Sommario: 

1. Autonomia, funzioni e organizzazione. 

1.1. Lo Stato educatore: oltre un secolo di continuità. 

1.2. La lenta affermazione del modello autonomistico. 

1.3. Il prisma dell’autonomia. 

2. Autonomia e rappresentanza.

2.1. L’affermazione e il declino della rappresentanza organica. 

2.2. Il rapporto inverso tra rappresentanza organica e autonomia. 

3. Quali autonomie per le istituzioni scolastiche?

Abstract: 

Although school autonomy has been introduced in the Italian legal system since the Nineties, it still represents, on several counts, an evolving path. The essay recalls the major landmarks of that path from the pre-unitary period to the most recent legislation, intertwining it with the path of representation. Even if on the teaching side of autonomy a lot has been done, on the financial side there is still a long way to go. A reflection on how to decline autonomy in the plural, figuring autonomies based on adequacy, differentiation, and unity of the education system, seems useful in the perspective of completing that curved path and implementing the reform of the Nineties.