The selection of administrative staff in Italy and Germany: a comparative perspective

The contribution explores the selection procedures used in the Italian and German legal systems, in terms of access to public employment and with regard to career promotion. The comparative analysis is aimed at verifying whether the procedures used in Germany based on the «principle of selecting the best», promotions drawing mainly on internal staff and the «competitive federalism» system are an example to imitate, suitable for implementation in Italy. The apparent distances between the two systems suggest describing and comparing their features as «dichotomous pairs» in an attempt to establish through comparison whether the differences in selection procedures are real or apparent, or rather whether they are different paths pointing in the same direction.