ABSTRACT
Public management research in Italy is a recent development, concurrent with the administrative reforms and the devolution process in place since the early 90s. The distinctive national characteristics of the study of public management in Italy are explained in this chapter by considering three main issues:
• the historical evolution of public administration in Italy, including an analysis of characteristics preceding and following the political and administrative unification in 1861;
• the coexistence of competing disciplines in the study of public administration and the traditional domination of the administrative law approach;
• the recent influence of the Anglo-American managerial approach, New Public Management ideas, and the Italian managerial theory economia aziendale.
