An Italian Foundation for New Fiscal Sociology: A Reflection on the Pareto-Griziotti and Pareto-Sensini Letters on Ricardian Equivalence and Fiscal Theory
This paper reflects on the influence of Vilfredo Pareto’s letters to two of his ex-students, Benvenuto Griziotti and Guido Sensini, on Ricardian equivalence and fiscal theory. The letters are of historical interest because of their emphasis on the need for fiscal studies to consider “social equilibrium” and because they were written when Italian fiscal sociology was in its formative stages. It is suggested that the two sets of letters had quite different consequences; with Griziotti rejecting Pareto’s contention that social equilibrium should play a central role in fiscal studies and Sensini attempting to develop an approach to public finance where the relationship between fiscal phenomena and social equilibrium is presented as the central issue in the theory of public finance. Griziotti’s approach, which accommodates a fiscal sociology that focuses on specific political and legislation issues rather that general social equilibrium, proved more influential than Sensini’s approach, but the Pareto-Sensini line of investigation is of greater current relevance.
Notice of RetractionThe meaning of fiscal deficit based on fiscal sociology
This article introduces fiscal sociology which emphasizes the whole society is a organic society, and public finance is just part of it; and further treats the views of fiscal sociology to fiscal deficit. From this investigation, we can understand why fiscal deficit can't be well controlled and keeps expanding; in the other way it can be the theory base for government's strategy to face the fiscal deficit.
Deliberative Democracy and the Resource Curse: A Nationwide Experiment in Tanzania
Oil and gas discoveries in developing countries are often associated with short-sighted economic policies and, in response, calls to insulate resource management from populist impulses. We report on a randomized experiment testing methods to overcome this apparent tension between sound resource governance and democratic politics. Soon after Tanzania’s discovery of major natural gas reserves, we invited a nationally representative sample of voters to an intensive public deliberation of policy options featuring nationally recognized experts and small-group discussions. Democratic deliberation reinforced the public’s strong preference for rapid spending of gas revenues, but also increased support for various prudential and economically orthodox measures, including independent oversight of gas revenues, limits on government borrowing, and selling gas abroad rather than subsidizing fuel at home. These effects were driven by deliberation per se, rather than a pure information treatment, and show no evidence of contamination by facilitatoror peer-effects in group deliberations. www.cgdev.org Justin Sandefur, Nancy Birdsall, James Fishkin, and Mujobu Moyo