Rome, 9 Aug. (LaPresse) – Massimiliano Cencelli, who during the Christian Democracy era devised the so-called ‘manual’ for the allocation of institutional posts that bears his name, has died in Rome at the age of 90. “More than the party leaders, Massimiliano Cencelli has always remained in the news; he has never left it and never will,” recalls Gianfranco Rotondi. His masterpiece was a manual that was as celebrated as it was, paradoxically, never published: the Cencelli manual assigned a ‘power score’ to every position of authority (minister, undersecretary, committee chair), enabling governments to be formed with a fair distribution of posts amongst allied parties and their internal factions. In fact, it is still in use, in the sense that the practice of dividing up posts still exists. Massimiliano made it a scientific process, and that was his greatest achievement – though not his only one: he was honest and loyal, like all the officials of the Christian Democrats, an organisation conceived and selected by Fanfani when he decided that De Gasperi’s party-movement should become the party-state. The rest is Italian history.”
Massimiliano Cencelli, creator of the ‘manual’, has died in Rome
Rome, 9 Aug. (LaPresse) – Massimiliano Cencelli, who during the Christian Democracy era devised the so-called ‘manual’ for the allocation of institutional posts that bears his name, has died in Rome at the age of 90. “More than the party leaders, Massimiliano Cencelli has always remained in the news; he has never left it and never will,” recalls Gianfranco Rotondi. His masterpiece was a manual that was as celebrated as it was, paradoxically, never published: the Cencelli manual assigned a ‘power score’ to every position of authority (minister, undersecretary, committee chair), enabling governments to be formed with a fair distribution of posts amongst allied parties and their internal factions. In fact, it is still in use, in the sense that the practice of dividing up posts still exists. Massimiliano made it a scientific process, and that was his greatest achievement – though not his only one: he was honest and loyal, like all the officials of the Christian Democrats, an organisation conceived and selected by Fanfani when he decided that De Gasperi’s party-movement should become the party-state. The rest is Italian history.”