Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Guido Tortorella Esposito
Author-Email:
Author-Workplace-Name: Università del Sannio - DASES
Author-Name: Carmen Vita 
Author-Email:
Author-Workplace-Name: Università del Sannio - DASES 
Title: Il metodo sismondiano e il ruolo dello Stato nell'economia: riflessi sul pensiero economico di Melchiorre Gioja, di Giandomenico Romagnosi e di Angelo Messedaglia 
(Sismondi's method and the role of the state in the economic system: consequences on the thought of Melchiorre Gioja, Giandomenico Romagnosi and Angelo Messedaglia)
Abstract: In the first half of the nineteenth century, in the wake of Sismondian critics to the Ricardian methodological
abstractions and his theories on the role of the State in economics, in Italy too it has been
claimed some interest around the issue of the importance of statistics in the context of economic science,
used initially for purely descriptive purposes and then as autonomous science, although in order
to support other social sciences. According to Sismondi, theoretical constructions had to move
from historically determined assumptions, so that the Ricardian conception of the State had to be
changed with a setting based on the idea that the public hand had to intervene in the system in order
to find the ‘fair combination’ between wealth and population, so to ensure the highest level of wellbeing
for all. Starting from these observations, the paper analyzes the influence exerted by Sismondi’s
thought on the epistemological basis of the Italian economists theoretical contributions involved
into the debate on the role of the State in the economic affairs, through the voices of Melchiorre
Gioja, Giandomenico Romagnosi and Angelo Messedaglia, recognized by the most as those scholars
that more than others have distinguished themselves for having approached the examined issue with
statistical method
Classification-JEL: B19, B41
Keywords: metodo sismondiano; ruolo dello Stato nell’economia; pensiero italiano 
(Sismondian method; public intervention in economics; Italian thought)
Journal: Il Pensiero Economico Italiano
Pages: 151-170
Volume: 19
Issue: 2
Year: 2011
File-URL: http://www.libraweb.net/articoli.php?chiave=201106302&rivista=63
Handle: RePEc:pei:journl:v:19:y:2011:2:9:p:151-170