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Sismondi’s Political Economy: Translating Power into Sociability

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Power in Economic Thought

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Abstract

Dal Degan focuses on the concept of sociability—a bridge concept that reveals its nodal nature between moral and anthropological theory, politics and political economy—in order to penetrate Sismondi’s scientific discourse. Pointing out the importance that Sismondi attributed to structural elements such as distribution of property, participative institutions, different systems of production and organization of time, as well as to non-material factors concerning the form of interpersonal relationships, the chapter emphasizes the critical role of Sismondi’s economic analysis and its role in unravelling the oxymoronic nature of modern freedom. The outcome of these inquiries, in thousands of pages, makes up the material of Sismondi’s social science.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Etudes sur les sciences sociales, published in 1836–38.

  2. 2.

    J. C. L. Sismondi (2012a [1803]) p. 80.

  3. 3.

    J. C. L. Sismondi (1821), I, p. iv.

  4. 4.

    Analysed by the author in the 16 volumes of Histoire des republiques italiennes published in 1809–18.

  5. 5.

    J. C. L. Sismondi (1835), II, pp. 406–407 but also Idem (1809–18), I, p. 352.

  6. 6.

    As Sismondi specifies in the first chapter of Richesse commerciale and further upholds in the second book of Nouveaux principes.

  7. 7.

    Book I, Ch. 5.

  8. 8.

    Sismondi (2018a [1836–38], I, p. 5).

  9. 9.

    On “liberty of the moderns” in Constant’s terms, see Constant (1820), pp. 238–374 and more generally on Sismondi and Coppet republican tradition of thought see Jaume (2000), Sofia (2000, 2007), Romani (2005), Urbinati (2012) and Dal Degan and Sofia (2014).

  10. 10.

    In particular the Essais sur les constitutions des peuples libres (published in 1998 but written in 1798) which constitute a first draft of Recherches sur les constitutions des peuples libres and Recherches.

  11. 11.

    Sismondi (1836–38), I, p. VI.

  12. 12.

    Constant (1820) pp. 373–374.

  13. 13.

    Sismondi (1809–18), I, pp. 405–406.

  14. 14.

    If the purpose of reconciling the individual and social dimension of human experience fails, the ambiguity of modern age goals becomes blatant. Rousseau expressed this tragic characteristic of modern times with words of rare incisiveness as Starobinski (1971) demonstrates.

  15. 15.

    Bruni and Zamagni (2007).

  16. 16.

    Scanlon (1998), p. 5.

  17. 17.

    Rousseau was read daily in Sismondi home as can be seen from the report that Sismondi’s mother entrusts to her diaries, see Dal Degan (2006). More generally, on the influence of Rousseau on Sismondi’s political thought, see Minerbi (1965), Sofia (1981, 1997, 2000), Paulet-Grandguillot (2010).

  18. 18.

    Sismondi (1965), p. 86.

  19. 19.

    In relation to the concept of liberty understood as the outcome of the historical process of civilization after the rupture of feudal bonds which transforms individual differences (les intérêts divers) into common values and ideas (opinion publique), see Pappe (1979), while for the Scottish historical school which has many affinities with Sismondi’s idea of liberty see Meinecke (1954), pp. 155–196 and Cantimori (1959), pp. 557–563.

  20. 20.

    As he precises in his Ressources de la Toscane (1799) now published in Sismondi (2012b), p. 26.

  21. 21.

    Jaume brilliantly describes the drift of the reflection on liberty at Coppet which is deeply different from the doctrine which will affirm based on an abstract idea of reason, cfr. Jaume (2000), pp. 226–227. About the idea of participation see Dupuigrenet-Desroussilles (1972).

  22. 22.

    The question of conversion has caused much discussion in our discipline over the years partially compromising an adequate comprehension of some important aspects of Sismondi’s approach to the study of social phenomena. On the idea of Sismondi’s “conversion” from Smithian to Interventionist positions see Babel (1967), Nuccio (1974), Batignani Bartolozzi (1978), Roggi (1979), Gislain (2013).

  23. 23.

    In relation Sismondi’s critical reading of Rousseau, see Sismondi (1965) and Sofia (1981).

  24. 24.

    In line with the Aristotelian tradition, Sismondi sees separation as the first precondition of slavery.

  25. 25.

    Hume wrote: “It will be easy to conceive of what vast consequences these principles must be in the science of human nature, if we consider that so far as regards the mind. These are the only links that bind the parts of the universe together, or connect us with any person or object exterior to ourselves. For as it is by means of thought only that any thing operates upon our passions, and as these are the only that any thing operates upon passions, and as these are the only ties of our thoughts, they are really to us the cement of the universe”, Hume (2007 [1740]), p. 417.

