IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fan/spespe/vhtml10.3280-spe2020-001004.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Turgot, the Fondations and the questionv of social needs

Author

Listed:
  • Fiorenza Manzalini

Abstract

This paper focuses on the entry Fondation, compiled by Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot and published in 1757 in the Encyclop?die. Turgot analyzes the phenome-non of fondations from the socio-economic point of view. In order to assess whether these ancient institutions were suitable for a society moving towards modernity, he uses public utility as the sole criterion of assessment. According to Turgot, the fondations were an obstacle to free enterprise and free market, as on the one hand they accumulated and immobilized capital by subtracting it from productive and profitable investments and, on the other hand, they provided assis-tance and charity without adequate labour promotion by encouraging idleness. Also for these reasons Turgot is in favour of the suppression of these ancient institutions and he prefers the figure of the individual, active and responsible, or free associations of individuals. However, Turgot?s attack on fondations seems only one aspect of his broader criticism of all the institutions that were supporting the ancient social order.

Suggested Citation

  • Fiorenza Manzalini, 2020. "Turgot, the Fondations and the questionv of social needs," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 9(1), pages 73-95.
    • Handle: RePEc:fan:spespe:v:html10.3280/spe2020-001004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=68132&Tipo=ArticoloPDF
    Download Restriction: Single articles can be downloaded buying download credits, for info: https://www.francoangeli.it/DownloadCredit
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • B1 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925
    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary
    • E02 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Institutions and the Macroeconomy
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fan:spespe:v:html10.3280/spe2020-001004. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Stefania Rosato (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/sommario.aspx?IDRivista=121 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.