In the political background that prevailed in Italy after the unification of the country in 1860, many economists were attracted by the prospect of playing an active role in politics. In particular, thirty academic economists became MPs between 1860 and 1923. Many of them became ministers and...

Bentham's pioneering contribution in the field of Law & Economics and in the economic analysis of politics has sometimes been stressed by commentators. This paper aims to highlight the economic dimension that was present in Bentham's legal and political writings. Accordingly, the paper examines...

It is one of the assumptions of this paper that what is usually considered as a single hedonistic tradition was in fact the result of very different approaches to the analysis of individual decisions. Some of the differences between these approaches were also discussed by authors who aimed at...