The Politics of Public Administration Reform in Italy

This book provides a stimulating presentation of the Italian administrative system through an empirical and critical perspective on the processes of administrative reform at the national level. It focuses on some of the most recent changes developed during the years of austerity and fiscal crisis and offers an updated perspective on the attempts made by Italian governments to modernize national public administration through the 'new public management' and 'governance' paradigms. These frameworks have been suggested as models to enhance efficiency, transparency, accountability and public participation. The book studies international and supranational influence, policy diffusion, domestic politics and institutional dynamics, administrative traditions, and functional explanationsall determinants of policy outputs and outcomes, and possibly of policy learning as well. This book is the first to set out such a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis for non-Italian readers.

Examines administrative reforms in Italy, focusing on the waves that took place since the Nineties, and more specifically on the last five years Develops interpretations and explanations using the theoretical tools of policy analysis Argues that one of the most relevant problems of the Italian public service is the weakness of independent performance evaluation

Autorentext

Sabrina Cavatorto is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences (Dispoc), University of Siena, Italy. She carries out research in the field of European governance and public policy, and is particularly interested in the analysis of public discourse in the making of policies. She writes on the Europeanization of Italy, the policy of better regulation and the Parliamentarisation and politicisation of the European Union.
Antonio La Spina is Professor in the scientific sector of Sociology of Law, Deviance and Social Change (SPS/12) at the Luiss (Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali 'Guido Carli'), Rome, Italy. Among other topics, he writes on corruption, mafia-type organisations, analysis and evaluation of public policies, regulation, legislative decisions, development policies for the Mezzogiorno, social policy, poverty.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: the puzzle of administrative change.- 2. Pressures to reform and the impact of the fiscal crisis.- 3. Restyling public-management-inspired reforms.- 4. Fighting corruption.- 5. Obstacles to performance evaluation and improvement.- 6. Conclusions: Still risking implementation gaps.