Stefano Civitarese Matteucci

This essay aims to provoke some thoughts on the role of public administration in fundamental rights guarantee beyond that provided by the courts. Starting from the assumption that protecting rights requires a holistic approach on the part of the public power, an effort is made to highlight the imports of this idea on administrative organisation theory. The thesis of fundamental rights as indivisible and universal seems to bring about two consequences: fundamental rights are shielded from political bargaining, and bureaucracy is conceptualised as an independent institution tailored to guarantee the implementation of fundamental rights. Upon clarifying the critical points linked to this approach, the article discusses some downsides and limits of such an account of the idea of rights indivisibility. The risk of neglecting the collective and pluralist dimensions of social rights is a particular concern.