Abstract
In the last thirty years, Local Governments all over Europe experienced an intense season of institutional change of unprecedented width and intensity.
This paper focuses on a neglected type of institutional change, a more indirect one - here labeled oblique-change – that however strongly influences the overall LG institutional change and local autonomy.
Taking 2012 as the climax of the austerity period in Europe and Italy as a pilot case for future comparisons, this article shows that oblique-change matters to a considerable extent, and that it is much more frequent and highly impacting than expected. Moreover, it argues that bradyseismic adjustments provoked by oblique-change may turn out in an equally profound change of the local government’s asset, as that induced by major reforms.