Abstract

The reiterated presentation of motions of personal no confidence with regard to State under-secretaries prompts recalling doctrine's attention to the problem of the political responsibility of these institutional figures, especially in view of the incisive importance that these political events actually have had on the organisation and on the balance of power of the Government. This contribution, after an overview of the state of the doctrine on State under-secretaries, sets out to analyse the praxis in the matter of the (supposed) political responsibility of under-secretaries, then going on to also highlight the partial inadequacy of the normative provisions with respect to the by now consolidated political reality, by dint of the need to rethink the role of the under-secretaries within the framework of the legal-constitutional system. Particular attention is then given to the 'Bertolaso case', as an emblem of the problematic aspects that emerge from a comparison of the normative datum in the matter with the hard political realty.