Либерализм и социализм в истории экономической мысли Италии: Луиджи Эйнауди и борьба за свободу торговли

Вопросы теоретической экономики. 2026. № 3(32). С. 65–82.

Melnik D. V.

Luigi Einaudi (1874–1961) was a prominent economist who made theoretical contributions to the Italian school of public finance, an influential professor, a brilliant publicist, and an outstanding statesman who served as president of the nation from 1948 to 1955, and whose activities laid the foundations for the institution of the presidency of the Italian Republic. Following Maffeo Pantaleoni, Einaudi rejected the division of economics into schools, viewing the history of eco nomics as the cumulative and evolutionary progress of theoretical knowledge. Yet, he consciously and consistently sought to affect social changes by influencing public opinion through ideas. His approach viewed free market price system as the fundamental mechanism for coordinating the social system. It was characteristic of representatives of that trend in Italian economic thought of the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, which are referred to in the article as “pure” liberals. The contradictory nature of this approach was revealed during the long struggle that “pure” liberals waged against socialism and for the attraction of socialists to their free-trade agenda. In this article, the theoretical content of Einaudi’s ideas serves as the backdrop for an examination of several decades of implementation of this political project. Einaudi embraced it early in his career, in the 1890s, and continued to implement it from the 1900s onward, as an influential economist and publicist. An analysis of this project allows to broaden the understanding of the development of Italian economic thought during Einaudi’s lifetime..

Keywords: социализм, socialism, Antonio Gramsci, Антонио Грамши, economic liberalism, экономический либерализм, history of Italian economic thought, история экономической мысли Италии, Luigi Einaudi, Луиджи Эйнауди