ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to contribute the debate around the apparent failure of European Union-inspired structural reforms in Italy. It suggests that not only was Italy not “rescued by Europe,” it was not rescued at all. The chapter argues that the program of structural reforms followed during the Second Republic were well-intentioned from the standpoint of trying to root out dysfunctional forms of market embeddedness. It aims to develop a theory of why the different reform trajectories occurred when and where they did, although this would no doubt be a useful exercise. The chapter shows that Italian reformers tried to use neoliberal ideas to disembed markets in response to the crisis of the political economy, because of the tight connection between the economic and political failings manifested in Italy in the 1980s and early 1990s. It contends that the perspective contributes to explaining why reforms did not produce the desired result, and that has important implications for solutions to Italy’s malaise.
