Abstract

The article introduces the concept of the «long 1980s» (1978-1992) as a tool for the analysis of the transition of Italian political economy from Fordism to neoliberalism. It proposes a dialogue between IPE scholarship and Italian historical scholarship on inflation, monetary policy, and debt, to analyse the national and international characteristics of this transition. The study of the rise, rethinking and revision of industrial and social policies underscores a periodisation in three phases: the rise and fall of Fordism, the transition of the long 1980s, and the acceleration of neoliberalization after the 1992 critical juncture. The article concludes highlighting how the different literatures considered in the analysis suggest the advent of a long and complex process of neoliberalization