Francesco Saverio Vincenzo de Paolo Nitti (19 July 1868 – 20 February 1953) was an Italian

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and

political figure A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. A Radical, he served as

Prime Minister of Italy The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...

between 1919 and 1920. According to the ''

Catholic Encyclopedia The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...

'' ("Theories of Overpopulation"), Nitti (''Population and the Social System'', 1894) was a staunch critic of English economist

Thomas Robert Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book '' An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...

and his Principle of Population. He was an important meridionalist and studied the origins of Southern Italian problems that arose after Italian unification.

Life

Born at

Melfi Melfi ( Lucano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Vulture area of the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. Geographically, it is midway between Naples and Bari. In 2015 it had a population of 17,768. Geography On ...

Basilicata it, Lucano (man) it, Lucana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

, Nitti studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and was subsequently active as journalist. He was correspondent for the ''Gazzetta piemontese'' ("

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

ese Gazette") and was one of the editors of the ''Corriere di Napoli'' ("Courier of Naples"). In 1891, he wrote the work ''Il socialismo cattolico'' ("

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

"). In 1898, when he was only 30 years old, he became professor of

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

at the

University of Naples The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 depar ...

. Nitti was chosen in 1904 for the Radical Party to serve in the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitio ...

. From 1911 to 1914 he was minister of agriculture, industry and trade under Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti. In 1917, he became minister of finance under

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

and held it till 1919. On 23 June 1919, Nitti became prime minister and interior minister. A year later, he was also minister of the colonies. His cabinet had to deal with great social unrest and dissatisfaction over

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

. Particularly troublesome was the agitation over

Fiume Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

led by Gabriele D'Annunzio. Nitti had great difficulty keeping the administration functioning at all, thanks to the enmity between the extremely divergent political factions of

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

and fascists. After less than a year as head of government, he resigned and was succeeded by the veteran Giolitti on 16 June 1920. In social policy, Nitti’s government passed a law setting up compulsory insurance for unemployment, invalidity and old age. Still a member of the Italian Parliament, Nitti offered resistance to the nascent power of fascism and openly despised

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

. In his 1927 book, ''Bolshevism, Fascism and Democracy'', he correlated Italian fascism with communism: "There is little difference between the two, and in certain respects, Fascism and Bolshevism are the same". In 1924, Nitti decided to emigrate, but after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he returned to Italy. He was elected to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, first for the

Italian Liberal Party The Italian Liberal Party ( it, Partito Liberale Italiano, PLI) was a liberal and conservative political party in Italy. The PLI, which is the heir of the liberal currents of both the Historical Right and the Historical Left, was a minor party ...

in National Bloc and then for the Independent Left. As a

secularist Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...

and

anticlerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

, he opposed

Christian Democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

and staunchly opposed

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

membership. He died on Rome on 20 February 1953. Throughout his career he opposed any kind of

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship a ...

, whether it was communist or fascist.

Notable works

''Population and the Social System''
(1894)
''Catholic Socialism''
(1895, reprinted 1908) *''Eroi e briganti'' (Heroes and brigands) (1899; reprinted by Osanna Edizioni, 2015) - , 9788881674695)
''L'Italia all'alba del secolo XX''
(1901)
''Principi di scienza delle finanzie''
(1903, 1904; 5th ed., 1922). French translation
''Principes de science des finances''
(1904)
''Peaceless Europe''
(1922)
''The Decadence of Europe''
(1922)
''The Wreck of Europe''
(1923)
''Bolshevism, Fascism and Democracy''
(1927) *other works onlin
here
(archive.org)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nitti, Francesco Saverio 1868 births 1953 deaths People from Melfi Italian Roman Catholics Historical Far Left politicians Italian Radical Party politicians Democratic Liberal Party (Italy) politicians Prime Ministers of Italy Agriculture ministers of Italy Italian Ministers of the Interior Deputies of Legislature XXII of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XXIII of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XXIV of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XXV of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XXVI of the Kingdom of Italy Members of the National Council (Italy) Members of the Constituent Assembly of Italy Senators of Legislature I of Italy Politicians of Basilicata Exiled Italian politicians