Note a margine di una recente opera sull'indirizzo sociologico della scienza delle finanze italiana

The paper takes into account the recent book of Michael McLure in order to develop some considerations about the relevance of the "economic" and "sociological" schools in the Italian public finance, by means of a historical retrospect. Many of the outstanding scholars in the "economic school" attempted to develop their analysis on a positivistic ground, trying to avoid any normative rule. Nevertheless, their attempt was not successful. If they accepted explicitly the normative part of the story, the approach and the results of the two schools would not differ dramatically the one from the other. Furthermore, the "sociological" school followed the insights of Pareto, a scholar who was quite critical in respect to public finance. Lastly, in spite of its internal differences, the "sociological" school as a whole was based on Pareto's contributions. This allows to conclude by discussing the meaning of being, like Pareto was, the founder and the leader of an important school of thought.