Luces y sombras de la historia de la renta italiana

Abstract

The article offers a short introduction to the Italian accounting history and discusses, particularly, the origins of political decision. This essay analyses the preeminent, but largely ignored, position occupied by the empirical statistical method in public discussion of the Italian income. The national accounting was planned in Italy without giving way to a liberal democracy, as is the case in the United States. Istat was directly controlled by Fascism. Mussolini used statistics as a tool for totalitarian control. But closer analysis of the story of this institution contradicts this assumption. There is a contradiction between the propaganda image of Fascism and analysis conducted by Istat. Even in the present, after the Global Financial Economic Crisis 2007-2009, the Italian accounting history is still topical. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]