Between State and Market. Managerial Capitalism Italian Style: IRI 1933-1970

Taking advantage of the rich resources of the newly opened historical archives of IRI (Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale - Institute for Industrial Reconstruction), this article aims to look into the history of the State super-holding during a very significant period-- 1933-1970-- that covers its origins and consolidation during Fascism, overcoming the difficulties of the war and the immediate post-war phase, reaching its peak during the Fifties and partially the Sixties (the “golden age”), and the beginnings of its decline at the turn of the Seventies. As I will try to point out in this article, the entire venture of IRI can be analyzed through the biographical profiles of the most important managers of the super-holding, its holdings and the most relevant companies, starting with its creator Alberto Beneduce. He was the genial inventor of the “IRI formula” that conjugated State ownership with private shareholdings, even if in a minority position, and practiced private managerial and entrepreneurial style. Then we can look at the men forming the Italian “technocracy” of the Thirties, well prepared from a technical and professional point of view but equally concerned with the general interest of the nation. Some of those men turned into the “Schumpeterian heroes” of the years defined “Economic Miracle”. The next generation knew more difficult times: growing political constraints in a period of shortage of investment capital; overwhelming tasks for the growth of Southern regions; worsening of industrial relations with a drastic drop in productivity compared with increased labor costs. These managers tried to put together profit and social goals. It was too much and signaled the beginning of the end of IRI. The recent revival of State intervention in the economy and of the role of technocracy for coping with the crisis gave further boost to this business history research.