Abstract

The article analyses the complexity of the relationship between political institutions and debt governance, or rather the political use of public debt in the eighties, decade in which the tipping point of debt accumulation reached. The political use of debt by cabinets was often used to cover the gap between the consolidation of public finances and the goals of constant search of consent. In this way, there was the transfer of wealth to certain social groups, the middle class ("ceti medi"), with the aim of maintaining the legitimacy of certain cabinets, with "presidential" ambitions, which however led to a debt crisis and delegitimization of institutions.