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The Influence of European Integration
European integration influences the Italian administration in three ways, directly or indirectly. Taking interests in account strengthens the organic links between national and community administrations ; it also leads, functionally, to the development of complex procedures which go through both levels — national and supranational. The role of public authorities in the economy is being modified : numerous old schemes and direct modes of intervention have been replaced by indirect ones. Centre-periphery relationships have changed too : a new system of competences — exclusive and concurring — is being set up, with numerous structural adaptations, new instruments, new interventions and objectives to be coordinated between various levels of government.

Administration and Politics in Italy : Contradictory Rationales.
In Italy, the history of the relationship between politics and administration is marked by substantive contradictions between the principle of ministerial responsibility and that of administrative impartiality. Successive reforms of the public dirigenza sought to reconcile these two rationales and to fight against the structural immobility and functional marginalisation of the highest level administration. The introduction of a majority system makes the need for counterbalances increasingly necessary, amongst which the most important is surely the guarantee of a non-partisan administration.