The puzzle of control systems in Italian ministries: matching policy problems, policy instruments and managerial techniques

The idea at the basis of this paper is quite ambitious: starting from a specific case study (the evolution of control systems in Italian Ministries) the aim of the present work is to put in a relationship the public policy analysis with the public management fields of study. Although the literature on this matter is relatively little, some authors tried to find some relationships between public management and public policy (see for instance Barzelay 2001, Peters 2000). According to Barzelay (2001) public management should become a proper field of public policy. Starting from the empirical research, this paper will try to interface these two fields of study highlighting the mutual advantages of the analysis: from one hand public policy analysis focuses the attention on the coherence between policy objectives and policy instruments while from the other hand public management approach contributes on the analysis of institutional rules through which public organizations are managed, controlled and motivated. This topic seems to be particularly appropriate in the case of Italian administrative reforms and, more exactly, in the case of the process of change in internal control system at ministerial level. Since the early nineties, in fact, Italian administration reform - partly for ―domestic reasons‖ (the reaction to the corruption scandals) and partly inspired by the New Public Management paradigm - has focused its attention on the distinction between politics and administration. Such a distinction is crucial at ministerial level. In fact, on the one hand, political power should define policy goals and priority agenda; on the other hand the administrative component has to transform the policy agenda into operational objectives. This process should be monitored and controlled by an internal body (SECIN – Servizio di Controllo Interno), entrusted with the internal control process. However, in the Italian case, the control process is failed. Peters (2000) argues that if we are consider seriously policy design, then we need to understand how to link tools, the management of tools and the problem they are design to solve; moreover he notes that Without understanding that any instrument must be managed and administered if it is to be successful, serious errors can be made in the selection of the instruments. From this angle, the research questions are as follow: Which was the match among policy problem, policy instruments and managerial tools? The selection of the instruments might be the reason of these failures? How can public policy analysis contribute to the public management studies? In order to answer this question a longitudinal case study has been carried out. Particularly, on the basis of national reports and using the participant observation research strategy (DeWalt et al. 1998), we analyze the evolution of control function at ministerial level.