ABSTRACT
In Italy the private sector has always looked towards the state. From the Risorgimento industry has been playing catch-up and has needed tariffs, subsidies and public contracts in order to compete with the more advanced countries of Western Europe. The influential Luigi Luzzati (1841-1927) argued that an active state role was necessary not merely in crises but in normal periods. Not that this has instilled into the private sector an affection for the state. The post-World War II reconstruction was carried out in the name of a fierce liberalism. The quest for a correct relationship between state and market is a great theme of modern Italian history.
