Parties, Public Administration, and Their Changing Relationships in Italy

In this chapter, we analyse the change in the relationships between public administration (PA) and parties due to the different macro-processes in Italian democracy. We do it by pointing to the macropolitical frames that set the context of those relationships and starting with the two critical junctures that Italian democracy has had during the last eighty years. They are World War Two and the end of the Cold War with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of USRR. We point out the consequences and characteristics of those connections between PA and parties within the macro processes that Italian democracy underwent during these decades. Thus, the first macro-process, the democratic consolidation, is characterised by a critical role of parties, fragmentation regarding the connection not only with the PA but also with all other agencies and, at a subnational level, essential stability. The second macro-process, the crisis and change after the fall of the Berlin Wall, is differently characterised by a dominant role of party leaders and consequent personalisation, fragmentation regarding different incumbent leaders, and a higher instability depending on the duration of government. In the conclusions, we address some critical questions ahead of us.