Steel for Development: Pasquale Saraceno and the Fourth Taranto Steelworks

Abstract

This essay covers the founding of Italy’s fourth steel-making center, in the city of Taranto, from the perspective of Pasquale Saraceno, an economist and head of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI). The Taranto steel-works were built during a period of growing European integration, following lengthy discussions and considerable contention both within IRI and between IRI technocrats, politicians and the Government. The debate unfolded during the transition of the Christian Democratic Party toward a center-left alliance, at a time when Catholic leaders who favored increased state intervention in the economy were gaining power. As the Government created the necessary tools to regulate and run the productive economy, the steel industry became functional to more vigorous extraordinary intervention in the South of Italy. Following Aldo Moro’s rise to head the Christian Democrats, the Government adopted Saraceno’s method: planning became the key to achieving Italy’s economic unification through the identification of basic sectors, with public enterprises as fundamental engines of development. The Taranto plant, opened in 1964, became the symbol of an entire political era marked by economic planning and the dream of broadening the base of Italian democracy.