1,721,202 research outputs found
La formazione delle 'Idee Cardine': rivoluzione industriale e Economia Politica. Introduzione
No full text(...) L'economia politica si è cosi fondata sull'opera dei grandi economisti a cui va il merito di aver formulato le idee cardine dovute a vere rivoluzioni di pensiero, spesso visioni alternative della natura e funzionamento dei sistemi economici con radici cosi profonde da non essere intaccate o quasi dal tempo. Ed è da tali id:::e che si deve partire per un corretto studio dell'economia politic
La teoria monetaria dell’Illuminismo lombardo
No full textThe authors wish to emphasize the importance of the history of ideas and of the history of facts in view of theory formulation and policy proposal within a framework of political economy. Theory must serve, together with history, to the governance of institutions aimed at the orderly working of economies and markets. The relationship. between economics and administration is at the root of the Milanese discussions on monetary policy that took place in the 1760s, and to which both Cesare Beccaria and Pietro Verri contributed
Money as Organization, Gustavo del Vecchio's Theory, by G. Tusset
No full textThe recent study by Gianfranco Tusset is an ambitious attempt to show
del Vecchio’s approach at work, through the reconstruction of his contribution
to the theory of a monetary economy. Tusset’s starting point is the
analysis of the intellectual context of Italian political economy at the turn
of the twentieth century, which the author describes as characterised by a
strong interest in “economic change”, a view of the economic actor as a
“complex agent”, and a methodological disposition towards “scientific
realism” (pp. 56). These three focal points are closely intertwined and
call for a research horizon in which the analysis of historical change
requires a multi-dimensional view of economic actions, and a causal plurality
that avoids “any reductionism that might obfuscate the variety of factors
influencing economic change” (p. 6). Important building blocks of del
Vecchio’s theory of money are the interplay between the individual and
the social dimension; the consideration of the monetary economy as a
hierarchical arrangement of different “selling groups”; and the investigation
of interest and credit as means to adjust the relationship between
monetary stocks and flows under the assumption of heterogeneous time
horizons for different groups
Political Economy as Intellectual History: Pier Luigi Porta
No full textThis paper reconstructs the intellectual and scientific contribution of Pier Luigi Porta by calling attention to Porta's interest in the processes of analytical fusion in the dynamics of economic knowledge (formation of ‘hybrid’ theoretical schemes). Porta's intellectual programme developed at the crossroad between analytical reconstruction and historical reconstruction. Hybrid schemes bear the mark of historical context, and are themselves cues into the constellations of beliefs characterizing any such context (see also Barucci, 1983 for the related issue of the relationship between economic theory and ‘economic culture’). In this connection, the methodological canon of the Cambridge intellectual history school (see, in particular, Skinner, 1969) has undoubtedly been an important influence in shaping Porta’s approach to the intellectual history of economic analysis (see, for example, Porta, 1988, Porta, 1992a). At the same time, his focus on the analytical dimension of conceptual constructions made him to investigate how the ‘ideal types’ of exchange and production get combined with each other in ‘hybrid’ theories (as in Smith’s analysis of commercial society), while maintaining their identity and heuristic function as distinct benchmarks for the exploration of the economic fabric of society. The above approach delineates a conception of economic theory as a theory of political bodies. This explains why, in Porta’s intellectual trajectory, the reconstruction of classical political economy has been the breeding ground of interconnected strands of research that have led him to examine the cognitive premises of social coordination and division of labour, the conditions of ‘public happiness’ in a political body, and the relationship between institutions and structural dynamics along trajectories of economic improvement. In particular, Smith’s theory of imagination and sympathy, as developed in the Essays on Philosophical Subjects (Smith, 1980 [1795]) and in the Theory of Moral Sentiments (Smith, 1976b [1759], led Porta to address (in collaboration with the present author) the epistemic roots of congruence in the social sphere. The interplay between direct and indirect knowledge defines the codes of association from which Smith’s ‘sympathy’ derives. It also draws attention to the formation of internal worlds that may be different form the one directly experienced and in which the apprehension of a commonality of possible situations may generate social coordination ‘by virtue of imagination and likelihood’
Structural dynamics and evolutionary change
Full text linkBoth structural and evolutionary approaches to economic change respond to the need of moving beyond the questions traditionally addressed in equilibrium growth modelling. The evolutionary approaches highlight that interdependent components of the economic system may respond to their respective motions in a mutually reinforcing way thereby leading to the emergence of new structures. The structural approaches highlight the asymmetries between response patterns of different components of the economy and address the economic discontinuities arising from the mismatch of different types of motion or the compensatory policies needed to achieve certain objectives (such as full employment) under conditions of structural change. This paper argues that the
