Structure of the Presentation 1. “ Decentralisation” Concept in Literature

1. Public Sector Management Innovation and Customer Satisfaction: an Italian case studyfrom a Japanese perspective Prof.Dr.Hiroko Kudo Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy and Faculty of Law, Chuo University, JAPAN hirokokd@tamacc.chuo-u.ac.jp H.Kudo@IPA Conference

2. Structure of the Presentation 1. “Decentralisation” Concept in Literature 2. Italian Local Administration System 3. Reform of Regional System 4. Peculiarity of Special Autonomous Regions 5. Case Study on CS in Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region 6. Findings and future Research Questions H.Kudo@IPA Conference

3. Research Interests 1. What Japanese decentralisation policy can learn from experiences from Italian Regional administration reform 2. Impact of constitutional/legal reform on managerial aspects 3. Relationship between autonomy and managerial innovation 4. Possibilities and issues of Special Autonomous Regions in terms of autonomy and management Research Questions 1. Is there a link between stronger autonomy and managerial innovations? 2. Does managerial innovations result in innovations of service delivery? 3. Is there a link between attention on service delivery and customer satisfaction? H.Kudo@IPA Conference

4. What is Decentralisation? 1. “devolution”: political power shift from the centre (State level) to periphery (local level), often used in political context rather than economical, financial, and/or administrative context, includes, guaranteeing political representation at local levels, local elections, citizen participation, and accountability among others 2. “delegation”: deals with administrative function and competence, including decision-making on policy, responsibility on public finance, and financial resource from central to local governments 3. “de-concentration”: multiplication of decision-making power 4. “decentralisation”: something to do with power, structure, institution, function, process, service delivery, and participation, its scientific definition points out that it consists of political as well as financial decentralisation H.Kudo@IPA Conference

5. Benefits and Issues of Decentralisation 1. rationalize expenses in local governments 2. bring citizen closer to government and activate participation 3. respond and act more quickly to the needs of citizen 4. improve public service 5. there is a “cost” generated by changing power, structure, institution, function, process, service delivery, and participation 6. generates more decision making units and decision making time 7. integration difficulty, which might develop into divisionism view 8. might cause differences among various units and widen negative differences 9. might produce different standards for business practices and administrative processes in different places H.Kudo@IPA Conference

6. Italian Local Governments Structure 1. Region (“Regione”): 20 15 ordinary regions and 5 Autonomous Regions with Special Statute, Constitutional reform in 2001, many functions delegated from the State, rather young administrative unit among others, fiscal decentralisation incomplete 2. Province (“Provincia”): about 100 limited functions, budget, and HR, influenced by recent reform of the regions, dual structure (State representative and directly elected representative) 3. Municipality (“Comune”): about 8100 differs in its size and characteristics, most ancient and the strongest institution, 4.614 (60%) have 3.000 or less inhabitants H.Kudo@IPA Conference

7. Historical Background • 1. Constitution (1948) • 2. Political and financial rules for functions of ordinary regions (1968) • the first phase of the regions’ life is strongly marked by a political and administrative management subordinated to the central government’s decisions and limited by the historical incidence of the municipalities • 3. Pressures for a greater autonomy Federalist trend (since ’90s); • influenced by the integration of European Union and domestic institutional decentralization, stressing autonomy in determining taxes amount • 4. Constitutional reform on Regions (2001) H.Kudo@IPA Conference

8. Case Study 1. case of Friuli-Venezia Giulia Special Autonomous Region 2. CS assessment based on the SERVQUAL methodology 3. legal advice provided by the Region to local governments Research Method 1. document analysis and questionnairesdirected to mayors, commissioners, city managers, department managers and middle managers 2. analysis based on respondent not on municipality 3. in the SERVQUAL methodology 22 statements measure service providers’ performance across 5 “standard” dimensions (i.e., tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy), using a 7-point Likert scale measuring both users’ expectations and perceptions H.Kudo@IPA Conference

9. Analysis 1. The satisfaction was measured both in terms of gaps (expectation minus perceptions) and ratios expressed on a zero-ten scale (perceptions/expectations x10) 2. Gaps and ratios were calculated for each of the questions and, then average ratios were for each of the four dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy) 3. Each dimension was rated by respondents in % Notes 1. 133 municipalities have less 10,000 inhabitants (80.6%) 2. only 32 have more than 10,000 inhabitants (19.4%) H.Kudo@IPA Conference

10. Prelimary Results 1. results are not yet public, therefore there is an ongoing “embargo” on details and figures??? 2. in general, positive results for management of regional consultation 3. high satisfaction for the on-line data bank among 3 modalities 4. resistance for the elimination of Regional Control Committees; local governments want solutions, not only alternatives Findings 1. there is a link between stronger autonomy of the region and the managerial innovations 2. managerial innovations result in innovations on service delivery 3. there is a link between attention on service delivery and customer satisfaction 4. accountability is one of the most important elements of higher satisfaction toward the administration H.Kudo@IPA Conference

11. Remaining Questions and future Research Projects 1. Italian peculiarity or common features of decentralisation?: need to extend to other countries 2. Limitation of one case study: need to extend to other Regions (Special Autonomous Regions and Ordinary Regions) 3. Type of services?: need to extend to other services, including public services to citizen? H.Kudo@IPA Conference

12. Thank you for your attention!Questions and Comments? Prof.Dr.Hiroko Kudo Graduate School of Public Policy and Faculty of Law, Chuo University, JAPAN hirokokd@tamacc.chuo-u.ac.jp H.Kudo@IPA Conference