Americanism and Paternalism: Managers and Workers in Twentieth-Century Italy

Abstract

During the twentieth century, company welfare programs have been developed in Italy, as in other countries. Once they had been introduced in some large firms after the “Red years,” social programs spread to the rest of industry at the end of the 1920s, with more noticeable growth during the Depression years when, in other countries, such programs were on the wane. Companies investing in assistance and recreation did so not because this was perceived as being in the firms' interest in managing workers, but in obedience to directives from the Fascist government and in keeping with the corporate ideology of a regime that seemed to assure protection of the country's industry.