The Italian administrative system is currently perceived as one of the main obstacles to a higher growth of the productive system. We argue that some causes of this ineffectiveness are deeply rooted and date back at the unification: a missing strong administrative tradition; an (excessive) political influence over the administration; the relevance of the juridical culture. We discuss in detail one specific "product" of the administration, its civil justice system, its inefficiencies over time and the potential reasons behind it. We then detail how some "reactions" to these inefficiencies have been in some cases the sources of further problems: an excessive number of (often too complicated) laws and administrative acts; the growth of administrative corruption; the creation of "public" agencies formally external to the administration. It is possibly in some of these elements that the reasons for the difficulties met by the reform processes initiated since the 1990s should be searched.
Published in 2013 in: G. Toniolo (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy since Unification, Oxford University Press, New York 2013
