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The main objective of the paper is to address and explore a much-debated issue within the evaluation community: the idea of "democratic evaluation". What exactly is meant by this term? When can an evaluation be said to be democratic? Through the adoption of what behaviours should this ideal translate into concrete working practice? The essay aims to contribute to broadening the community's debate on these questions, which are central at a historical-political moment such as the post-emergence from Covid-19 and in the midst of an international crisis, that between Russia and Ukraine, which calls democratic evaluation into question in our country. On a general level, in fact, the situation of uncertainty due to the unpredictable effects of the pandemic, the social and economic crisis in the country and the consequent growing distrust of the citizens towards the administration seem to have increased the demand for accountability, leading to talk, as in the rest of Europe as well, of a "democratic deficit". On the other hand, recent administrative re-centralization, even assisted by current evaluative practices, only aggravates the inefficiency of public administration. Accountability, freedom and democracy are never given, they need to be defended, always regained: evaluation assumes a strategic role to this end; it can help bring citizens closer to public administration. The crisis between Russia and Ukraine is changing geopolitical balances; the effects of the war economy, inflation, the energy crisis, and the possible escalation of the conflict add to the uncertain situation due to the pandemic. New inequalities and an increase in poverty threaten to generate deep rifts in the country's socioeconomic fabric. Systemic shocks add to chronic problems: a demographic collapse, stagnation, job insecurity, and a lag in digitization. At the same time, the political system fails to represent and stabilize consensus over time. Governments also suffer from this instability, with the inability to design and implement structural reforms for the country, including that of the bureaucracy. Social complexity, chronic problems and systemic shocks, require the ability to apply effective public policies. State intervention and the ability of the bureaucracy to be efficient and responsive to social change are central issues for the health of democracy. Public policies move within a framework of very high complexity, in which the role of evaluation emerges, which should tend to the development of democratic accountability, illuminating decision-making choices through its methodological rigor, analytical capacity and scientific knowledge. The essay thus aims to address the potential of a democratic evaluation that can broaden the number of stakeholders, the field of values that are taken into account, the repertoire of research methods, the field of interest of policies, and the very definition of the objects of evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper elaborates the results of a research conducted on the use of the Development Contract by companies, an instrument that has become central to Italian industrial policy. What emerges is that the implementation of the contract tends to generate territorial differentiated networks of actors and interests. More specifically, the common thread concerns the role of individual companies in the formation and institutionalization of networks. The goal is to understand if and how the use of this tool has influenced the decision-making choices and competitive strategies of companies, triggering organizational modernization processes and facilitating development plans. Through the analysis of the investments made, it is therefore found that the Contract responds to three different functions, which in some cases are combined: an innovative function; a redistributive function, a containment function of industrial crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italian participation in the Multinational Force in Lebanon (Mnf) marked the first deployment of Italian soldiers outside the UN since the Second World War. The importance of the issue lies not only in the participation in the peacekeeping mission, but also in how and why Italy was invited to take part in it. The purpose of this paper is therefore to analyze the evolution of the events that led Italy to take part in the Mnf within the framework of her natural propensity towards the Mediterranean. Although a literature on Italian participation in the Mnf already exists, Italy's decision-making process can be analyzed in the light of new archival materials now available. Sandro Pertini's files of the Historical Archive of the Presidency of the Italian Republic and those of the Central Archive of the State of Rome, the Archives du ministère des Affaires Étrangères in Paris, the National Archives in London and the Margaret Thatcher Foundation Archive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asylum decision-making and discretion: Types of room for maneuver in refugee status determination. By mobilizing ethnographic methods to study the Swiss asylum administration, this article analyzes the discretionary powers of Swiss asylum caseworkers in a context characterized by an important sophistication of law. Starting from the observation that the daily work of asylum caseworkers is strongly oriented and controlled by their superiors and colleagues, by institutional rules and guidelines, as well as by their socialization, the author identifies different types of discretionary powers, on which caseworkers’ discretion rests. Consequently, he discusses how caseworkers perceive and use it differently, depending on the situation in which they find themselves. Thus, the article argues that asylum caseworkers have different types of room for maneuver according to their tasks, to the situations they are faced with, to the conditions in which they operate, and to their own characteristics (capitals, attitudes, experience). Eventually, the present contribution shows the relational and collective dimensions of bureaucratic discretion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]