Frazione


Frazione is the Italian name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune, the italian municipality; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere. It is cognate to the English word fraction, but in practice is roughly equivalent to "civil parishes" or "wards" in other countries.

Description

Typically the term frazioni applies to the villages surrounding the principal town of a comune. Subdivision of a comune is optional; some comuni have no frazioni, but others have several dozen. The comune usually has the same name of the capoluogo, but not always.
In practice, most frazioni are small villages or hamlets, occasionally a clump of houses. Not every hamlet is classified as a frazione; those that are not are often referred to as località, for example, in the telephone book. On some occasions, frazioni can be more populated than the capoluogo of the comune. Due to unusual circumstances or to the depopulation of the capoluogo, the town hall and its administrative functions can move to one of the frazioni: the comune still retains the name of the capoluogo.

History

Historically, many frazioni came into being during the Fascist era, when a major effort was made to consolidate and rationalize the territorial subdivisions of the country. Sometimes, a frazione represents a former comune that was believed to be no longer viable.
Until 2000, the central government established the frazioni and defined their borders, except in the case of the five autonomous regions, where this was controlled at the regional level. By the Legislative Decree 267/2000 to implement amendments to Title V of the Italian Constitution, the individual comuni now define the frazioni within their borders.

Countries using the term

Under the former legislation, a frazione had the option of having a prosindaco, who was appointed by the mayor of the comune, often on the recommendation of deliberative bodies such as the communal council or the giunta, or as a result of a petition by enough residents of the frazione involved; although there was no official provision for groups of frazioni joining forces with the appointment of a single prosindaco, the case was frequent enough. Under current law, however, Article 54 of the d.lgs. 267/2000 provides that a mayor may delegate mayoral functions at the frazione level to a councillor of the comune.
In many comuni, in addition to their advisory function, the frazioni are endowed with their own clerks and recorders of deeds, but do not maintain their own civil records.