two approaches stem from different intellectual traditions but may complement each other. The structural approach provides tools to the investigation
of evolutionary processes in which bottlenecks and asymmetries affect the formation of new structures, while the evolutionary approach provides tools to
the analysis of changes leading to the irreversible transformation of economic structure
Explaining Structural Change: Actions and Transformations
Full text linkTheories of structural change identify the range of transformations that are possible under given economic structures. However, in order specify a path of change out of those which are possible, these theories need to make explicit or implicit assumptions about actions taking place within structures. This, we argue, suggests that (i) these theories can identify potential, but not actual paths of change; and (ii) structural change is to some degree open-ended, because existing structures open up a range of possibilities but do not determine the specific actions taken therein. In order to explain which path of structural change is activated under specific historical conditions, we need to study how actual actions take place within structures. The paper suggests a way to do so, pointing to the interface between theory, which highlights possibilities for structural change, and history, which may 'close' such open-endedness in different ways depending on context
Political Economy of Economic Theory
No full textPolitical Economy involves both the material conditions for the life of the polity and the political conditions for the governance of the economy. This chapter considers economic theory as a means to investigate this dual character of political economy. This is done by distinguishing in economic theory between the exchange-based approach (Hicks’s Catallactics) and the production-based approach (Hicks’s Plutology). It is argued that Catallactics and Plutology highlight alternative economic arrangements for the provision of material needs within the polity and different political conditions for those economic arrangements to be feasible and implemented. The chapter outlines the foundations of a political economy approach to economic theory and charts lines of further research in the field
L'illuminismo delle riforme civili: divisione del lavoro, commercio, produzione della ricchezza
No full textRIASSUNTO La formazione dell’economia politica e’ strettamente collegata alle tradizioni intellettuali dell’illuminismo. Tuttavia l’illuminismo degli economisti e’ un fenomeno complesso di cui e’ importante non dimenticare la pluralita’ di articolazioni. Non diversamente da quello che accade per l’lluminismo in generale, anche l’illuminismo degli economisti si esprime attraverso analisi e proposte spesso molto lontane fra loro, anche se non e’ difficile individuarne una matrice comune. Ad esempio, l’illuminismo di coloro che, come i Fisiocrati, assumono il punto di vista dei “consiglieri esterni” rispetto all’autorita’ sovrana e’ profondamente diverso dalla prospettiva degli economisti che adottano l’ottica dei “commercianti colti” e sottolineano l’autonomia relativa di divisione del lavoro e mercati rispetto agli stati; cosi’ come e’ diverso dalla prospettiva di quegli economisti che si collocano per cosi’ dire in una posizione intermedia fra mercati e strutture di governo e ne esplorano le interdipendenze sul piano analitico e su quello dell’azione politico-amministrativa.
La riflessione economica degli illuministi lombardi si caratterizza per la capacita’ di visualizzare, all’interno di uno stesso sistema di analisi e di proposte, sia il punto di vista “orizzontale” della divisione del lavoro e degli scambi sia la prospettiva “verticale” degli apparati amministrativi. Si delinea in questo modo uno schema di economia politica e di governo dell’economia che e’ lontano dall’illuminismo radicale di Condorcet, Morellet, Paine, cosi’ come e’ lontano dal punto di vista del laisser faire “dirigista” di Quesnay e della sua scuola, e dal riformismo più aperto a interventi mirati di Genovesi, Galiani e Tanucci. Il duplice inserimento di molti dei suoi esponenti (e in primo luogo di Cesare Beccaria e Pietro Verri) all’interno della classe dirigente milanese ma anche nelle strutture di governo dell’autorita’ centrale rende il loro contributo di particolare efficacia. L’obiettivo principale di questa relazione e’ discutere il contributo degli illuministi lombardi alla definizione di un corpus di economia politica caratterizzato dalla sovrapposizione fra punto di vista della societa’ commerciale e punto di vista degli apparati di governo (sovrapposizione che in questo convegno abbiamo inteso caratterizzare con l’espressione di illuminismo civile). I risultati di questo intreccio sono spesso di grande interesse per quanto riguarda la comprensione dei nessi tra divisione del lavoro e mercati, ordinamemento giuridico e governo dell’economia. Come si è prima osservato, divisione del lavoro e mercati costituiscono ambiti privilegiati di attenzione per economisti che assegnano alle capacità di iniziativa di individui e gruppi un’efficacia autonoma rispetto alle decisioni politiche e alle loro conseguenze sul piano amministrativo. Questo spiega la centralità rispettiva di divisione del lavoro e commerci negli scritti economici di Beccaria e Verri. In particolare, il punto di vista dell’illuminismo civile suggerisce immediatamente la necessità di inserire la divisione del lavoro in un tessuto complesso di organizzazione “gerarchica” delle strutture produttive (Beccaria); lo stesso punto di vista indica l’esigenza di studiare commerci e mercati mettendo in risalto architetture istituzionali e configurazioni amministrative piuttosto che situazioni e criteri di scelta derivati per via inferenziale da principi di razionalità astratta (Verri).
