Research: The political role of consultancy: Implications for politics and the public sector.
This research project explores the political role of external consultancy in governance processes and contemporary political configurations. The analysis focuses primarily on the Italian context, as it has been the subject of very few studies and is an excellent example of a post-democratic regime.
Taking a broad view of decision-making, the research examines the increasingly frequent use of external consultancy by governments, public administrations, and political parties. In the first two cases, multinational management and accounting consultancies mainly support the public sector in all areas and phases of activity. The decision to outsource public functions, skills, and services is consistent with changes introduced by neoliberalisation processes and reforms inspired by the theory of New Public Management. Neoliberal ideology considers the state incapable of generating value and synonymous with inefficiency. Consistent with the above, the characteristics of post-democratic reality and the extremisation of the competitive theory of democracy lead political parties to outsource essential functions and competencies. This highlights the importance of the communicative and ideological dimension of politics, as well as the growing role of external political consultancy.
Based on these considerations, the analysis interprets consultants as agents of neoliberal hegemony. The consulting industry disseminates practices and values derived from economic discourse to the aforementioned three subjects, performing a hegemonic function that facilitates the creation of cognitive isomorphism. This has two consequences: firstly, through their discourse, consultants influence politics and public management, helping to determine the regime of truth. Secondly, by selecting the means and ends of their actions, they reduce complexity and predispose possible solutions.
The intention is to investigate the effects of this political role. The perspective is that of privatisation of the public sector and politics, which is inconsistent with representative democracy. This has a negative impact on the skills, knowledge, values and cognitive tools of the aforementioned actors, as well as on the representative relationship and creative capacity and political innovation.