The social and political bases of political economy: interpreting and periodising Italian developments since WWII

ABSTRACT

We investigate the transition between Fordism and neoliberalism in Italy employing insights from International (IPE) and Comparative Political Economy (CPE). Transitions are key periods to observe how countries tend to converge towards similar political economy developments through processes of social, political and institutional adaptation. We contribute to the literature by detailing how transformations in the ‘social and political bases of political economy’ influence institutional change. We understand these transformations as movements from below (changes in sociodemographic and productive compositions, and social movements) and above (agency in political parties, trade unions, business associations and elites); we name these components ‘the social and productive composition’ and ‘the social and political representation sphere’ respectively. Employing process tracing, we identify three historical periods in post-WWII Italian political economy – state Fordism (1945–78), a transitional period we name ‘the long 1980s’ (1979–91), and neoliberalism (1992–) – delineated by two historical ruptures: a breakup moment in 1978–9 that signalled the decline of Fordism, and a critical juncture that ushered in neoliberalism in 1992. Analytically, changes within the social and productive composition during state Fordism impacted on the social and political representation sphere, and on several reforms undertaken in different institutional domains. However, since the breakup moment 1978–9 this dynamic changed together with the international political economy context. Similar to other western countries, the main actors within the social and political representation sphere increasingly approached institutional regulation inspired by neoliberal ideas, while the pressures coming from the more active forces within the social and productive composition faltered.

KEYWORDS:

• International political economy
• comparative political economy
• Fordism
• neoliberalism
• Italy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Neo-Gramscian contributions investigated processes of neoliberalisation engaging with globalisation (for a summary, Talani 2014, pp. 14–75) and European integration (Mittelman 2000, Overbeek 1993, Ryner and Cafruny 2016, Van Apeldoorn 2003, Van der Pijl 2005).

2 Gramsci (‘Analysis of situations. Relations of force’) provides key insights for our framework. We refer to the connection between international and social relations and to the three moments which characterise the relation of forces. For a Gramscian analytical framework applied to the study of contemporary Italy, see Talani (2017).

3 Italy was a fertile territory for liberalism in the 19th and 20th century, with prominent figures like Ferrara, Pareto, Pantaleoni and Einaudi. The Scuola di Torino – with Einaudi as prominent representative – contributed to the development and notoriety of Italian liberalism (e.g. with the active contribution in the foundation of Bocconi University, Masini 2012). During the post-war period the neoliberal movement globally built networks and think tanks that later contributed to its ideological pre-eminence (Mirowsky and Plehwe 2009). However, the Italian movement did not develop at a similar pace because of the repression instilled by Fascism and the unfavourable political context after WWII. Despite the prestigious posts occupied by Einaudi and Jannacone, Italian liberalism remained marginal in the cultural and political life of the country until the 1980s.

4 Tickell and Peck (1995) employed this concept to define state intervention in France and considered Italy instead as a case of late Fordism.

5 With the exception of the brief Fanfani VI government (1987).

6 During the period of mass mobilisations in 1972 the three unions reached an agreement to coordinate their activities, the so-called Unità Sindacale.

7 Forming governments with the Italian Liberal Party, Italian Democratic Socialist Party and Italian Republican Party.

8 See https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/quando-bankitalia-sfido-single-party-public-debt-AEAfvfO.

9 Talani (2017) points two important related elements to the 1992 speculative attacks. First, the EMS led to an overvaluation of the Lira during the 1980s that limited industrial competitiveness and called for an adjustment (which arrived in 1992). Second, the crisis of the early 1990s created the conditions to reform labour market policies.

10 Palombarini (2001, p. 23) argued that the 1992 crisis was a by-product of the interplay between domestic forces and cannot be reduced to an external shock determined by the international political economy context. Our analysis follows this seminal contribution, highlighting the importance of domestic factors but considering also the international dynamics as intertwined.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a public grant overseen by the French National Research Agency (ANR) as part of the ‘Investissements d’Avenir’ program LIEPP (ANR-11-LABX-0091, ANR-11-IDEX-0005-02) and the Université de Paris IdEx (ANR-18-IDEX-0001). In particular, with reference to the project ‘Welfare State Change as a Polanyian Double Movement. How social policy change affects women across different social classes’.

Notes on contributors

Emanuele Ferragina

Emanuele Ferragina is Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po Paris. Prior to Sciences Po, he was a Departmental Lecturer at the University of Oxford where he also received his DPhil. Emanuele is interested in the political economy of the welfare state, family policy and social capital. Besides academia, he is a columnist for the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.

Alessandro Arrigoni

Alessandro Arrigoni is an independent researcher. He holds a PhD in European & International Studies from the King’s College London. He has also been researcher in the Department of Social Policy & Intervention at University of Oxford.