Why do Italy's public administrations work in such an unsatisfactory way? Why is the average quality of public services in Italy so low? Why is it widely believed that public sector workers work little and are a sort of ball and chain for the community? Questions that are repeated almost obsessively in the national press, and that reflect a key problem: the competitiveness of a country depends to a large extent on the services provided by public bodies and public services.

To attempt to answer these questions, the authors go back in time - to the dawn of the national State - before looking at the problems of today: historical analysis as a tool to interpret modern-day problems affecting society as a whole.

In the essays contained in the book an attempt will be made to dismiss some clichés, showing that the affairs of public administrations highlight the existence of a constant opposition between innovators and conservatives and looking at some key problems of the functioning of the public system: the low productivity of bureaucratic organisations; growing costs, almost never accompanied by an adequate improvement in services; damage caused by the heavy meddling of politics in the operations of administrations; the use of employment in public administrations as a bargaining chip for political consensus; the distance between citizens and administrations.
An uneven picture emerges which shows - even though the public system has changed, especially over the past two decades - that service levels are still inadequate in relation to the demands and needs of citizens. This shows that the quality of administrations is the most prominent political problem.

Table of contents

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7 Preface (download it here in Italian)
by Sergio Ristuccia
11 Preamble (download it here in Italian)
by Stefano Sepe, Ersilia Crobe

Part one. A "social" history of the administration

15 1. Seeking an identity: study of the administration
15 1.1. Problems
24 1.2. Administrative historiography in Italy
26 1.2.1. Recent developments

49 2. The main traits of the public administration in Italy
49 2.1. The «paternal» State and paternalistic administration
53 2.2. Changing functions and rigid models

65 3. Periodisation: a hypothesis
65 3.1. The specific nature of administrative history
70 3.2. The phases of administrative history

Part two. The role of bureaucracy in the country's history

81 1. Bureaucracy, an ill-considered term
81 1.1. Bureaucracy and parliamentarianism: an age-old polemic
85 1.2. Bureaucracy in the «nationalisation process»
90 1.3. Bureaucracy and administration: from osmosis to a difficult coexistence
94 1.3.1. At the roots of a progressive subalternity
99 1.3.2. The "few and well paid" ideal
102 1.4. Identity and image of public bureaucracies

115 2. The dimension of the bureaucratic phenomenon
115 2.1. An erratic trend
118 2.2. The stability of the early period
123 2.3. The three «waves»: from the end of World War I to today
130 2.4. From Piedmont prominence to the southward shift

Part three. The reform of the administration: from myth to reality

151 1. The gap between plans and actions
151 1.1. A never-ending debate
156 1.2. Administrative reform as a political problem
164 1.3. Areas of change: studies for the reform of the administration
172 1.4. A constant of reform projects: the principle of responsibility

179 2. Conservatives and innovators: an unequal struggle. Attempts at change within the administration
179 2.1. Organisation and procedures from Unity to the 21st century
184 2.2. Bureaucratic practices: continuity and turning points
189 2.3. The creation of a «national» administrative practice
199 2.4. Continuity and change: the «acceleration» of the Giolitti period
203 2.5. Utopians of the 1920s: the «Taylorism of the scribe»
208 2.6. 1950s proposals: the administration as a «services company»
222 2.7. The new utopians: the journal «Organisation techniques in public administrations»
226 2.8. An unlucky innovation: Organisation and methods offices
232 2.9. The "Yards" experience of the Public Works Department

Conclusions

249 Administrative form: a need for the Country.