Shades of Technocracy: The Variable Use of Non-partisan Ministers in Italy

Abstract

This chapter deals with the phenomenon of technocratic ministers in a country where the ‘abdication’ of political parties from the key executive positions has been particularly manifest during the crises which have characterised the past three decades. However, this is not a totally new phenomenon: Non-partisan ministers had been appointed since the early decades of the Republic, when parties were strong and the coalition governance largely based on powerful partisan elites. The analysis demonstrates, therefore, a variety of reasons that have justified the appointment of different personalities, particularly from the bureaucratic elites, from the academic ranks and from the financial establishment. If the special case of the short-term ‘technocratic-led’ cabinets can be explained mainly by the presence of economic and political emergencies, the increasing number of non-partisan ministers in some specific key positions seems to be connected to the reduction of the scope and power of party machineries and to the process of personalisation of the executive, whose leaders proved more and more able to impose small ‘task forces’ of technocrats within the cabinet.