State financialization: Permanent austerity, financialized real estate and the politics of public assets in Italy

Abstract

Inspired by Streeck’s consolidation state theory, this paper develops a theoretical framework of the restructuring of the state in late-stage financialized capitalism. It observes how in Italy, an emblematic consolidation state, the use of public real estate investment funds supports assetization, that is how state properties are gradually transformed into financial assets via multilevel and multi-sector politics of public assets. As it explores the institutional and material rearrangements underpinning the restructuring of the Italian state, the paper shows how permanent austerity and financialization mutually reinforce each other, with the result that state organizations internalize a financial investor’s viewpoint, while statecraft increasingly rely on financial actors, instruments and capital. The conclusion discusses how this theoretical framework can be extended beyond Italy and to other public assets.

Keywords:

• financialization
• austerity
• assetization
• state
• real estate
• Italy

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Antoine Guironnet for his helpful comments. We would like to thank Professors Fran Tonkiss and Paul Langley as well as the five anonymous referees for their constructive engagement with this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Félix Adisson

Félix Adisson is Assistant Professor at the École d’Urbanisme de Paris and Researcher at LATTS, Université Gustave Eiffel (France). An urban political economist, he studies the relationships between state and urban restructuring under permanent austerity and financialized capitalism.

Ludovic Halbert

Ludovic Halbert is a CNRS Researcher based at LATTS, Université Gustave Eiffel (France). He explores the geographies of capitalism through its financial infrastructures and their impacts on urban spaces.