Italian economic miracle
The Italian economic miracle begins in a country literally in ruins. That was the phrase US President John F. Kennedy used in 1963 when he praised Italy at an official dinner in Rome with Italian President Antonio Segni. A nation that had been occupied by foreign armies after World War II had, within roughly two decades, transformed itself into what Kennedy called a force expanding output, stabilizing currency, and creating new jobs and industries at a rate unmatched in the Western world.
How did Italy travel so far, so fast? What drove millions of people off the land and into factory towns? And what did the country gain, and lose, in the bargain? Those are the questions at the heart of this story.
Italy received $1.5 billion through the Marshall Plan between 1948 and 1952, aid that reached the country largely because the Cold War had recast a former enemy as a vital ally. Positioned between Western Europe and the Mediterranean, and home to one of the strongest Communist parties in the Western bloc, Italy was seen by the United States as a hinge-country that needed to be kept in the democratic camp.
The end of the Marshall Plan could have stalled the recovery. Instead, the Korean War arrived at precisely the right moment. Demand for metal and manufactured products during the 1950-1953 conflict gave Italian industry a second wind. Then, in 1957, Italy joined the founding membership of the European Common Market, which opened new investment channels and made exports considerably easier.
Those converging forces met a labour market with a large and inexpensive workforce, which together laid the ground for what came next: an average GDP growth rate of 5.8% per year between 1951 and 1963.
Between 1964 and 1973, GDP still grew at an average of 5.0% per year, making Italy's run one of the most sustained in modern European history. Only West Germany outpaced Italy among European economies during the core miracle years, and among all OEEC countries only Japan had been doing better.
The clearest way to see what that growth meant in human terms is through household ownership figures. In 1955, only 3% of Italian households owned a refrigerator, and just 1% owned a washing machine. By 1975 those figures had climbed to 94% and 76% respectively. Meanwhile, 66% of homes had come to possess cars. Average per capita income in real terms trebled between 1951 and 1971. RAI, the national public broadcaster, began regular television service in 1954, and by the time the miracle was in full swing, television was becoming a fixture of daily life.
Between 1955 and 1971, around 9 million people are estimated to have taken part in inter-regional migrations within Italy. The destination was clear: the industrial triangle formed by Milan, Turin, and the seaport of Genoa, where factories were hungry for labour. Southern rural communities were, in the source's words, uprooted entire.
To accommodate the influx, cities expanded rapidly outward. Vast neighbourhoods of low-income apartments and social housing rose on the outskirts of major urban centres. Roads and railways were completed in record times. Dams and power plants went up across the country, often with little attention to geological or environmental conditions. The Vajont Dam disaster and the Seveso chemical accident became the most visible markers of what unregulated industrial expansion could cost.
Intellectuals like Pier Paolo Pasolini and Luciano Bianciardi were vocal critics of the consumerist wave that swept Italian society. Both denounced what they described as a sneaky form of homogenization and cultural decay driven by mass media and the flood of cheap goods.
Cinema gave that critique a wide public. Director Dino Risi made Il Sorpasso in 1962 and I Mostri in 1963, both of which targeted the selfishness and immorality he believed ran through the miracle years. Vittorio De Sica's Il Boom, also from 1963, took the same aim. Ettore Scola's C'eravamo tanto amati, released in 1974 as the boom was fading, looked back with a similar judgment. These films collectively documented the sense that Italy had traded something irretrievable for its new washing machines and cars.
The boom itself ended not with a single event but with a collision of forces: the Hot Autumn of 1969-1970 brought massive strikes and social unrest, and the 1973 oil crisis added economic pressure from outside. Italy's economy never returned to the growth rates of those heady post-war decades, and a green consciousness would only begin to develop in the 1980s, years after the damage had been done.
Common questions
What was the Italian economic miracle and when did it occur?
The Italian economic miracle was a prolonged period of strong economic growth in Italy following World War II, lasting into the late 1960s. Historians identify the years from 1958 to 1963 as the most intense phase. Italy's GDP grew at an average of 5.8% per year between 1951 and 1963.
How much Marshall Plan aid did Italy receive after World War II?
Italy received $1.5 billion in Marshall Plan aid between 1948 and 1952. The United States provided this assistance because Italy was seen as a strategically important ally during the Cold War, sitting between Western Europe and the Mediterranean and facing a strong domestic Communist party.
What caused the Italian economic miracle to end?
The boom ended due to a combination of the Hot Autumn strikes and widespread social unrest in 1969-1970, followed by the 1973 oil crisis. Italy's economy never returned to its post-war growth rates after those two shocks converged.
How many people migrated internally during Italy's economic boom?
Around 9 million people are estimated to have taken part in inter-regional migrations within Italy between 1955 and 1971. Most moved from rural Southern Italy to the industrial cities of the north, particularly to the triangle formed by Milan, Turin, and Genoa.
How did Italian household ownership of appliances change during the economic miracle?
In 1955 only 3% of Italian households owned a refrigerator and just 1% owned a washing machine. By 1975 those figures had risen to 94% and 76% respectively, and 66% of all homes had come to possess cars.
Which Italian filmmakers criticized the economic miracle?
Directors Dino Risi, Vittorio De Sica, and Ettore Scola made films that criticised the selfishness and immorality they associated with the boom years. Risi's Il Sorpasso (1962) and I Mostri (1963), De Sica's Il Boom (1963), and Scola's C'eravamo tanto amati (1974) all addressed this theme. Intellectuals Pier Paolo Pasolini and Luciano Bianciardi were also prominent critics.
All sources
12 references cited across the entry
- 1bookEconomic growth in Europe since 1945Nicholas Crafts, Gianni Toniolo — Cambridge University Press — 1996
- 2bookMass culture and Italian society from fascism to the Cold WarDavid Forgacs, Stephen Gundle — Indiana University Press — 2013
- 3bookThe Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947–1952Michael J. Hogan — Cambridge University Press — 1987
- 5webCyber Heroes: Camillo OlivettiHive Mind
- 6bookPower in Europe? II: Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, and the Origins of the EEC 1952–57Ennio Di Nolfo — de Gruyter — 1992
- 7web290 - Remarks at a Dinner Given in His Honor by President SegniJohn F. Kennedy — The American Presidency Project — July 1, 1963
- 8newsItalian Pride Is Revived in a Tiny FiatJohn Tagliabue — 11 August 2007
- 9webBrionvega. A brief history of the black boxAlba Cappellieri
- 10webHollywood in Rome9 December 2019
- 11bookA history of contemporary ItalyPaul Ginsborg — Palgrave Macmillan — 2003
- 12bookImmigrants at the margins. Law, race and exclusion in Southern EuropeKitty Calavita — Cambridge University Press — 2005