Atteggiamenti e percezioni della dirigenza ministeriale dopo le riforme: i circoli viziosi e l'innovazione difficile

The paper examines the reform process regarding the Italian Senior Civil Service (SCS) developed in the 1990s and early 2000s. On the basis of a qualitative analysis of top level executives' perceptions and attitudes, the article highlights the role of organizational culture as an obstacle to modernization and administrative change. Using the well- known Putnam's dichotomy between the «classical» and the «mod- ern» bureaucrat, it points out the main difficulties the SCS faces in the process of change. The emerging conflict among professional figures provided with different patterns of education, recruitment and ca- reer, and a widespread red-tape administrative culture do not allow full bureaucratic change. The result is a process of bounded organ- izational learning which only partially affects state bureaucracy.