This article argues that a fundamental reform of the current institutional framework is needed to address the economic consequences of the pandemic and to successfully reverse the decline of the Italian economy. By focusing on still uncertain financial resources and where to invest them, the policy debate has hitherto neglected that the current institutional framework has been built in the last forty years to withdraw public intervention in the economy. The ability of the State to intervene in the functioning of a liberal society based on private initiative by developing industrial value chain and controlling innovation processes and technological trajectories must thus be reconstructed.
