In this heated moment, a technocratic government was necessary to advance the agenda of hard austerity. It was, however, not entirely suffi cient. Th e Italian government had to be strong, too. And by strong, the Italian economists did not mean a government with economic leverage; they envisioned an authoritarian, “law and order” government, one that would never hesitate to use repression against the population in order to protect the market economy and its natural laws (Pantaleoni 1922, 47– 48).

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1181