The Craft of the Italian State: Public Administration Features and Trajectories in Italy in Political and Historical Context

This chapter provides the rationale for and outlines the contents of the book ‘Public Administration in Italy in Political and Historical Context - The Craft of the Italian State’ and of the two connected volumes ‘Public Administration and Management in Italy - The Profession and the Science’ and ‘Perspectives and Futures of Public Administration in Italy’. The three volumes aim at providing a systematic overview of public administration, public management and public governance in Italy from a fully interdisciplinary perspective. The purpose of these books is to provide the reader with an integrated overview and review of public administration in contemporary Italy and its transformation since the formation of Italy as a unitary state in 1861. The goal is to analyse the administrative system in Italy in its fundamental features and transformations over time, looking at the past—its cultural, political, legal roots—present—its distinctive features—and futures—challenges ahead and its (non-)capacity to cope with them. The volumes are developed around a theoretical framework which considers public administration within its historical and political context. This chapter provides an overview of the contents of the book Public Administration in Italy in Political and Historical Context: The Craft of the Italian State.