From Public to Private: Privatization in 1920’s Fascist Italy

Italy’s first Fascist government applied a large-scale privatization policy between 1922 and 1925. The
government privatized the state monopoly of match sale, eliminated the State monopoly on life
insurances, sold most of the State-owned telephone networks and services to private firms,
reprivatized the largest metal machinery producer, and awarded concessions to private firms to build
and operate motorways. While ideological considerations may have had a certain influence,
privatization was used mainly as a political tool to build confidence among industrialists and to
increase support for the government and the Partito Nazionale Fascista. Privatization also contributed
to balancing the budget, which was the core objective of Fascist economic policy in its first phase.