According to New Political Governance (NPG) (Aucoin, 2012), politicization concerns “the substitution of political criteria for merit-based criteria in the selection, retention, promotion, rewards, and disciplining of... [ view full abstract ]
According to New Political Governance (NPG) (Aucoin, 2012), politicization concerns “the substitution of political criteria for merit-based criteria in the selection, retention, promotion, rewards, and disciplining of members of the public service” (Peters & Pierre, 2004, p. 2). In fact, the politics-administration dichotomy represents a formally accepted and frequently used model in many advanced countries, but, recently, it has proven incapable of capturing the reality of the public sector, where the distinction between political and administrative staff is more theoretical than real.
In this vein, this paper aims to investigate how politicians influence managerial activities in the Italian public sector contrasting three different segments: Regional Governments, Municipalities and Health-care.
The research is based on a questionnaire completed by 916 managers (568 working for Regions, 244 for Municipalities and 104 for the Health-care sector - which account for about 15% of managers in each of the three segments), using also a specific scale to measure political influence (Bellò and Spano, 2015).
The results show some similarities and differences in the way politicians exert their influence on managers’ activity in the three above cited segments. With regards to the similarities, politicians mainly influence what objectives must be given priority and the setting of action plans even though in Municipalities and Health-care sector the political influence is perceived to be stronger than at Regional level.
Some differences concern the role of the Evaluation Unit, which seems to be more independent from political influence in the Health-care sector than in the other ones. At Regional level politicians influence also the decision-making process and are not objective in evaluating managers’ individual performance; while in Municipalities and Health-care sector, politicians also influence the setting of operational objectives. In addition, in Municipalities politicians directly influence managerial activity; in the health-care sector politicians, while exerting their influence, apparently guarantee the independency of the Evaluation Unit.
Practical implications and research future perspectives are also discussed.
Aucoin, P. (2012) New political governance in Westminster systems: Impartial public administration and management performance at risk. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions. 25(2), 177–199.
Bellò, B., & Spano, A. (2015), Governing the purple zone: How politicians influence public managers, European Management Journal, doi: 10.1016/j.emj.2015.04.002.
Peters, B. G., & Pierre, J. (2004) Politicization of the civil service: Concepts, causes, consequences. In B. G. Peters & J. Pierre (Eds.), Politicization of the Civil Service in Comparative Perspective (pp. 1–13). Routledge, London.