  26. 26.

    On this topic, see editors’ Introduction to Sismondi (2015b).

  27. 27.

    In fact, Sismondi conceived property rights as “positional rights”.

  28. 28.

    Sismondi (1998), pp. 568–569.

  29. 29.

    The concept of independence is largely reiterated in Etudes sur les sciences sociales. More precisely, it is defined like “reciprocal independence” and described in relation to economic development in the essay devoted to Richesse territoriale, see Sismondi (2018b [1836–38]), p. 355.

  30. 30.

    Sismondi (1809–1818), I, p. 401.

  31. 31.

    Sismondi (1836–1838), vol. II, p. 117.

  32. 32.

    Smith (1976 [1776]), p. 17.

  33. 33.

    In relation to the critical reading of Rousseau by Sismondi, see Minerbi (1965), Sofia (1981) and Raffaelli (1999).

  34. 34.

    J. C. L. Sismondi (1837), p. 378 and p. 104.

  35. 35.

    Idem, p. 247.

  36. 36.

    Sismondi (2015a), p. 712.

  37. 37.

    “Positive” in the sense of “constructive” and having the effect of reinforcement on the agent’s motivations. The opposite of exercising control and having a limiting effect on the individual agent.

  38. 38.

    During Sismondi’s lifetime, many studies on the eye, vision and mind’s power of attraction were undertaken. Goethe wrote Elective Affinities in 1809 which was translated into French in 1810; Cabanis wrote about “elective attraction”, see Delon (1988), pp. 174–175.

  39. 39.

    For an interesting comment on the topic, see Stiglitz (2000).

  40. 40.

    Sismondi J. C. L. (1836–38), II, p. IV.

  41. 41.

    Published in 1824 in Revue Encyclopédique and later reprinted in the second edition of Nouveaux Principes.

  42. 42.

    Sismondi (2015b [1827]) p. 573.

  43. 43.

    Which was imported from his political writing, Essais sur les constitutions des peuples libres. See Dal Degan (2002).

  44. 44.

    Pierre Prévost translated the Philosophical Essays of Adam Smith and the Account of the life and writings of Adam Smith of Dugald Stewart.

  45. 45.

    In Sismondi’s economic analysis the distinction between “produit brut” and “produit net” has a central value for identifying a real increasing of wealth for all participants to economic activity. On these concepts, see Dal Degan (2014).

  46. 46.

    About this aspect, cfr. Gislain (2001), pp. 335–421.

  47. 47.

    Letter to Sismondi, March 3, 1802, in Sismondi’s Archive of Pescia (Florence), AS A 16 n. 182.

  48. 48.

    Letter from Sismondi to Pièrre Prevost, March 2, 1801, in Sismondi (1933–1954), pp. 14–16.

  49. 49.

    Which first edition was published in 1819, and a second one – in 1827.

  50. 50.

    Sismondi (2012b), p. 26.

  51. 51.

    As Schumpeter wrote about Sismondi’s analytical model: “(it) is a system of periodicities and lags, the money income in the period ‘t’ responds to decisions taken in the same period but they are spent for the product that is the outcome of the previous period ‘t-1’ so that the imbalances between two quantities can be frequent”, see Schumpeter (1954), p. 494.

  52. 52.

    Sismondi (2015b [1827]), p. 215.

  53. 53.

    Idem.

  54. 54.

    Idem, p. 336.

  55. 55.

    Sowell (1972) revealed: “Sismondi was concerned with production for the following year, with reproduction. He was concerned with whether expectations ex ante were realized ex post”.

  56. 56.

    Sismondi (2015b) p. 214.

  57. 57.

    Idem, p. 214.

  58. 58.

    Sismondi (2015b), p. 91.

  59. 59.

    See Hart (1995) and Hart and Moore (1999). For a reflexion about incomplete contracts in relation to Sismondi, see Dal Degan (2013).

  60. 60.

    Demaria (1973), pp. 263 e ss.

  61. 61.

    As their writings confirm, the relevance of the Sismondian economic reflexion was obtained by integrating the temporal dimension in analytical reconstruction.

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  1. Department of Economics, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Francesca Dal Degan

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  1. University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Manuela Mosca

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Dal Degan, F. (2018). Sismondi’s Political Economy: Translating Power into Sociability. In: Mosca, M. (eds) Power in Economic Thought. Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94039-7_3

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