ABSTRACT
Industrial policy is particularly significant in Italian public policy for several reasons. Firstly, since 1870 political elites have linked industrialisation with the development of the nation as an independent entity, because they have identified industrial growth as an instrument of national self-determination. Industrial growth was important because it was believed to ensure that Italy enjoyed a reasonable degree of economic independence in the supply of critical products, whether these were military or civil, whether they served secondary industrial needs or supplied food and other goods for private consumption. Italy is poorly supplied with most of the essential raw materials of industrial production, having only limited domestic resources of iron ore, bauxite and phosphates. It has very small domestic deposits of coal and gas, and has generally had to meet over 70 per cent of its energy needs from imported oil and gas. Though Italy has traditionally had a large agricultural sector, now much reduced in employment size, it has not been self-sufficient in food, and its capacity to export manufactured goods has been seen as critical to its economic and social stability.
