British liberal press idealized De Stefani as a tireless technocratic reformer.

Evidence

De Stefani’s alacrity was also doted on by the liberal press: “he lives, sleeps, eats in the ministry, and his day is 8 to 8 with half an hour for lunch, for seven days in the week. I suspect that this superactivity is due to his not unnatural mistrust for the offi cials whom he has inherited.” — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1364

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘lives, sleeps, eats in the ministry’ caricature of the workaholic technocrat echoes the modern image of the crisis manager/finance minister, and the assumed ‘mistrust of inherited officials’ presages austerity’s common anti-bureaucracy stance.