The enduring presence of groups and public enterprises in the Italian economy
- PDF / 245,702 Bytes
- 22 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 28 Downloads / 152 Views
The enduring presence of groups and public enterprises in the Italian economy Roberto Cafferata
Published online: 8 August 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2010
Abstract What was the presence of the State-entrepreneur in the Italian economy in the 20th century? Which forms did it assume? What is the weight of the Stateentrepreneur in Italy today? Trying to answer these questions, the author carries out an analysis through the historical method. His final thesis is that, notwithstanding the progressive pressures, which started in the 1990s, towards the privatization of national capitalism, the State-entrepreneur is still firmly present in the Italian economy, as if it had always to play a role in the country’s development. The results of the present investigation can turn out to be of interest both to scholars and to policy makers who are committed in the effective implementation of actions aiming at favouring, for the country’s welfare, a careful and balanced relationship between public and private powers. Keywords Italy’s economy Historical analysis Public enterprises State-entrepreneur Privatization
1 Introduction 1.1 What was the presence of the State-entrepreneur in the Italian economy in the last century? Which forms did it assume? What is the weight of the Stateentrepreneur in Italy today? Not only economists, but also many scholars in the field of management have committed themselves in the lively debate on the relationship between public and private in the capitalist system. In the present contribution we deal with this theme through a methodology of historical analysis and critically discuss the development R. Cafferata (&) Department of Business Studies, Faculty of Economics, University of Rome ‘‘Tor Vergata’’, Rome, Italy e-mail: [email protected]
123
200
R. Cafferata
of the State-entrepreneur in Italy from the beginning of the 20th century to recent years. Our central thesis is that, notwithstanding the progressive pressures towards privatization, which started in the 1990s, the State-entrepreneur is still firmly present in the Italian economy, as if it had always to play a role in the country’s development. On the one side, the investigation can usefully contribute to the implementation of the know-how of what the economic literature has actually been acquired on this subject. On the other side, the results can turn out to be of a certain interest to those scholars and policy makers who are today committed in the effective implementation of actions aiming at favouring, for the country’s welfare, a careful and balanced relationship between public and private powers. 1.2 Two premises are necessary in the discussion about the presence in Italy, in the past and at present, of widespread cases of State-entrepreneur. The first concerns the original characteristics of public intervention in the Italian economy: (a) it started very early, in the sense that the State gave a crucial contribution, between 1895 and 1914, to the formation of the ‘‘industrial base’’ of the coun
Data Loading...
