Managing the Process of Decentralization: Transforming Old Public Entities into New Agencies in the Agricultural Sector

ABSTRACT

In an effort to reconfigure the system for the delivery of agricultural services, the Regional Government of Sardinia in Italy decided, in 2006, to suppress five public entities, and to establish three regional agencies in their place. Based on interviews conducted with managers and staff within these agencies, this article narrates the episode of implementing the organizational restructuring of this part of the regional government's agricultural policy. Drawing on this case, this article then presents an explanation of the process of carrying out organizational transformations (namely, mergers and demergers) within sub-national governments' administrative systems. The study finds that policy process features and context conditions figure prominently as explanatory factors for the path and outcome of the implementation of the organizational restructuring. On the whole, the research argument made in this article suggests some qualifications of existing generalizing arguments about the management of organizational transformations in the public sector.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alberto Asquer

Alberto Asquer ([email protected]) is Lecturer in Business Strategy and Policy at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Cagliari, Italy. His research interests mainly fall within the areas of the political economy of regulation and regulatory reforms, public policy implementation, and public management. Some of his studies have been published in Governance, Water Policy, Utilities Policy, and Competition and Regulation in Network Industries. He spent visiting periods at CESifo (Munich), Higher School of Economics (Moscow), and, as visiting fellow, at the European University Institute (Fiesole, Italy).