The Paretian School and Italian Fiscal Sociology

In the English-speaking world, academic interest was either in Pareto the economist, when economists considered issues such as welfare theory, ordinal utility, demand theory or the economics of choice, or Pareto the sociologist, when sociologists and political scientists considered issues such as the theory of action and elite theory. A Pareto vogue emerged in both these discipline areas. In Italy, however, the character of the Paretian episode was quite different: Pareto's influence was much more immediate, more extensive and more enduring, with many Italian economists investigating the relationship between economics and sociology based on Pareto's contributions. This book is important for revealing this unique intellectual legacy to English-speaking scholars for the first time and, in the process, making the case for referring to the 'Paretian school' in Italy. Perhaps the most distinctly Paretian contributions of this school are in the area of fiscal thought. As a consequence, considerable attention is given in this study to the Paretian attempts to develop a 'sociology public finance' or, more simply, 'fiscal sociology'.