Franco Archibugi
He largely operated in Italy and in international governmental agencies; including in the field of economic development, social welfare and cooperation policy.
Archibugi was the author of several works in planning theory and methodology, and was among the theorists and promoters of a new unitary discipline of planning – the “Planology” – aimed at creating a bridge between the theoretical scientific progress in economics and other social sciences with the actual political and administrative efficiency and management.
He participated in the Resistance with small demonstrative actions such as the throwing of leaflets of socialists in cinemas and with the scattering of four-pointed nails on the Via Flaminia in Rome.
After the liberation of Rome in 1944, he was one of the leaders of the renewed Italian Socialist Youth Federation led by Matteo Matteotti, Leo Solari and Mario Zagari,[3] with whom a long association was born together with his peer Giorgio Ruffolo.
[4] In those years, he also contributed to the foundation of the Italian Section of the Fourth International, together with Giorgio Ruffolo and Livio Maitan.
[5] He had his first job at the Ministry of Reconstruction, collaborating closely with the Minister Meuccio Ruini and with his head of cabinet Federico Caffè, representing Italy in Europe for the implementation of the Marshall Plan.
Student of the Institute of Philosophy of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the Sapienza University of Rome, he had as teacher Guido Calogero and as friends and classmates brilliant young people such as Lucio Colletti, Emilio Garroni, Tullio Gregory and Gennaro Sasso, writing his thesis on German Enlightenment under the guidance of Carlo Antoni.
He started working at Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions (CISL), collaborating with Pietro Merli Brandini.
After the death of Eugenio Colorni, in 1944, he had a long friendship with Ernesto Rossi, connected to the joint professional commitment for the Italian economic reconstruction and to the common pro-European ideals.
Ideally close to the socialist intellectuals, he had progressively distanced himself from the PSI when Bettino Craxi was appointed secretary, so much so that he supported other lists such as that of the Radical Party in 1987 and that led by Massimo Severo Giannini in 1992.
[7] Archibugi was one of the promoters of programming in Italy in the 1960s, collaborating closely with Antonio Giolitti and Giorgio Ruffolo.
His house outside Rome at Divino Amore, in addition to hosting - since 1981 - the headquarters of the Planning Studies Centre, has been an intense hub of cultural, musical and social life.
The elder brothers of his grandfather's father were Francesco and Alessandro Archibugi, volunteers of the University Battalion of Sapienza and died in defence of the Roman Republic (1849).
As great-grandson, Franco kept their memory alive by participating in the commemorations,[11] also as a member of the National Association of Garibaldi Veterans.
After the decline of the experiences of economic planning in Italy (but also elsewhere, in the 1960s and 1970s, whether in developed or developing countries and in the UN activities), Franco Archibugi focused more intensively his attention and energy on the introduction of a unified approach to planning in the educational and academic world; he has been Full Professor at some Italian Universities and finally at the “Scuola Superiore della Pubblica Amministrazione” [Postgraduate School of Public Administration] in Rome.
He has been also active in an international networking of scholars who pursue the same intellectual path towards the integrative, socio-economic, unified planning; and for a new scientific experience – the “planology” (never implemented in its appropriate terms), and which he tried to illustrate like new disciplinary field, autonomous and free from its components disciplines (economics, sociology, physical planning, and so on) in a real meta-disciplinary approach: the ‘planological’ (or ‘programming’) approach.
In his works, Archibugi has often expressed openly his intellectual debt and his derivations of thinking to some great scholars such as Gunnar Myrdal, Ragnar Frisch, Jan Tinbergen and Wassily Leontief.
He believed he followed in their traces, tried to relaunch their thinking (never rightly known and understood); and he hoped to have updated, completed and made explicit the meaning of their work in some way.
Here there is an essential selection of the most significant works by Franco Archibugi[24] in the four different, but interwoven fields on which he got some attention and influence: 1992.
Franco Angeli, Milano 1999 ISBN 88-464-1627-9English Version 2000- Introduction to Planology: the paradigm shift in social sciences, PSC publisher, 2000 Summary 2008.
Between neo-capitalism and post-capitalism: a challenging turn of societal reform (Testo completo in “International Review of Sociology”, Vol.18, No.3, 2008 Testo Completo Forthcoming: Between neo-capitalism and post-capitalism: a challenging turn of societal reform (PSC publ.)
Compendium of strategic planning for the Public Administrations, Alinea Firenze ISBN 88-8125-864-1 (Only in Italian) Summary 2004.
From bureaucrat to manager: past, present and future of strategic planning in Italy [only Ital.
