The Fiscal Sociology of Gino Borgatta

Outside of Continental Europe, Italian fiscal sociology is almost completely unknown. Seminal works have not yet been translated into English, and what is known is generally consistent with James Buchanan’s contention that Gino Borgatta was the most direct follower of Pareto who, with others, sought an explanation for fiscal phenomena in sociological, rather than economic, terms. The purpose of this study is to establish the extent to which Borgatta’s early framework for fiscal sociology is consistent with, and different from, Pareto’s views on fiscal theory, including the role for economic analysis in the study of fiscal events. Since evidence of Pareto’s influence is much weaker in Borgatta’s more mature studies, the ‘definitive’ Paretian fiscal sociology that emerged in his early “Lo Studio Scientifico dei Fenomeni Finanziari” is examined for possible indications of why he did not subsequently develop fiscal studies further along Paretian lines. It is tentatively suggested that his early views on the scope for economic analysis of fiscal events, as well as a weaker role for experimental methodology in fiscal theory, provided some indications of why the Paretian line was not fully pursued in Borgatta’s more mature works.