Sismondi Research Articles

Sismondi's principles of liberty and economic progress

AbstractThe Swiss‐born liberal thinker Jean‐Charles‐Léonard Simonde de Sismondi (1773–1842) rejected metaphysical systems of thought in favour of historical and social analysis. However, in his mature writings, he offered an organising, although a never explicit, set of principles guiding his political and economic disquisitions. I identify Sismondi's essential principles of social study, namely, the effect of political organisation on the character of the people, the need for a ‘national reason’, along with the weight of tradition over individual representation. Subordinate principles of liberty are examined, such as respect for minorities, freedom of public debate, and engagement in local affairs. I argue that, when the political idea of a slowly matured national reason guiding the constitutional progress of liberty is applied to a rapidly changing economic domain, tension is created within Sismondi's understanding of social sciences.

Owen as read by Marc-Auguste Pictet (1752–1825) and J.C.L. Simonde de Sismondi (1773–1842)

ABSTRACT This article examines how Owen’s ideas and their application in his factory in New-Lanark were understood and judged by the two leading members of Geneva’s liberal élite, J.C.L. Simonde de Sismondi and Marc-Auguste Pictet, who wrote extensively on questions pertaining to the development of industry. While Pictet and Sismondi shared Owen’s concerns over the deleterious consequences of industrialisation, and examined with interest his proposals to resolve these problems, they were quick to distance themselves from his solutions, and rejected his ideas on co-operation and shared ownership. The article concludes with an analysis of Sismondi’s work and his reflections on the two courses open to industrial civilisation: it could be either liberal, with all that entailed – competition, antagonism, conflict, but also liberty, imaginative and creative development – or ‘planned’, with the consequences that flowed from that: collective ownership, peace, security, but also an extinguishing of creative impulses, of inventiveness, and of the human spirit.

Was Sismondi a “Smithian” Critic of Industrialization?

The article recasts the economic writings of Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de Sismondi, and his critique of industrialization in particular, in light of Sismondi’s self-proclaimed indebtedness to Adam Smith. Sismondi’s economic thought was shaped by his opposition to Napoleon’s protectionist economic policies and took the form of a critique of monopolies made in the name of the common good. After Waterloo and the collapse of the empire, Sismondi developed a critique of the British school of political economy and its corresponding model of economic development through the generalization of wage labor, mechanization, and large-scale farming. In his last years, during the early 1830s, Sismondi took aim at “industrialism” itself, a term which for him grouped together all those contemporary economic theories asserting that society should be organized by and for production exclusively. However, throughout his career as an economist, in developing these opinions Sismondi claimed to be faithful to Adam Smith’s understanding of what political economy should be. This article seeks to demonstrate that Sismondi’s theoretical production was deeply rooted in his evolving “neo-Smithianism.”

Moral and Ethical Political Economy: to the 200th Anniversary of the S . Sismondi’s Book “New Principles Of Political Economy”

The relevance of the article is due to the significant date — the 200th anniversary of the publication in 1819 of the “New Principles of Political Economy” (“Nouveaux principes d’économie politique, ou de la richesse dans ses rapports avec la population”) by Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi (also known as Jean Charles Leonard Simonde de Sismondi), the founder of the economic romanticism. In this book, the purpose of this branch of human knowledge for the first time is interpreted not through the prism of the dominant ideas of economic liberalism at the turn of the XVIII–XIX centuries, but from the point of view of moral and ethical values. Here Sismondi examines and comprehends the alternative arguments formulated against the adherents of classical political economy (and, above all, the author of “On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation” published in 1817 by D. Ricardo) about the unattainability of automatic self-regulation of the market system and the expediency of its permanent regulation by the state within the framework of economic reforms that can provide a leading role in the economy of small business. Through historical and economic analysis, the author compared the evaluative judgments about the innovations contained in the book by S. Sismondi, related to the moral paradigm of political economy he justified, in the works of K. Marx, V. I. Lenin, S. Gide, S. Rist, M. Blaug and other researchers of economic science in the past and present. The author substantiates the generalizing conclusion that creativity of S. Sismondi, in the context of moral and ethical political-economic values, contrasted his own vision of scientific and practical problems — political economy and the implementation of the proposed reform project, the absolutisation of the principles of economic liberalism for the formation of a non-cyclical crisis-free socio-oriented economic system and the achievement of social justice in society.

Sismondi, Marx and Grossman: Method, Contradictions of the Commodity, and Crisis

Sismondi, Marx and Grossman: Method, Contradictions of the Commodity, and Crisis

Sismondi histórico: a luta pela liberdade na Itália renascentista

This paper examines J.C.L. Simonde de Sismondi’s approach to the political organization of Renaissance Italy. It starts with a brief review of his evolutionary perspective of history, followed by a characterization of the Italian state-cities and the specification of the axioms of medieval liberty put forward by the Swiss author. It also sketches the main characteristics of the four epochs in Italian history after the fall of Rome, covering the periods of barbarism, of free republics, of the decline in liberty and, finally, of the invasion by foreign powers. The factors behind the rise and fall of liberty in medieval Italy are presented and, in the end, linked to Sismondi’s economic doctrine. Keywords: Renaissance, state-cities, liberty, political systems.

A proposito di due lettere inedite della Contessa d’Albany a Sismondi

Two letters from Louise Stolberg Gedern, Countess of Albany to Jean-Charles-Léonard Simonde de Sismondi are herein edited and presented. They reveal some still unknown details not only about the friendship between the famous letter writer and the Genevan historian, but also about their relationships with Madame de Staël, a mutual friend, and other members of the Coppet group. Moreover, contemporary political issues are also debated. In particular, the two correspondents express different opinions about Napoleon. These letters, showing specific orthographical, morpho-syntactical and lexical features, represent a remarkable example of French as universal communication language at the beginning of the xixth century.

