L’Italia ha avuto economisti che hanno promosso importanti iniziative e delineato paradigmi originali di pensiero e di azione. La raccolta di questi saggi, pubblicati da Alberto Quadrio Curzio a partire dal 1986 e qui presentati con alcune integrazioni e inquadrati in una sequenza coerente, rivisita sia figure di economisti – come Beccaria, Verri, Cattaneo, Einaudi, Vanoni, Saraceno, Vito, Demaria e Fuà –, sia il ruolo di enti (come l’Istituto Lombardo-Accademia di Scienze e Lettere e la Società Italiana degli Economisti) e di imprese (come la Società Edison, fondata da Giuseppe Colombo) che in diversi periodi hanno svolto un ruolo innovativo. L’autore ritiene che l’analisi di questo passato possa dare un contributo ad un paradigma economico-politico di grande attualità, dove istituzioni, società, mercato si bilanciano e si valorizzano avendo sullo sfondo un’Italia con intonazione europeista e con un riconosciuto ruolo della cultura. Così, lungo tre secoli, l’autore arriva selettivamente al presente rivisitando personalità ed enti che ancora tramandano insegnamenti ad un’Italia poco incline a capire e a valorizzare la propria identità e i propri meriti storici.

This volume offers, with few integrations and some adjustments, essays published since 1986 sometimes in collaboration with different authors. The reader will not find, therefore, a unified and linear analysis but nevertheless a work with a clear general structure both from a historical-institutional and a conceptual point of view. The first and more comprehensible collocation for this work is, actually, in the field of history of economic thought, but also of academic history and economic history referred to Italy. Dealing with Italian personalities such as Beccaria, Verri, Cattaneo, Einaudi, Vanoni, Saraceno, Vito, Demaria and Fuà means this; as well as dealing with Academic bodies, like Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere and Società Italiana degli Economisti, and dealing with firms like Edison spa. Both the Italian reader and the non-Italian one, might gain at least some useful information about these topics, often forgotten or even disregarded in the anxiety to be recognised as modern and global. A second collocation of this work is also possible even if it may be considered a loose one. As a matter of fact, many of these essays show a kind of conceptual continuity of our studies, which leads us to set them, even if not completely, into an economic-political paradigm that we have called «social liberalism» or «communitarian liberalism». This concept deals with the combination of Institutions, Society and Market, in which freedom and responsibility balance and improve each other. Two overtones lie in the background in our selective interpretation of this period of the Italian history: a pro-European mark and the relevance of science and culture for human and civil progress. Communitarian liberalism is a paradigm about which we have been thinking for years and it is very different both from merchant liberalism and from state dirigisme, as well as from egalitarian socialism. The concept of communitarian liberalism has become more definite and accurate in our analysis following at least two perspectives, both of which always set Italy within Europe from the point of view of ideas, personalities, institutions, organizations, facts. The first perspective regards events as they happened from the end of the Second World War to nowadays. It is an organic perspective and has led to many of our studies, among which two monographs. This is not actually the perspective presented in this volume1. The second perspective is a historical perspective, which starts from the second half of the XVIII century and reaches the present time in a selective way. This volume can be traced back to this perspective through the re-examination both of personalities and organizations. Being aware that this approach could represent a too strong characterisation, above all because essays here collected have been put together ex post, we submit to the reader an explanation – which seems to be more comprehensible and which could be recognized as a coherent result of our work – founded on four interlinked «Italian paradigms» that characterize this volume. The first one is the paradigm of Lombard Enlightenment which was not damnaged by doctrinal absolutism and of radicalism and which rather tends to a rational pragmatism, always connected to European thought. Cesare Beccaria, Pietro Verri and Carlo Cattaneo are the three prominent personalities taken into account in our work and they take up a period of time from about 1760 to 1869; that is from Verri’s and Beccaria’s first works to the death of Cattaneo. The second paradigm is the one of the culture, science and technology for the civilization and the development, again with a strong mark of the Lombard Europeanism, that, from its birth in the XVIII century, has become established then between the XIX and the beginning of the XX century. Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere and the Edison company are the two cases considered in our analysis. About them, personalities of economists as well as of engineertechnologist innovators stand out and among them Giuseppe Colombo represents undoubtedly a milestone, since he was able to play an important role in local and national institutions. The third one is the paradigm of federalist and liberal approach to Europe of Luigi Einaudi which was fundamental for the post-war Italian reconstruction to which gave also a fundamental contribution the more public policy oriented approach of Ezio Vanoni and Pasquale Saraceno. In spite of the differences, all these personalities deeply contributed to a wider project aimed to Italian development. This is the period of time during the XX century which arrives till 1961, when Luigi Einaudi died. The fourth one is the paradigm of the academic associationism represented here by the Società Italiana degli Economisti (Sie), founded in 1950 in order to; strengthen the identity of Italian economic science and its relations with the international context; strengthen the role of economists into society, in factual economy, in institutions. The presentation of three economists (Francesco Vito, Giovanni Demaria, Giorgio Fuà) – dead since some time and who gave an outstanding contribution both to the Associazione and to Italian University – completes the reflection. This is the period of time between 1950 and the end of the XX century. In conclusion, I would like to underline again that many essays here re-published have been written in occasions connected to Istituto Lombardo - Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, to Società Italiana degli Economisti, to Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, to Fondazione Edison and to the Università Cattolica which is my «Alma Mater» where I have carried out the main part of my career as a Professor and Scholar. I found into these subjects (to which I wish to add the Associazione and the publishing house il Mulino) an important source of intellectual, civil and professional enrichment. This is the reason why I wish to express my thanks to them. My thanks are also addressed to Claudia Rotondi and Roberto Scazzieri, who are co-authors of some essays and with whom I have often discussed the themes dealt in this volume.