The “Two-Faced Janus” of Social Collaboration: The Consigli di Gestione in Italy between Corporatism and Industrial Democracy, 1943–1949

The chapter studies the creation and demise of the Consigli di Gestione (Works Management Committees), between the Second World War and the post-war reconstruction. Originally created by the neo-fascist puppet regime in Nothern Italy in 1943-4 to enforce corporatist collaboration in the factories, these institutions were retained by the Resistance movements in the transition from war to peace as tools to achieve grassroot democracy and to associate the workers to the decision-making processes. However, the subsequent debate on the Consigli di Gestione revealed contested ideas of industrial citizenship and social collaboration among the antifascist political parties and the social partners. Eventually, the lack of a legal recognition and the changing political and international contexts led to the disbandment of these committees in the factory. Albeit short-lived, the experiment of the Consigli di Gestione highlighted that the quest for industrial democracy and workers’ participation was a long-term issue in the socio-political debate in post-war Italy.