The journal was founded in 1953 by Giuseppe Cataldi with the original name of The technique of organization in public administrations (La tecnica dell'organizzazione nelle pubbliche amministrazioni), then changed to The science and the technique of organization in public administrations (La scienza e la tecnica dell'organizzazione nelle pubbliche amministrazioni) and today known by its current name of Quarterly Journal of Administration Science. Studies on Social Theory and Research (Rivista Trimestrale di Scienza dell’Amministrazione. Studi di teoria e ricerca sociale). It was a period of exciting and complex reconstruction of the public institutions of our country as Italy was slowly re-emerging from the catastrophe of the Second World War.

In line with the constitutional dictates, the theme of "good administrative performance" – understood as efficiency – became a central theoretical and applicative node, as well as a fundamental sociological category for the analysis of complex public and private organizations. All this was possible by conceiving the administration science as a form of social analysis of the institutions. As recognised by Renato Treves since the 1960s, the science of administration was understood as a specific branch of the sociology of law and institutions.

During the 1980s, from a socio-political analytical approach and in an international perspective, the Journal has measured itself with the North American and European production on the subject. This line has been preserved until today, with the Journal itself becoming a privileged forum for the institutional examination of many social, political and economic realities.

The journal has always favoured interdisciplinary dialogue between the fields of general sociology, political sociology, political science, the sociology of cultural and communicative processes, the environmental sociology, administrative law, economics and management, promoting a scientific collaboration aimed at analysing social change in relation to the institutional dimension.

Multidisciplinarity is therefore a key element of this Journal and is pursued through scientific production and in the composition of the scientific and editorial committees, within which we have tried to give adequate representation to each soul of the Journal.

RTSA is an Open Access Journal that applies the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 to all published papers. This site uses technical cookies. Cookies policy.

©APRIS - Associazione per la promozione della ricerca sociale - Aut. Trib. Milano n. 301 del 17 giugno 2009. Direttore responsabile: Elisa Tricarico. ISSN 0391-190X, ISSNe 1972-4942