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2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

3. The Definitive Abandonment of Liberal Political Activism

Author : Fiorenzo Mornati

Published in: Vilfredo Pareto: An Intellectual Biography Volume III

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

In the last volume we sought to document the thesis of Pareto’s gradual distancing from his 30-year commitment to liberal activism around the turn of the century, essentially out of his disillusionment at the results which had been achieved or which were achievable.
In this chapter, we intend to trace this fairly rapid and in any case definitive process, which opened the way for a more dispassionate analysis of the political, and more generally the social, scene. To recapitulate briefly, at the end of 1906, Pareto acknowledged, in a rare reference to his own personal feelings, that “a decade or so [ago], [I] started to work on applied economics … and in order to work on applied economics [I] needed to have a party and that party was the liberals”.

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previous chapter Arguments in Applied Economics
next chapter The Advance of Socialism and the Obstacles Impeding It
Footnotes
1
See (Mornati 2018, particularly chapter II).
 
2
Pareto to Federigo Enriques, 26th December 1906, BPS-la (Banca Popolare di Sondrio: Vilfredo Pareto’s letters archive).
 
3
Ibid.
 
4
This period has received extensive coverage in Italian contemporary political historiography. See, for example, Romanelli (1990) and Cammarano (1999).
 
5
Pareto to Francesco Papafava, 28th May 1899, see (Pareto 1989, p. 351).
 
6
See (Pareto 1899a, reprinted in Pareto 1987, p. 315).
 
7
On this topic, in March 1899, Pareto, while generally deploring the continuation of the Italian government’s colonialist policy, had described as “throwing money away” the temporarily stalled Italian bid to purchase the Sa Mun bay in China, Pareto to Maffeo Pantaleoni, 12th March 1899, see (Pareto 1984a, p. 263).
 
8
See (Pareto 1899b, reprinted in Pareto 1987, pp. 317–318). A few months later Pareto remarked, in similarly bitter tones, that “people who in Italy (and also elsewhere) say that they stand for liberty, do not want to sacrifice money, time, friendships, or anything else” Pareto to Papafava, 13th February 1901, see (Pareto 1989, p. 375).
 
9
See (Pareto 1899c, reprinted in Pareto 1987, p. 321).
 
10
Pareto to Pantaleoni, 4th December 1899, see (Pareto 1984a, p. 284).
 
11
Some time later, Pareto added that he had witnessed the devotees of Dreyfus (at the beginning of the 1900s, in the wake of their victory) “using the same black arts about which they had protested against their adversaries”, which had shown him that “while a few dupes like [him] attempted to follow their principles, the majority only looked after their own interests”, Pareto to Alceste Antonucci, 7th December 1907, see (Pareto 1975, p. 615).
 
12
Consequently, Pareto deplored Pantaleoni’s recent decision to enter politics, succeeding in being elected to parliament on the radical-socialist list in the general election of June 1900, Pareto to Arturo Linaker, 29th October 1900, see (Pareto 1975, p. 412).
 
13
Pareto to Papafava, 22nd June 1900, see (Pareto 1989, pp. 367–368).
 
14
Pareto to Pantaleoni, 18th July 1900, in Pareto, Lettere a Pantaleoni (Letters to Pantaleoni) 1897–1906, p. 320.
 
15
Pareto to Pantaleoni, 16th August 1900, ibid., p. 325.
 
16
Pareto to Armand Massip, 7th March 1901, BPS-la.
 
17
Pareto to Giuseppe Jona, 14th October 1903, BPS-la.
 
18
Pareto to Papafava, 12th June 1905, see (Pareto 1989, pp. 367–368).
 
19
Pareto to Carlo Placci, 4th January 1904, see (Pareto 1975, p. 513).
 
20
Pareto to Papafava, 29th October 1904, see (Pareto 1989, p. 441). In December 1903, he had claimed not to be an individualist because “this term belongs to the field of metaphysical doctrines which is foreign to me”, Pareto to Julius Wolf, December 1903, BPS-la.
 
21
Pareto to Pantaleoni, 1st April 1905, see (Pareto 1984a, p. 442).
 
22
Pareto to Luigi Bodio, 27th December 1904, see (Pareto 2001, p. 157).
 
23
Pareto to Linaker, 29th October 1900, see (Pareto 1975, p. 400).
 
24
Pareto to Pantaleoni, 24th September 1900, see (Pareto 1984a, p. 341.
 
25
Pareto to Adrien Naville, 24th January 1900, see (Pareto 1975, p. 400).
 
26
Pareto to Linaker, 4th August 1901, see (Pareto 1975, p. 432). Similarly, Pareto to Pantaleoni, 3rd July 1902, see (Pareto 1984a, p. 405) and Pareto to Placci, 4th January 1904, see (Pareto 1975, p. 513).
 