In questa prospettiva, assume un ruolo centrale l’analisi delle azioni di governo intese come interventi “interni” alle stesse strutture della divisione del lavoro e dei mercati, e proprio per questa ragione efficaci a sollecitare e orientare capacità già esistenti all’interno del tessuto sociale. Diritto, amministrazione e politica monetaria configurano un quadro di analisi e di proposte che colloca al centro dell’interesse i processi di formazione della ricchezza e li considera parte integrante della struttura sociale nelle sue articolazioni istituzionali e amministrative. Si delinea in questo modo un insieme di implicazioni reciproche fra economia, politica e società che costituisce l’aspetto più caratteristico dell’illuminismo delle riforme civili.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF CIVIL REFORMS: COMMERCE, DIVISION OF LABOUR, AND THE PRODUCTION OF WEALTH
ABSTRACT
The formation of political economy is closely associated with the intellectual traditions of the enlightenment. However, the economists’ enlightenment is a complex process characterized by a plurality of roots and expressions. It encompasses analyses and policy proposals remarkably distant from each other and yet pointing to a common matrix of concepts and beliefs. To take one example, the enlightenment of the Physiocrats, who take the standpoint of ‘external advisors’ to the Sovereign, is different from the enlightenment of those ‘cultivated traders’ who emphasize the relative autonomy of division of labour and markets relative to the state; as it is different from the standpoint of economists who focus on the middle ground between markets and governmental structures and explore that interdependence both at the level of analysis and at that of administrative and political action. The contributions of the Lombard Enlightenment are characterized by the ability to visualize, within a given analytical framework, both the ‘horizontal’ standpoint of division of labour and exchange, and the ‘vertical’ perspective of administrative structures. In this way, the Lombard economic enlightenment brings into being a scheme of economic analysis and economic governance that is distinct from the radical Enlightenment of Condorcet, Morellet and Paine, as it is distinct from the ‘top-down’ laisser faire of Quesnay and Physiocracy in France, and from Genovesi’s, Galiani’s and Tanucci’s more active and context-dependent approach to economic policy in Naples. Many economists of the Lombard Enlightenment, such as Cesare Beccaria and Pietro Verri, were part of the Milanese social elite but were also active in the administrative structures of government. This makes their intellectual and policy activity of special interest. The principal objective of this paper is to discuss the contribution of the Lombard Enlightenment to the definition of a body of economic knowledge in which it is possible to see a clear overlap between the point of view of commercial society and that of governmental structures (an overlap that is characteristic of the intellectual make up of civil enlightenment). This overlap is of distinctive importance for investigation of the relationship between division of labour and markets, legal arrangements, and governance of the economy. Division of labour and markets are central to economists considering the initiatives of individuals and groups independently of political decisions and of their administrative consequences. This explains the central position of trade and division of labour in the writings of Beccaria and Verri. However, the perspective of the civil enlightenment suggests including division of labour within a complex organizational hierarchy of productive activities (Beccaria). The same point of view also calls attention to the need of investigating commerce and markets by focusing on institutional and administrative conditions rather than on choice criteria derived from abstract rationality principles (Verri). The Lombard enlightenment economists emphasize the central position of governmental actions as external interventions with respect to division of labour and markets, and for this reason capable of triggering the activation of possibilities existing within the given social context. Law, administration and monetary policy bring about an analytical and policy framework focusing on the process of wealth formation and considering this process as embedded in the institutional and administrative arrangements of society. In this way, the economists of the Lombard Enlightenment emphasize the mutual relationship between administrative governance, economic improvement , and social structures, and take this relationship to be at the core of that enlightenment of civil reforms to which they contribute
Dinamica economica strutturale
No full textLa voce si trova in: Scienza e Tecnica, che è l'annuario di aggiornamento della Enciclopedia della Scienza e della Tecnica
Sul ritorno ai classici dell'economia politica
No full textIn economia politica, ebbe a dire un grande economista italiano, Maffeo Pantaleoni, ci sono due scuole sempre in guerra tra loro: quella di coloro che sanno l'economia e quella di coloro che non la sanno.
Dire che cosa significhi oggi conoscere l'economia non è però facile. Anche perché una realtà apparentemente sempre più complessa e ingovernabile sembra individuare limiti gravissimi. Non cercheremo perciò di rispondere direttamente alla domanda. Cercheremo invece di individuare quali ostacoli si frappongono ad un corretto studio di questa scienza, chiedendoci anche se le difficoltà siano imputabili più alla formazione degli economisti che alla sostanza dell'economia politica
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