Focusing on the administrative examination of applications for Italian naturalisation, the article aims to understand how the ‘highly discretionary powers’ granted to the relevant office by law are exercised in practice. To this end, it adopts a relational approach to implementation, considering two key actors: bureaucrats and lawyers. The analysis is based on multi-sited research, including observation within the Central Department for Citizenship at the Ministry of the Interior and within a digital self-help forum for migration and citizenship lawyers, which is hosted by a professional association. The article demonstrates the indirect effects of legal activity and court decisions on the work of caseworkers, as mediated by organisational and technical changes initiated by the administration. It also sheds light on the intertwining of moral, technical, and organisational elements within the relational implementation of citizenship policy.

Daniela Trucco, Bureaucrats and lawyers in the implementation of Italian naturalization: a relational approach to ‘highly discretionary powers’, Political Research Exchange, 2026