Strategic Planning and Management in Italian Public Administrations

This chapter analyzes the evolution in the reforms and practices related to strategic planning and management in Italy. It does so by analyzing trajectories in the levels of diffusion and in typologies, drivers, and barriers to different approaches to strategy; distinguishing them across levels and functions of government (central versus local administrations; policy sectors), waves of reforms across time, and connections with other management tools, such as performance management. The analysis enables a framing of the complex and multifaceted layers of strategy making in Italy, where local and health units have started engaging in strategic management long before a normative compliance was present, as opposed to central administrations. Our conclusions point to the new centrality of a balanced approach to strategy across levels and functions of government, in the face of the challenges posed by the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience plan and security concerns.