Abstract

This article argues that recent crises at Fiat Auto have left the Piedmont region with an essential and unanswered question: what will happen if Fiat Auto does - as seems likely, the automaker's recent recovery notwithstanding - cease to play its historic "monarchical" role in the regional production system? Drawing on literatures in comparative political economy, economic sociology and institutionalist economic geography concerned with path dependency and productive models, the article identifies possible futures and discusses key policy tradeoffs in the Piedmontese regional political economy. It focuses particularly on tensions that have arisen as complex interactions between Fiat, its suppliers, and other regional actors have led to the emergence of an articulated and internationally competitive productive system that extends far beyond Fiat, even as actors in that system have continued to rely on Fiat to direct that system, as the sole actor with both the interest and the ability to provide key collective goods.