Francesco Saverio Nitti Biography

Francesco Saverio Nitti

(Melfi, 1868-Rome, 1953) Italian politician and economist.He graduated from the University of Naples and devoted himself to journalism and teaching; in 1898 he was professor of Economic Sciences at the same university.His first studies contributed in an essential way to defining the question of the South, which he examined from the point of view of the distribution of state income, as for example in Il bilancio dello Stato from 1862 to 1896-1897 (1900), and especially in North and South (1902), in which the myth of southern parasitism was destroyed.

Francesco Nitti

Other studies from those years dealt with the issue of the distribution of private wealth ( La ricchezza dell'Italia , 1904) and hydroelectric energy, seen as an indispensable instrument for the industrialization of the South ( Le forze idrauliche d'Italia e la loro utilizzazione , 1906).His work Catholic Socialism should be highlighted.

He was a radical deputy (1904), Minister of Industry in the Giolitti government (1911-1914), Treasury Minister in the Orlando government (1917-1919) and President of the Council from 1919 to June of 1920.Some of his actions, such as a bill for the amnesty of deserters and an outline of the draft agreement with Yugoslavia, along with his fame as a man of the left, earned him the animosity of the right.His ministry, already troubled by the difficult situation of public order, also had to face the Fiume issue.

In 1920 he retired, leading the way to Giolitti's last cabinet.He had a keen intelligence and a very realistic temperament, and had no illusions about the European situation resulting from the peace treaties (he wrote, during those years L'Europa senza pace , 1921 and La decadenza dell'Europa , 1926).However, he was not skeptical enough not to realize the meaning of fascism, against which he spoke out with the utmost harshness, unlike many other politicians of democratic or liberal thought.

He had to go into exile in 1924, and contributed from abroad to anti-fascist campaigns (include, in French, La democratie , 1933 and La désagrégation de l'Europe , 1938).In 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo and deported, and in the prison camp he wrote the memorial Rivelazioni.Dramatis Personae , published in 1948.His political behavior in the years after World War II was less linear: at times he adhered to the blocs of order and reconciliation, but at other times he pursued the political ideal of compromise common to all democratic left, within a European perspective, much more akin to its character.