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Community stakeholding, for managing local services
Adopting Community Stakeholding in other countries

The creation and operation of the company Belvedere S.p.A. represents a new way of thinking about the role of public administrations as agencies. A corporate organisation with citizens holding a direct stake can be applied in any context to make full use of local resources through investment. The political solidity of the public administration and the support of the local community are the vital elements for creating an enterprise structure of this type.

It is the public administration’s role to promote the public company and to manage it in the initial phases of the process. The progressive increase in the citizens’ shareholding must be carefully handled by the public administration. This is because the widespread shareholder base will only be feasible if the company has a solid structure and is operating on a sound business footing.




For success in this kind of resource management, it is necessary for the public administration to:


• identify a local resource that is of potential interest and that can be managed by the public administration through a public company. The evaluation of the potential resources must be undertaken by the local authorities with the participation of the community in order to create consensus and engender collaboration between the institutions and the social actors;
• show confidence in the capacity for local development, by investing in improving services and infrastructure and by supporting the forming of new enterprises that are willing to try community management approaches, such as co-operatives and public companies. Subsequently, these initiatives may attract fresh outside investment from private operators, so multiplying local development opportunities, creating new markets and enabling local enterprises to take an important position in an expanding market;
• maintain the public ownership of the company managing the local resource. Public ownership of the majority stake will enable decisions to be made about the timing and forms of public share offerings. The revenues generated and invested in the system must meet equitable distribution criteria that are not normally guaranteed under private ownership;
• develop a policy of public investment that will enable the material infrastructure to be increased, so raising the profit expectations of private investment and the scope for long-term growth;
• retain the primary objective of creating a company with a community stakeholding in order to strengthen the trust of private citizens in the policies adopted by the public operator and to consolidate the social infrastructure that is vital for local development.

Belvedere S.p.A. and the municipal authorities of Peccioli are available to provide technical assistance to countries wishing to adopt forms of corporate management based on community stakeholding.