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Civil servants, economic policies and economic ideas: lessons from Italy

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 22:14 authored by Lucia Quaglia
Building on theoretically oriented and empirically grounded research on two key macroeconomic institutions in Italy, this article explains how and why civil servants can engineer major policy changes, making a difference in a country's trajectory. Italy provides a challenging testing ground for this kind of analysis, as it is generally portrayed as a highly politicized system in which political parties and politicians fully control public policies. Three general lessons can be learned, the first being that the role of civil servants in changing modes of economic governance depends on the resources that they master in the system in which they operate. Intangible assets are of primary importance in complex and perceived technical policies, such as monetary and exchange rate policy, which have high potential for technocratic capture. Second, in these policies, certain intangible assets, such as specific bodies of economic knowledge or policy paradigms, have a considerable impact on policy making. Third, besides interactions in international fora, the professional training of civil servants is a mainstream way through which economic policy beliefs circulate and gain currency, laying the foundations for policy shifts. By highlighting the importance of the intangible assets of macroeconomic institutions, this research makes an unorthodox contribution to the primarily economic literature on central bank independence.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Governance

ISSN

0952-1895

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Issue

4

Volume

18

Page range

545-566

Pages

22.0

Department affiliated with

  • Politics Publications

Notes

According to the ISI web of science, Governance is the number two journal in Public Administration and it is edited in the US. This article explains how and why civil servants can engineer major policy changes, making a difference in a country's trajectory. Empirically, it examines the evolution of two key institutions of macroeconomic policy in Italy: the Ministry of the Treasury and the Bank of Italy, presenting path breaking data concerning senior officials in these institutions, gathered by conducting an internal survey that is unique in its kind. Theoretically, by highlighting the importance of the intangible assets of macroeconomic institutions, this research makes an unorthodox contribution to the primarily economic literature on central bank independence. This research was funded by a Jean Monnet Fellowship at the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute in Florence.

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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