Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Richard E. Wagner
Author-Email:
Author-Workplace-Name: George Mason University - Department of Economics
Title: Public Choice and the Diffusion of Classic Italian Public Finance
Abstract: The period roughly bounded by 1880 and 1940 was one of great flourishing for Italian scholarship
on public finance. They treated public finance not just as one specialized field among several
within economics, but as an independent object of study, partly in economics but also concerned
with politics, law, and administration as well. The Italian orientation diffused only
slowly and incompletely into Anglo-Saxon public finance. This slow diffusion was doubtless
due partly to the language barrier. But it is more than language that slowed the diffusion of this
tradition. The intellectual orientation of Italian public finance also surely slowed its diffusion.
The classical Italian orientation is catallactical. That clashed sharply with the dominant orientation
of Anglo-Saxon public finance. It took the development of public choice theorizing starting
in the 1960s to prepare the intellectual climate for a more favourable reception for the classic
Italian themes in public finance. Public choice theory has been the primary intellectual vehicle
by which Italian public finance has diffused into Anglo-Saxon public finance, and the intellectual
fortunes of the two are tied closely together.
Classification-JEL: H11, B19, B29
Keywords: Classic Italian public finance; Public Choice
Journal: Il Pensiero Economico Italiano
Pages: 271-282
Volume: 11
Issue: 1
Year: 2003
File-URL: http://www.libraweb.net/articoli.php?chiave=200306301&rivista=63
Handle: RePEc:pei:journl:v:11:y:2003:1:12:p:271-282