Satisfaction not guaranteed: institutions and satisfaction with democracy in Western Europe

In: CESifo working paper series 910

In: Public choice

Abstract

This paper describes the privatization program in Italy during the 1990s and puts that policy in the context of macroeconomic adjustment, general market deregulation, and promotion of private investment in the provision of public infrastructure. The wave of state divestitures reached Italy later than other OECD countries. A deep-rooted tradition of state intervention, coupled with the use of public enterprises as a source of employment and political support, hindered the timid attempts at privatization of the 1980s, delaying until 1992 the start of largescale privatizations. These were imposed on Italian politicians and electorate by a host of factors: the financial crisis affecting both the general government and, sometimes irreversibly, state-owned enterprises (SOEs); the increasing aversion of the