The State of Decentralization in Italy - Assignment Example

The hegemonic paradigm of the Italian administration focused more on conforming to the law rather than the results achieved. There was no big difference between politics and government. The main underlying idea is a shift from the hegemonic paradigm to a ‘solution’ termed New Public Management (NPM). The NPM sets out to achieve a vast array of objectives, the main one being decentralization. NPM also targeted to establish and incorporate a culture of strategic planning and management in all sectors of the economy.

Proposed and Actual Changes

The most significant areas targeted for reforms are devolution and administrative federalism, the reorganization of the central government, Civil Service Reform, and the simplification of regulatory and administrative procedures (Capano 789). Several changes were introduced in the name of innovative legislation. Law 421 local government level required the government to introduce measures of controlling finances at the local government level. According to legislative decree number 93, public employment had to be ‘privatized’ save for top managers, the Army, university professors, and ambassadors. In 1995, Law No. 273 was introduced to enforce efficiency in public administration. Local government managerial accounting was introduced as per Legislative Decree No. 77. Various laws were introduced in the years 1996, 1997, 1998 to 2001.

One of the crucial changes that took place is the creation of technical-operative structures. However, some of the aspects of the technical-operative structures had already been introduced in sectors such as the environmental field a long time ago. The country saw changes in the employment sector whereby, employees could use collective bargaining for better wages and implementation of pay-per-performance policies. Further, the process of simplification has become successful as concerns the eradication of certificates.

Implications for Governance

Most of the reforms exhibited hallmarks of the very public administration that reformers fought for. The process through which certificates were eliminated seemed more like the enforcement of the principles passed into law in 1968 rather than the implementation of the new laws. Implementation of the pay-for-performance concept was not done properly. Instead, the usual distributive mode was used. The government’s approach towards management and employees has been strengthened through the re-establishment of union bargaining. Traditional instruments have been used in the implementation of the reforms, although in an extreme manner. The result is a continuity of the ‘old’ policy strategy, rather than elimination.

Reflection
There was difficulty in accessing the exact results of the implementation of decentralization policies as provided by the various legislative changes. The memo is a summative overview of the decentralization of Italy’s administration in the 90s. Further research is necessary to understand how the ‘old’ administrative policies metamorphosed and continue to survive into the ‘new’ decentralization policies. Read More