THE ROLE OF PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN EUROPEAN UNION ECONOMIC AFFAIRS. Some considerations on the civil economy in contrast to neoclassical political economy and social market economy

In the middle of the eighteenth century there was great interest in studies dealing with the twin concepts economy-human happiness, where the pursuit of human happiness can only be achieved by directing the human being to the common good. The civil economy, created with the purpose of contributing to the debate on public happiness, is normally seen as the interpretation of the market economy from a cultural viewpoint, based on the principles of reciprocity and fraternity, as an alternative to the capitalist interpretation. The basic idea of these scholars was the need to introduce anthropology and ethics into the economic sphere, guided by the idea of a society able to promote a ‘good common life’, through which to achieve individual happiness. Antonio Genovesi, the greatest exponent of the Neapolitan school of civil economy, started from the idea that the economy is one of the expressions of civil life, just like commercial activity, and claimed that civil life and commercial activity were inextricably linked, with the market therefore being an essential element of the socialization and civilization of human beings. Starting from these premises, the subject of the paper is to study Genovesi’s theory of public confidence, to bring out the voice of those scholars who support the paradigm of the civil economy in contrast with those of political economy and social market economy, underlining the importance of the so-called homo reciprocans in a market economy aiming at the realization of good civil life, applying these concepts in the economic affairs of the European Union.