The reform of the Italian public administration is one of the enabling objectives of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) drawn up by the government to revitalise the country’s economy following the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the main objectives identified by the Plan is, therefore, the implementation of a reform of the administrative apparatus, in order to improve the administrative weakness of the Italian public sector which over the years has been an obstacle to the overall development of the country.
The efficiency of the administrative apparatus is seen as indispensable, and therefore enabling, for the success of the Plan itself, since it is envisaged that numerous projects will be implemented and many works carried out within an extremely tight and complex timeframe, given the historical performance of the Italian public administration.
In drafting the simplification of public administration in the Italian PNRR and, above all, in defining its central and innovative aspects, account was taken of the fact that the results achieved by the structural reforms of the Italian public administration over the years have always been partial, unable to provide Italy with a performing administrative apparatus.
The PNRR, therefore, appears to be an attempt at reform which, through a simplification of administrative procedures, the overall digitalisation of administrative systems, a new management of public personnel and a governance enabling the Government to replace public offices at all levels when they slow down the executive process, aims, by learning from the mistakes of the past, to make the Italian administrative apparatus efficient and competitive.
The above appears to be the starting point of this contribution which, starting from an analysis of the public administration reform envisaged by the Italian Plan for Recovery and Resilience, that highlights its strengths and weaknesses, carries out a historical-political reconstruction and an analysis of the various reforms that Italian governments have adopted over the years to improve the administrative system.
In fact, the relationship between administrative reform in terms of simplification and the possibility of being able to access a large amount of funds to relaunch the socio-economic development of the country imposed by Brussels, requires a rethink of the entire European institutional architecture and a new vision of the relationship between central government and local administrations in the Italian scenario