Abstract

The author offers an interpretation of the independent authorities which diverges from the one current in legal science and embraced both by those who regard the authorities as an means to renew and develop the protection of constitutional freedoms, and by those who regard them as a subversion of principle in the Italian organization of the public powers. The author contests in particular the utility of including provisions disciplining the independent authorities in the constitutional reform law. On the one hand, sanctioning the independence of the public power of the "authorities" would give fatal rigidity to a system of relationships whose principle quality is its flexibility and elasticity. On the other hand, if the independent authorities manifest a with-drawal from policy by the administration, the retreat from the principles and rules of administrative law should be regarded with suspicion, since it may attenuate the guarantees ordinarily afforded to citizens.