Sismondi et l’analyse des crises économiques

L’objet de cette contribution est de proposer une reconstruction analytique globale de la theorie des crises economiques de Sismondi a partir de ses principales œuvres. Cette reconstruction presente deux traits principaux. D’un cote, l’approche des crises de Sismondi revele une evolution de sa pensee dans le temps depuis la Richesse Commerciale ou Sismondi s’avere tres smithien jusqu’aux Etudes sur l’Economie Politique ou des developpements etonnamment modernes apparaissent, en particulier en matiere de monnaie et de credit. D’un autre cote, cette evolution ne remet pas en cause la coherence du cadre theorique adopte par Sismondi qui reste classique mais integre progressivement des elements lies aux nouveaux aspects des crises economiques observees par l’auteur.

De ‘la littérature du Midi de l’Europe’ a l’avènement d’un « nouveau monde » littéraire: l’œuvre de Simonde de Sismondi et Ferdinant Denis revisitée”1

The departure of the Portuguese royal family and the court to Brazil as a consequence of Napoleon’s project for Europe has caught the attention of scholars to a new world, and its capacity of producing important changes in the cultural and literary relations between European countries and colonised ones. The Brazilian case, particularly present in the work of two of the first foreign historians of Portuguese literature, Simonde de Sismondi and Ferdinand Denis, provides an interesting field of research in this sense. Our analysis will focus on the publication of the book De la litterature du Midi de l’Europe, in 1813, by the first, and on the Resume de l’histoire litteraire du Portugal suivi du Resume de l’histoire du Bresil, by the latter, in 1826. Keywords: Simonde de Sismondi, Ferdinand Denis, Madame de Stael, Literatures of the South of Europe.

Sismondi et la question du progrès

Résumé Contre les engouements nés de la révolution industrielle, Sismondi propose de raison garder. Il préconise d’analyser les effets produits par un choc technologique sur le fonctionnement d’un modèle de croissance équilibrée. Puis, d’analyser aussi comment se répartissent par classes sociales les bénéfices et inconvénients de l’industrialisation. Par-delà l’opposition traditionnelle entre richesse et bonheur, l’œuvre économique de Sismondi ouvre la voie à des recherches techniques sur les questions de « neutralité du progrès » et de « préférences collectives ».

F. Solano Constâncio on political economy: A “science of proportions”

The article provides an analysis of the work of Francisco Solano Constâncio (1777–1846), a Portuguese author who lived in Paris for most of his life. He had a very colourful and diversified career, which included the practice of medicine, political agitation, scientific journalism, diplomacy, linguistics, history, and the popularisation of political economy. As far as this last aspect is concerned, Constâncio is particularly well known for his translation into French of the famous works written on political economy by David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus. He was also a very active editor of learned journals published in Paris in the 1820s, in which he discussed and criticised the writings of Jean-Baptiste Say and Simonde de Sismondi, among others. The article shows that Constâncio's sound knowledge of political economy was a basic condition for his critical acceptance of abstract theoretical principles and general policies that could not be applied to the study of national economic realities and specific social problems.

シスモンディとデュルケム

This paper addresses two francophones who had penetrating insights into the unshakable bonds that exist in market economy societies. One was a native of Geneva, the early 19th century anti-classical economist J.-C.-L. Simonde de Sismondi; the other was of Jewish origin and a modern founder of sociology E. Durkheim. In his Socialisme, Durkheim deals with Sismondi's analysis of economic crisis but makes no mention of his proposals for reconstructing the corporation. Similarly Durkheim explored the role of the corporation as an agent in producing social integration without reference of Sismondi's proposals for restructuring. Based on this point, we make an attempt to examine the similarities and differences in their ideas concerning the crisis of solidarite in a market economy society and compare their views of the corporation. This attempt is inherently a preliminary step in apprehending the history of French sociological thought and the development of its understanding of solidarite.

Cardinal Issues in the Future of Social Economics: A Humanistic View

Social economics must be seeking its unity in the forces of human nature. That is no easy task. Elsewhere (Lutz, 1990, 407-42), I have indicated that our Association can be characterized as a rather heterogeneous group with several divergent orientations, but with a common core: a strong conviction that economic thinking and discourse cannot be carried out in an ethical vacuum, and that it is this explicit ethical foundation which is so distinctive for social economics as an alternative to ordinary economics. The challenge before us, therefore, is essentially twofold: first, to develop and articulate this core further, and second, to indicate how such a foundation can generate meaningful guidance for policy makers. In what follows, I will attempt to indicate how this double challenge might apply to the humanistic tradition in social economics, a tradition that dates back 180 years to J. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi. As its name implies, the humanistic perspective centers upon the human person and human welfare. It does so explicitly and candidly and without apologies.1 As does conventional economics, we stress human agency and autonomy and like to make generalizations

Torrens, McCulloch, and the “Digression on Sismondi”: Whose Digression? A Reply

Torrens, McCulloch, and the “Digression on Sismondi”: Whose Digression? A Reply

Sismondi's System of Liberty

Sismondi's System of Liberty

The Digression on Sismondi: by Torrens or McCulloch?

The Digression on Sismondi: by Torrens or McCulloch?

Simonde de Sismondi as an Economist.

Simonde de Sismondi as an Economist.

Simonde de Sismondi as an Economist. Mao Lan Tuan

<i>Simonde de Sismondi as an Economist</i>. Mao Lan Tuan