Parliaments are the institutions through which governments are held accountable to the electorate by overseeing the executive power and performing both lawmaking and policymak-ing activities. Parliamentary administrations as staff provide support to the organization out-side the operating work flow. According to Neoinstitutional theory organizations tend to model themselves after similar organizations in their field that they perceive to be more le-gitimate or successful. Institutional pressures may lead organizations to adopt the same organ-izational arrangements. Mimetic change is an organizational response to uncertainty. The de-velopment of politicians’ and administrators’ roles and the unfolding of their relationship is a distinctive element of the public sector evolution over time. The dichotomy model does not define the total relationship between politicians and administrators which can be conceived as complementary so that implies distinctness but the emphasis on how each contributes to the whole: politicians may freely make decisions but cannot deny the advisory role and policy-advising activity of the administration. Historically institutional pressures have over time in-fluenced the organizational design and mechanisms of governance within Italian parliamen-tary administrations. In relation to increasing operational complexity and professionalism of parliamentary staff the role of top administrators evolved from advisory to management task. Historically mechanisms of governance shape and redesign the relationship between politi-cians and administrators leading to separation or interrelation of roles.

Governance and historical evolution of Italian parliamentary administrations

ROMANELLI, Mauro
2012-01-01

Abstract

Parliaments are the institutions through which governments are held accountable to the electorate by overseeing the executive power and performing both lawmaking and policymak-ing activities. Parliamentary administrations as staff provide support to the organization out-side the operating work flow. According to Neoinstitutional theory organizations tend to model themselves after similar organizations in their field that they perceive to be more le-gitimate or successful. Institutional pressures may lead organizations to adopt the same organ-izational arrangements. Mimetic change is an organizational response to uncertainty. The de-velopment of politicians’ and administrators’ roles and the unfolding of their relationship is a distinctive element of the public sector evolution over time. The dichotomy model does not define the total relationship between politicians and administrators which can be conceived as complementary so that implies distinctness but the emphasis on how each contributes to the whole: politicians may freely make decisions but cannot deny the advisory role and policy-advising activity of the administration. Historically institutional pressures have over time in-fluenced the organizational design and mechanisms of governance within Italian parliamen-tary administrations. In relation to increasing operational complexity and professionalism of parliamentary staff the role of top administrators evolved from advisory to management task. Historically mechanisms of governance shape and redesign the relationship between politi-cians and administrators leading to separation or interrelation of roles.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11367/22598
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