Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Italo Magnani
Author-Email:
Author-Workplace-Name: Università di Pavia - Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza
Title: Un pretesto per appunti sparsi (un nuovo libro di Antonio Cardini) 
(An excuse for some scattered notes (a new book by Antonio Cardini))
Abstract: This paper gets ideas from a recent book by Antonio Cardini on the History of Liberalism to enquire
around the relationship between ideologies and facts. It rises the question whether the long run is the
most appropriate time span to let the permanent characteristics identifying a certain ideology
emerge. The point of view of the author is the one of somebody who chose to consider a short historical
interval (the years across the nineteenth and the twentieth century) to highlight how the few
liberal economists of the time shared the common idea that Economics is a true hard science without
any character of a normative sort. It is from this context that the idea of freedom as necessary
condition for equal opportunities originated. Liberal economists wrote in the general interest of
everyone. They could not be partial, and they were against any form of privilege and protectionism
Classification-JEL: B20, B40, B41
Keywords: storia delle idee; storia dei fatti; liberismo; economia positiva; economia normativa;
libertà economiche; libertà politiche; socialismo; protezionismo; efficienza; parità di trattamento; arbitrio 
(history of ideas; history of facts; laissez-faire; positive economics; normative economics;
economic liberties; political liberties; socialism; protectionism; efficiency; equality of opportunities;
arbitrariness)
Journal: Il Pensiero Economico Italiano
Pages: 147-166
Volume: 19
Issue: 1
Year: 2011
File-URL: http://www.libraweb.net/articoli.php?chiave=201106301&rivista=63
Handle: RePEc:pei:journl:v:19:y:2011:1:10:p:147-166