The path of Italian administrative reform aimed at «reinventing» the State has been determined by certain factors — the recurrent «emergencies» of public finance, the rise of the majoritarian logic, the succession of grand plans of modernization and periods of silent resistance — that explain the discontinuous and contradictory nature of the changes. Compared to the original design, sketched in 1993-1994 and inspired by the separation between politics and administration, the subsequent reforms fluctuated between two competing visions of the administration: the administration as service to citizens, but also (perhaps, mainly) as obedience to political commands.