RISULTATI RICERCA

In the present debate on Italian identity a point is manifestly missing: the mutual relationship between identity and military spirit. The essay tries to shed light on the factors underlying the representation widely spread within the country and abroad, up to which Italians lack military spirit. The crucial factor is identified in individualism, a constitutive element of Italian culture which, quite functional in many fields, proves to be not functional in an highly cooperative endeavor as the army. Paradoxically, for some weird historical reasons, army life has proved to strenghten individualism, rather than weakening it, both in the different ideologies present in military policy, left-wing (garibaldinismo), right-wing (dannunzianesimo, fascism), and the official ideology of the military (idealism).

In René Descartes’ works there are four major references to living bodies as objects of his natural philosophy. The first is contained in the Fifth part of the Discours de la Méthode, published in June 1637, where Descartes provides a mechanical explanation of the heartbeat and other living functions of the body. The second is in a bio-medical note collected in the Excerpta anatomica dated November 1637, where he discusses nutrition and growth. The third is the famous claim on the absence of a section on living bodies in the Principia philosophiae, published in 1644. The fourth is in La Description du corps humain, Descartes’ late physiology likely dated 1647-1648. In this article, by exploring these passages and contextualizing his physiological observations of animals and plants, I reassemble Descartes’ science of life: his dismissal of soul, his mechanical framework, his interpretation of bodily self-maintenance and growth, his understanding of living bodies as integrated and organic systems, and the role of a power such as the immutatio and forces such as the impetus.

Il bambino rappresenta un soggetto sempre più coinvolto nelle scelte di acquisto delle famiglie. Il presente studio è stato sviluppato con l’obiettivo di esplorare quali elementi del prodotto influenzano maggiormente le preferenze dei più piccoli. A tal proposito è stato progettato uno studio sperimentale che ha coinvolto 173 bambini dai 7 agli 11 anni, divisi in 7 gruppi. I bambini dovevano selezionare alcune immagini di alimenti, diverse per confezione e marca, esprimendo le proprie preferenze; successivamente è stato chiesto loro di disegnare il loro packaging ideale di ortofrutta. È emerso che, in generale, i bambini sono influenzati più dalla marca che dalle caratteristiche estetiche del packaging, inoltre la confezione e i character non si sono mostrati determinanti per far apprezzare di più l’ortofrutta ai bambini.

A Domestic Stability Pact (DSP) has been introduced in Italy in 1998, in order to involve Regions and other local authorities in the effort to attain the objectives set for the budget of the general government under the European Stability and Growth Pact. The paper analyses how the legal framework of the DSP has evolved since its introduction. It is argued that while certain features of the DSP were ill-suited to the goal it pursued from the start, subsequent adjustments have further weakened the DSP: on the one hand, they have reduced the credibility of the budget constraint introduced by the DSP; on the other hand, they have made the DSP constraint more slack. The paper also carries out an assessment of the results obtained by the DSP in 1999 and 2000: a)local government net lending displays a dynamic divergent from the one of the DSP balances; b) as for Regions, actual DSP deficits were higher than targeted in both years, in spite of the weakening of constraints; c) as for Provinces and Municipalities, while the actual deficit was better than targeted in 1999 (by some 3 trillion lire), it was just in line with the targets in 2000, thanks mainly to the changes introduced in the DSP. This results must be regarded as preliminary as they are partly based on estimates for 2000; the delay with which final data on the DSP deficit become available witnesses another weakness of the DSP, i.e. the difficulty met in monitoring its implementation both during and at the end of the year. JEL C70 E61 H50

Economia e politica delle infrastrutture in Italia Il generalizzato rallentamento delle principali economie avanzate associato ai notevoli vincoli all’utilizzo di interventi di politica monetaria o fiscale ha sollecitato la (ri)valutazione dello sviluppo infrastrutturale come strumento di rilancio della crescita economica. Sia l’analisi critica della letteratura esistente che l’evidenza empirica prodotta nei saggi che compongono questa raccolta mettono in luce alcune criticità legate agli investimenti in nuove infrastrutture in Italia, suggerendo la necessità di ricondurre questi interventi in un mix bilanciato di politiche di sviluppo.

A Domestic Stability Pact has been introduced in Italy with the budget law for the year 1999. The Pact aims at involving Regions and other local authorities in the effort to attain the objectives set for the budget of general government under the European Stability and Growth Pact. However, certain features of the Domestic Pact appear ill-suited to this goal. Specifically, we note that: a) the Domestic Pact uses a definition of budget balance which is different from the one adopted in EMU; b) the incentives for the actual attainment of budgetary targets set for local governments are weak. The results obtained in the first year following the introduction of the Domestic Pact confirm the relevance of these problems. The developments of local governments’ finance appear less favourable if reference is made to the definition of budget balance used in EMU than if the Domestic Pact definition is used. The Regions recorded a relevant overshooting of the target. The Domestic Pact was modified by the budget law for the year 2000; however the changes introduced are likely to have further reduced its effectiveness. Specifically, negative effects can be expected as: a) local authorities can now choose among several options the rules according to which budgetary targets are to be set; b) health expenditures have been excluded from the computation of the budget deficit. We argue that binding budget constraints are necessary in order to ensure consistency between compliance with EMU budgetary rules and fiscal decentralisation. Such constraints should be reconciled with the flexibility needed to deal with unfavourable cyclical developments and the financing of public investment at the local level.