Mario Einaudi
Encyclopedia
Mario Einaudi was a scholar of political theory and European comparative politics. He was born in 1905 in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. His father, Luigi Einaudi
Luigi Einaudi
Luigi Einaudi , Cavaliere di Gran Croce decorato di Gran Cordone OMRI was an Italian politician and economist. He served as the second President of the Italian Republic between 1948 and 1955.-Early life:...

, was one of Italy’s great economic thinkers and later became the first President of the Republic of Italy (1948-55).[3] A graduate of the University of Turin’s distinguished law faculty
University of Turin, Faculty of Law
The University of Turin, Faculty of Law is the law school of the University of Turin . The faculty of law is elsewhere called the Law Department of the University of Turin...

, Mario Einaudi married Manon Michels, the daughter of the socialist Robert Michels
Robert Michels
Robert Michels was a German sociologist who wrote on the political behavior of intellectual elites and contributed to elite theory...

, in 1933.[1]

After graduation from Turin with a dissertation on Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....

, Einaudi went to Berlin, where he met German jurists Fredrich Meinecke and Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt was a German jurist, philosopher, political theorist, and professor of law.Schmitt published several essays, influential in the 20th century and beyond, on the mentalities that surround the effective wielding of political power...

. He then spent two years at the London School of Economics working with William Beveridge, Harold Laski, Graham Wallas and A. D. Lindsay.[1] While in London, he also met exiles from Fascism, Don Luigi Sturzo and Gaetano Salvemini, both of whom had formed political parties after World War I, only to be brushed aside by Mussolini.[1]

From 1927 – 1929, Einaudi attended Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 as a Rockefeller fellow, conducting research on the United States Supreme Court. Later, he was fired from the faculty at the University of Messina
University of Messina
The University of Messina is a public university located in Messina, Italy, and founded in 1548. The university is organized in 11 Faculties.-History:...

 for refusing to sign the Fascist oath; however, Harvard University gave him refuge, first as a tutor and then as an instructor.[3]

In 1938, Einaudi was appointed as Assistant Professor at Fordham University
Fordham University
Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...

 where he was active in the struggle against fascism during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. He worked for the Office of War Information and the Council on Foreign Relations and began to teach future Allied Military Government personnel about European government once a week at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

. It is said that he prepared his lectures on the now defunct Lehigh Valley railroad, during his commute between New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Ithaca, NY.[1]

Einaudi joined the Government Department of Cornell University in 1945 and immediately set about changing the course of comparative political theory. Eventually, Einaudi became the Goldwin Smith Professor, chair of the Department of Government from 1951 to 1956 and again from 1959 to 1963, presiding over an expansion of the Department from 5 to 12 members. Three central tenets to Einaudi’s work were: that the study of politics must be embedded in history; that Europe and the United States have much to teach each other about the practice of democratic politics; and that the classics of political theory must inform the study of contemporary democratic states. These themes were best embodied in his 1959 book, “italic” The Roosevelt Revolution.[1]

In 1960, Einaudi was asked to be the founding director of the Center for International Studies to initiate Cornell University’s newfound commitment to engage in interdisciplinary research in international affairs. He envisioned international studies going beyond courses in area studies and foreign languages to include academic efforts to deal with economic, social, and development problems around the world.[2] His brilliant foresight and innovative leadership resulted in a design for the Center that insured its viability and growth into the future. Starting with a $3.25 million grant from the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

 in 1962, he raised more than $11 million to fund and endow international studies at Cornell during his leadership of the Center from 1960-1962, 1966-1968.[2]

In 1964, he founded the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi in Turin, Italy(http://www.fondazioneeinaudi.it/) in honor of his father. As Italian universities entered the turbulent 1960s, Einaudi recognized that European scholars were without necessary relief from teaching and administration needed to devote themselves to research.[1] Hence, the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi was formed to transplant the American idea of the independent research institute to Italy. Today, it houses one of the world’s most important economic history collections and gives postgraduate fellowships for students from around the world.[3]

Although Einaudi retired in 1972, he remained active in Cornell's Center for International Studies, advising students, supporting its many activities, and inspiring the founding and expansion of the Institute for European Studies.[1] With the help of the Italian Government, Einaudi also raised the funds for the Luigi Einaudi Chair in European and International Studies at Cornell. Since 1987, the Chair brings distinguished European scholars working in fields related to Luigi Einaudi’s interest to the Cornell campus on a rotating basis.[2]

In 1991, the Cornell’s Center for International Studies was renamed the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Cornell’s Board of Trustees honored him for his long dedication to the University and as a “tireless proponent of clear and critical thinking, democracy, and ethics in politics; and a firm believer in the power of human values to transform the world.”[2]

Mario Einaudi died in 1994 in Piedmont, Italy.[3]

Selected Works

The Physiocratic Doctrine of Judicial Control
Harvard University Press, 1938

Communism in Western Europe
Cornell University Press, 1951

Christian Democracy in Italy and France(co-authored with François Goguel)
University of Notre Dame Press, 1952

Nationalization in France and Italy (co-authored with Maurice Byé and Ernesto Rossi)
Cornell University Press, 1955

The Roosevelt Revolution and the New American State
New York: Harcourt Brace, 1959

The Early Rousseau
Cornell University Press, 1967

Sources

[1] Comparative Theory and Political Experience: Mario Einaudi and the Liberal Tradition. Ed. Peter J. Katzenstein, Theodore Lowi, Sidney Tarrow. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990.

[2] Faculty and Staff. Annual Report (1992): The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Ithaca: Cornell University, 1992.

[3] Tarrow, Sidney. "Mario Einaudi." Political Science and Politics 27.3 (1994): 570.
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