How to govern smart cities? Empirical evidences from Italy

The aim of this paper is to understand which is the role of local political entities in designing the best government and governance mechanisms for implementing the Smart city and enhancing the best citizens' participation. The research method is based on both a deep literature analysis and a large empirical survey. Literature analysis examines more than 700 scientific papers looking for theoretical frameworks about the role of political local bodies in governing Smart cities. Empirical survey analyses more than 100 Italian cities, further selecting the ones implementing at least one smart initiative to individuate best practices in government and governance mechanisms. Findings show that there are no standards or best practices till now, even if some interesting governance models are emerging. These interesting cases are deepen analysing governance bodies settled to govern Smart cities in a participate way.