Through the approaches to the analysis of the decision making process developed by H.D. Lasswell and H. Simon, the paper aims at demonstrating how the means and ends of decisions can hardly be distinguished. In the staged sequence of a decision, the same activity can be classified simultaneously as an end or as a means. This “discovery” has a clear value in the analysis of decision-making processes, particularly when technical committees or “technocracies” are operating, as in the case of the management of the emergency for the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy. The technical committee that supported the Italian government took decisions that were not merely instrumental but “finalized”, therefore as such they were of political value and they were political decisions.
