La funzione pubblica della statistica nel pensiero di Rodolfo Benini (The public function of statistics in Rodolfo Benini's thought)

Maria Letizia D’Autilia
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Maria Letizia D’Autilia: Istituto Nazionale di Statistica, Roma

Il Pensiero Economico Italiano, 2008, vol. 16, issue 1, 51-66

Abstract: The paper examines one of the aspects of Rodolfo Benini’s biography, his profile of engagé ‘public’ statistician. Benini, since the foundation of the Direzione generale di statistica [Statistical Head Office] of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Trade, committed himself in the institutional and scientific legitimisation of the statistical method. His activity in various organisations and offices of the civil service was intense especially in the period preceding the rise of Fascism. In this period he contributed to building an independent and influential ‘professional bureaucracy’, deeply rooted in the institutional system created by the Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti. The spread of the statistical method fostered the public role of the ruling classes in the 20th century, by making them aware, albeit imperfectly, of the informational power of data

Keywords: storia della statistica; Italia; Rodolfo Benini (history of statistics; Italy; Rodolfo Benini) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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