Traditionally, ministerial recruitment in Italy has been undertaken mainly from within the political field, involving what can be called ‘insider’ politicians. This was true not only during the First Republic (1946-1992), when political parties were the exclusive selectors of the ministerial elite, but also during the Liberal period (1870-1925) and even under the authoritarian regime (1925-1945). However, over the two last decades, the percentage of ‘outsiders’ has increased significantly, not only because of the Europeanization of key political issues and decisions, but also because of the crisis of the so-called partitocrazia, which came about as a result of the ‘clean hands’ process. Over the last twenty years, there have been few prime ministers who can be considered insiders such as Massimo D’Alema and Giuliano Amato. Many recent prime ministers have been hybrid figures such as Romano Prodi, Silvio Berlusconi, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (an outsider who led a technical/political government in 1993-1994); and Lamberto Dini (1995-1996) and Mario Monti (2011-2013?), who both led entirely “technical” governments. This paper focuses on aim to analyze the following questions in this context: what has been the evolution of the relationship between insiders and outsiders over the different periods outlined above; what are the main differences between the two kinds of ministerial elites; and, finally, in which ministries is one most likely to find one or another kind of minister.
