ABSTRACT
The analysis of the attitudes, preferences and power relations of Italian economic interest groups in the process of European monetary integration has led to the conclusion that a major role is to be attributed to the Italian industrial sector's interests, particularly those of big industry. In the shift of the political debate and power struggle from Rome to Brussels, the most powerful Italian entrepreneurs have recognised the chance to overcome many of the obstacles. This chapter analyses the impact of the early 1990s recession on the Italian industrial sector with the aim to dig out the considerations that led Italian industry, particularly big industry, to shift its preferences from fixed to floating exchange rates. To complete the picture of the power relations between Italian interest groups at the eve of the departure of the lira from the exchange rate mechanism it is necessary to consider the position and preferences of the other important component of Italian capitalism, the banking sector.
