RISULTATI RICERCA

The issue of the «correct» level of the tariffs for public transport (and of the corresponding «correct» level of subsidies) has been ignored in Italy, even if the actual level of the tariffs is the lowest in Europe. Being this mainly a political decision, the economic analysis can only provide some factual background, related to opportunity costs, alternative measures expected impacts, distributive effects, environmental effects etc. In particular, the paper deals with possible regressive income distribution impacts of the combined high fuel taxes for car users and high subsidies for transit riders in metropolitan areas, and with the «capture» mechanism that seems implicit in the absence of any social impact survey at any administrative level. Eventually, an alternative approach is suggested for some extra-urban services: subsidies aimed only at specific «targeted» social groups, with a substantial liberalization process on the supply side. But the main recommendation remains focused on the need of a public and transparent debate on this issue, given its political content.

This paper deals with a new method of paying doctors, based on «satisfaction» of patients. Among the methods currently used, no one, up to now, seems apt to give «voice» to the patient, being rather based on the idea of «exit» if not satisfied. This is because the methods based on capitation, salary, fees, budget, and so on can not take account of the success of the therapy; the payment, in fact, is either independent from limited cases of low quality visits (dealing with average quality) as in the case of capitation, salary and budget or could be too sensitive (fees) as the patient has the incentive to misreport the health gains, in order to be exempted from the payment of fees (this case applies when the patient has already decided to change the doctor) or, again, the patient can misreport the poor quality if he pays by fees but fears a negative reaction by his doctor and he still wants to be his client. Our thesis, shown by a simple model, is that we can devise a method that can induce a correct revelation of patient’s satisfaction. This could help in such cases when the dissatisfaction is «mild», and the patient do not want to use the option of «exit». The paper, moreover, tries to estimate the likely financial and distributional impact of our proposal for Italy.

The Budget Law of 2002 has completed the local public services reform that Parliament has been working on for some years. While waiting to ascertain the shape that such a breakthrough will assume from an applicative standpoint and the juridical developments that shall follow the filing of an infringement procedure issued by the European Commission against the Italian Government, this article deals with the main features of the new discipline and tries to shed light on some of the interpretative issues. The contribution ends with a number of considerations concerning the possible constitutional illegitimacy of article 35 of Law 448/2001 and the fact that this could prompt the Constitutional Court to declare the entire law unconstitutional.

The paper deals with problems of application of the constitutional reform of early 2001, which gave to Italy a federal structure. It investigates on the increased scope of local taxation and on limits and contents of the coordination powers entitled to Regions and the State. Furthermore, it tackles the problem of equalization of fiscal capacity and suggests an appropriation formula for the residual State grants. Focus is on Provinces, but most of the arguments apply as well to Municipalities.

Founded in 1955, William F. Buckley’s National Review became the most important cold war American conservative periodical. Conservatism was interpreted by its contributors in many different ways. Several former radicals (James Burnham, Max Eastman, Will Herberg, etc.), keeping their old conceptual tools, came to a radical anticommunism. Among the other new conservatives, then, Russell Kirk was the one who most rehabilitated tradition, faith and values, in opposition to the cultural and moral debasement of American liberalism. Willmoore Kendall invoked the defense of public orthodoxy (the uses and customs of the country and its historical identity), refusing both the imposition of transcendent ideals and the notion of open society. Frank Meyer purposed to build a new conservatism by the conciliation of liberty and tradition, reason and virtue. Nevertheless, he thought that an objective foundation of morals, such as Christian faith guaranteed, was an essential presupposition of anticommunism. To libertarian conservatives that was just unacceptable.

Private Property as a Problem: Locke and Contemporary Libertarianism (by Corrado Del Bò) -ABSTRACT:This essay deals with the question whether the justification of private property, provided by John Locke through the labour-mixing argument, could be a fruitful route for philosophical investigation on distributive justice. Comparing Lockean theory to contemporary libertarianism. The author argues that a positive answer is possible only attributing a pivotal role to the so-called Lockean proviso. In this way, we shall conclude that just private acquisitions should be constrained by their leaving enough and as good for others, and this constraint is stronger than in Locke’s theory.