Public Choice and the Diffusion of Classic Italian Public Finance

Richard Wagner ()

Il Pensiero Economico Italiano, 2003, vol. 11, issue 1, 271-282

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.

Keywords: Classic Italian public finance; Public Choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B19 B29 H11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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