to the dominant tendency to turn into law a rationality
based solely on economic maximization (Teubner 2008). In the area of water management the
‘civil constitution’ theorized by Teubner plays the traditional role of limiting the power of the
political apparatus, at the same time giving the right to water an opportunity to emerge as a
counter-institution in Italian society. This is possible, because as Teubner put it, ‘In nation
state contexts, for instance, the co-determination movement was successful in
institutionalising social active citizen’s rights in enterprises as well as in other social
organizations’ (2011: 206).
Thus, we can say that not only a private contract, as in the case of market-oriented
sector, but also an organized collective action can produce new constitutional principles — as
a constituent power — against mainstream (so-called) economic rationality. In conclusion, the
economic organization of the market for the management of basic public services such as
water which affect the quality of citizenship itself has apparently become the easiest way to
deal with this problematic. Perhaps, not equally easily can we say that this is the best course
of action. Given that the use of water is considered a fundamental right worldwide, is there an
alternative to the opposition public vs private? Should water management be dealt with from
an ideological or a practical viewpoint? What is to be considered more important: the popular
will and citizen’s interest in a good quality of life or the maximization of corporate profit?
Can these needs somehow be combined?
