Civil Service Reforms in Italy: The Importance of External Endorsement and Administrative Leadership

The traditional portrait of civil servants in Italy, as well as in most European countries and possibly even further afield, has always been one of non particularly efficient employees, yet have the benefit of a secure job and can look forward to a comfortable retirement package. In order to change this image, public management reforms have largely focused on civil servants since the early 1990s. However, many academics and practitioners claim that the reforms were never actually implemented in the public sector. By adopting a conceptual framework based on New Institutionalism, we aim to identify the determinants of failure in Italy’s public management reforms. We analyze data from 885 Italian municipalities expected to adopt the pay system reform for senior officials, which was passed by the national legislature. Our findings stress the importance of accrued legitimacy, external public endorsement and the influence of key internal stakeholders (like administrative leaders) as major vehicles to promote or slow down the implementation of administrative reforms in the public sector