The Six-Legged Dog

The Six-Legged Dog: Mattei and ENI—A Study in Power by Dow Votaw is a penetrating investigation of one of postwar Europe’s most fascinating industrial empires. Votaw traces the extraordinary rise of Enrico Mattei, the partisan-turned-businessman whose audacity transformed Italy’s state hydrocarbon agency (ENI) into a global petroleum and energy power. Through methane pipelines in the Po Valley, aggressive concession diplomacy in the Middle East and Africa, and even controversial barter deals with the Soviet Union, Mattei consolidated influence that rivaled both governments and multinational oil majors. The book details not only how ENI reversed Italy’s energy shortages but also how Mattei’s six-legged dog became a fiery symbol of national pride, political controversy, and international disruption.

Drawing on extensive interviews, ENI documents, and contemporary Italian political debate, Votaw situates ENI in the broader problem of public corporations—neither wholly state bureaus nor private enterprises, but a “third form” wielding immense autonomy. He examines ENI’s apparatus of power: its statutory mandate, management structure, concession agreements, and propaganda machine (including ownership of the daily Il Giorno). As much a study of modern power theory as of one man’s career, The Six-Legged Dog offers lessons on monopoly, nationalism, and the global struggle between private capital, public enterprise, and emerging nations. It remains a landmark account of how energy, politics, and personality reshaped Italy’s economic destiny.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1964.