Courtiers of Ecology: Confindustria and Environmental Politics in 1970s Italy

Abstract

This article examines how Italian organised business navigated the growth of environmental awareness and regulation during the 1970s. Drawing on previously unexploited sources from the Confindustria archives, it charts how Italy’s leading business association debated and responded to pressures from politics, markets and public opinion to commit to new environmental standards and responsibilities. The article shows that this response extended beyond defensive manoeuvring. Throughout the decade, Confindustria managed to establish a narrative of compatibility between industrial and ecological interests alongside systematic lobbying practices that proved effective in penetrating the nascent bureaucratic infrastructure of Italy’s environmental policy. This approach helped Italian private business emerge largely unscathed from threats of regulatory constraints, financial penalties and reputational damage while recasting it from environmental villain into an authoritative voice shaping environmental norms. Still, rather than a linear success story or seamless expression of unified business power, the article ultimately reveals Confindustria’s ecological strategy as shifting and contingent, forged through negotiation and friction among a plurality of actors and interests.