Politica, amministrazione, spoils system. Il problema nell'evoluzione del Servizio sanitario nazionale

It is very well known that the spoils system was born in the United States and is the method how public managers are selected by the politicians. But, on a closer inspection, it’s true that the problem of the spoils system goes back a long way, at least to the birth of the State in the modern sense. This is because speaking about spoils systems means speaking about the general topic of the relationship between politics and administration. In the Italian legal system since the early 1990s, the principle of the distinction between politics and administration has gradually become generalized, as a result of which, in principle, it is up to the governing bodies to determine the political direction, while the administrative, technical and management functions are assigned to the management. The functional separation between the two areas corresponds to the attribution of the respective, distinct responsibilities. In this context, must be analyzed the problem of recourse to spoils system mechanisms for the assignment of managerial positions, which are based on the criterion of fiduciary assignment and are allowed only for top management roles. The role of the director general of healthcare companies is an integral part of the paper because to select him, it’s necessary to carry out the evaluation of the results of the administrative action.