Public Management in Italy: The (Missing) Link Between Politics and Administration

Abstract

In Italy a specific legislation on administrative management has been belated and its rhetoric showed to be in contradiction with its practical translation. The relationship between management and politics has been characterized either by an excessive distance or by a pathological proximity or else by indifference towards the ends of the policies that the management should have interpreted. The senior civil service has thus self-excluded from the national elites and it has never really mobilized in the decisional spheres of the country. The essay analyzes, through four periodizing dates, the transformations of the senior civil service and its relationship with the political power in the 150 years of history since the unity of Italy.