27
Pareto to Papafava, 12th June 1905, see (Pareto 1989, pp. 445–446).
 
28
Pareto to Pantaleoni, 7th March 1907, see (Pareto 1984b, p. 17).
 
29
Pareto to the President of the Camillo Cavour Association, 4th February 1901, BPS-la.
 
30
See (Pareto 1901, p. 80).
 
31
Pareto to Gustave de Molinari, 10th June 1901, BPS-la.
 
32
See (Pareto 1903).
 
33
Pareto to Jona, 14th October 1903, op. cit.
 
34
Referring to the federal referendum of 15th March 1903 when 59.6% of the voters had approved the federal customs law of 10th October 1902, which was more protectionist than the 10th April 1891 law it replaced. Pareto concluded that in Switzerland “[direct] democracy is the worst enemy of liberty”, Pareto to Tullio Martello, 17th February 1905, see (Pareto 1975, p. 538).
 
35
“Through examining and re-examining history”, Pareto concluded that in general “people labour in order to bring themselves nearer to their desired objective P but instead, by virtue of their actions, they bring society nearer to a condition of Q which they would never ever have wished for”, Pareto to Alceste Antonucci, 7th December 1907, see (Pareto 1975. p. 615).
 
36
See (Pareto 1905, reprinted in Pareto 1987, p. 405).
 
37
Ibid., p. 412.
 
38
As regards the work of the liberal economists, Pareto pronounced that “the scientific part is good … it is the foundation of the modern science of economics”, whereas “the metaphysical part is certainly worth no more than other similar flights of fancy”, see (Pareto 1902, p. 46.) Pareto added further that “liberal economists have an excessively narrow standpoint, giving too much importance to the economics and not enough to the sociology”, Pareto to Papafava, 12th July 1902, see (Pareto 1989, p. 404).
 
39
See (Pareto 1902, p. 92).
 
40
Ibid.
 
41
Ibid., pp. 66–67.
 
42
Ibid., p. 57.
 
43
Ibid., p. 56.
 
44
Ibid.
 
45
Ibid., p. 419.
 
Literature
Cammarano, Fulvio. 1999. Storia politica dell’Italia liberale. L’età del liberalismo classico, 1861–1901 [Political history of liberal Italy. The age of classical liberalism, 1861–1901]. Rome-Bari: Laterza.
Mornati, Fiorenzo. 2018. An intellectual biography of Vilfredo Pareto, II, Illusions and delusions of liberty (1891–1898). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pareto, Vilfredo. 1899a. Perché siamo uniti? [Why are we united?]. Critica sociale, July, 16, pp. 148–149
———. 1899b. L’elezione del V collegio [The election in the 5th constituency]. Il Secolo, August 10–11.
———. 1899c. Liberali e socialisti [Liberals and socialists]. Critica sociale, September 1, pp. 215–216.
———. 1901. A propos de la loi sur les associations [Regarding the law on associations]. Journal des économistes LX (XLVI-1): 76–80.
———. 1902. Les systèmes socialistes [Socialist systems], tome II. Paris: Giard et Brière.
———. 1903. L’éclipse de la liberté [The eclipse of liberty]. Gazette de Lausanne, June 8.
———. 1975. Epistolario 1890–1923 [Correspondence, 1890–1923]. Complete Works, tome XIX-1, ed. Giovanni Busino. Geneva: Droz.
———. 1984a. Lettere a Maffeo Pantaleoni 1897–1906 [Letters to Maffeo Pantaleoni 1897–1906]. Complete Works, tome XXVIII.II, ed. Gabriele De Rosa. Geneva: Droz.
———. 1984b. Letters to Maffeo Pantaleoni 1907–1923 [Lettere a Maffeo Pantaleoni 1897–1906]. Complete Works, tome XXVIII.III, ed. Gabriele De Rosa. Geneva: Droz.
———. 1987. Écrits politiques. Reazione, Libertà, Fascismo, 1896–1923 [Political writings. Reaction, liberty, fascism, 1896–1923]. Complete Works, tome XVIII, ed. Giovanni Busino. Geneva: Droz.
———. 1989. Lettres et Correspondances [Letters and correspondence]. Complete Works, tome XXX, ed. Giovanni Busino. Geneva: Droz.
———. 2001. Nouvelles Lettres 1870–1923 [New Letters 1870–1923]. Complete Works, tome XXXI, ed. Fiorenzo Mornati. Geneva: Droz.
Romanelli, Raffaele. 1990. L’Italia liberale [Liberal Italy]. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Metadata
Title
The Definitive Abandonment of Liberal Political Activism
Author
Fiorenzo Mornati
Copyright Year
2020
Book
Vilfredo Pareto: An Intellectual Biography Volume III

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-57756-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-57757-5

Copyright Year: 2020

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57757-5_3