The Department for the reform of the public administration was set up in 1950 in order to elaborate proposals aimed at the modernisation of the structure and methods of work ín the admi-nistration. This Department put forward some signíficant and long-sighted suggestions regarding the competencies of Govern-ment, the reform of the Prime Minister's office, administrative procedures, decentralization and internal organization of the Mini-stries. The proposed rules on the normative status of civil servants developed in the Commission chaired by Santoro Passarelli were particularly interesting. These innovative proposals, nevertheless, did not have any follow-up and the Department was dismantled. Based on documents filed in the Central State Archives, this essay examines the rise and fall of the Department for the reform of the public administration in the 1950-51/1957 period.