Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi

An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science

The Annals is a forum for the free exchange of ideas
among scholars working in the field of social sciences
Volume LII 1 - 2018

On the Moral Foundations of the Science of ‘Buon Governo’

Raimondo Cubeddu,
pp. 161-168
10.26331/1043,
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ABSTRACT

The paper proposes a philosophical-political interpretation of Einaudi’s On Abstract and Historical Hypotheses and on Value Judgments in Economic Science. It shows how this essay can also be understood as an attempt by Einaudi to lay down solid theoretical and moral foundations for the theory of public finance. In so far as the knowledge of La Scienza delle Finanze, conceived by Einaudi as the science of good government, is supposed to guide political decision making, and in so far as it may end up by imposing certain behaviours on citizens, such science cannot avoid the problem of its moral justifications.