Economic Science and Corporatism: The School of Corporatist Sciences of Pisa

Starting from the analysis of the institutional architecture of the first School of Corporative Sciences among those created by the fascist regime, established at the University of Pisa in 1928, the contribution, in the first part, examines some aspects of the scientific proposal of the institution, especially on the side of the economic disciplines taught there. In addition to the goal of training personnel who were to work in corporate structures, until 1935 the school contributed to the development of a “science of corporatism” that went beyond the postulates of “pure” economics. In the second half of the 1930s, following the transition of the leadership from Giuseppe Bottai to Widar Cesarini Sforza, a long phase of crisis began for the school, punctually recorded by the conspicuous decline in membership. In the second part political economy teachings are examined as symbols of the failure of corporatism from a theoretical point of view. Guido Sensini and Ugo Spirito were imparting teachings that could not have been more different. The former based on marginalist postulates and the acceptance of corporations as a lesser evil. The second on the rejection of homo oeconomicus and the exaltation of corporatism as overcoming liberalism and communism.