Accountability, organizzazione e rendicontazione sociale nelle amministrazioni giudiziarie italiane: alcune evidenze empiriche

Abstract

Accountability, Organization and Social Reporting in the Italian Judicial Admini-strations: Empirical Evidence. This article outlines the contents of social reporting of the Italian judicial admi-nistrations arising the analysis of a sample of thirty social reports. Before to show the findings of empirical research some issues are discussed as regards the theoretical framework of social reporting both in general and with particular reference to public organizations and the courts. By the theoretical framework and the analysis of reports come out two key-dimensions of reporting: accountability and organization, but some their variables are in the shadows or little depth. As regards the accountability the author points out some issues related to the absence of active involvement stake-holders’ forms in preparing social reports, benchmarking of the offices and the quality of judicial decisions while the organization he argues the need to improve the ability to tell the public some aspects of institutional life such as judicial policies, how offices work and the nature of judicial job. The author concludes his paper by arguing that the social accountability is all the more important as the judiciary is less opened to forms of political legitimacy and control and pointing out the benchmarking of the courts as a feasible substitute for judicial accountability whereas the political responsibility and market regulation are ill-adapted to control the performance of these particular types of public organizations.