State/economy relationships : the case of Italian public enterprise

This paper aims at analysing a case of state/economy relationships in a Western capitalist country, with reference to the particular problem of the public enterprise, and at pointing out some of the characteristics of the Italian situation. The analysis, through an examination of the Fascist period and of the events of the 1950s, tries to identify different patterns of direct state intervention in the productive sphere and to relate them to some significant changes in the class structure and in the political system of the country. The case study is intended as a contribution to the debate concerning the construction of a 'theory of the state', for which it provides some empirical material about an example of state intervention in economic life.