Abstract
The ‘IRI‐formula’ (which describes the situation whereby a public body owns private firms) was originally based on a delicate balance of powers between political guidance and managerial autonomy. Towards the end of the 1950s, this balance was upset and replaced by a strong politics‐business connection: public managers and political groups exchanged financial support for political protection. The present IRI management is trying to regain its autonomy, but is constrained by a system framed by the former politics‐business connection. It is in a very delicate political situation, created by the attempts of the PSI to replace the DC in the central role of Italian politics.

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