2008, Volume 14, N°2 - Centre d'études et de recherches ...

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Book reviews – Comptes rendus – Buchbesprechungen
Gianpiero Fumi’s contribution, based on a solid “milwardian” ground, delves
into the relationship between the construction of an international social legislation
and the integration of national systems of welfare and highlights the importance of
Italy’s role in this regard. As a country of emigration, Italy was deeply concerned
with the building up of some form of international homogenization of migrants’
rights. The essay offers some interesting insights and represents a useful survey of
the major developments in international social legislation from the end of World
War I to the 1957 Treaty of Rome. Still, as long as the author tends to underplay the
conflictual dimension that is at the roots of the expansion of social rights in the XX
century, it lacks sometimes of explicative depth.
The section is closed by Giampiero Gregorini’s essay on the debate inside the
UCID (Unione Cristiana degli imprenditori dirigenti, Christian Union of
Managers) in the immediate post-war years. The interesting point that emerges
form the essay, maybe beyond the author’s intentions, is the difficulty to conciliate
a catholic inspired approach to labour relations, that has been defined by G.
Longoni as placed on the middle ground between the American way and the good
old common sense, 4 with the prevailing stance of the Italian entrepreneurs of the
age in their relations with workers, ranging from a paternalistic to an authoritarian
approach.
The second section is dedicated to an analysis of Italy’s adherence to the
Bretton Woods system. Pietro Cafaro investigates the debate that took place inside
the constituent assembly in March 1947 on the bill allowing the government to join
the Bretton Woods institutions. Interestingly enough, the discussion registered a
unanimous consent to Italy’s return in the international financial system, from the
communist left (it has to be remembered that at that moment they were still part of
the government) to the most uncompromising liberals like Corbino and Einaudi,
albeit of course with a difference of tones.
In her essay on the position of the main industrial employers association
(Confindustria), Pia Toscano arrives at the conclusion that in the name of a
staunchly liberal, neo-classical approach, Confindustria considered the Bretton
Woods system with some suspicion, preferring to leave to the free interplay of
market forces the task of regulating the international economic relations. It seems a
hasty conclusion, dictated maybe by the limited range of sources on which the
paper is apparently based, that fails to take into consideration the actual, concrete
bases of the liberal ideology that industrialists loved to profess in public. 5
Based on documents available at the Historical Archive of Italy’s Central Bank
Pasquale Galea’s paper highlights the political rationale that was behind the Italian
4. G.M. LONGONI, “Modello americano” e “buon senso antico”. La formazione di una nuova cultura
per l’impresa a Milano negli anni Cinquanta, in: Nuova rivista storica, 2(1994), pp.327-368.
5. See for ex. G. PROVASI, Borghesia industriale e Democrazia Cristiana. Sviluppo economico e
mediazione politica dalla Ricostruzione agli anni ‘70, De Donato, Bari, 1976; M. LEGNANI,
L’“utopia grande borghese”. L’associazionismo padronale tra ricostruzione e repubblica, in: Aa.
Vv., Gli anni della Costituente. Strategie dei governi e delle classi sociali, Feltrinelli, Milano,
1983.