Policy and politics in the USA and in Europe: counter-factual analysis and Italy's deficit *

The Italian language is a beautiful one, with a minor flaw: it uses the same term to describe two very different and important concepts, namely Politica (which can mean both politics and policy). The English language might be less harmonious but it has a great quality: it uses different terms, politics and policy, as mentioned above.

·Politics meaning a Project aimed at Pursuing Political Power

·Policy meaning a Proposal for the Country's Problems

Hence politics is focused on power, whereas a policy is focused on problems.

This is not to say that those who pursue political power do not want to solve the country's problems, or that they cannot propose solutions. It simply means that mere propaganda alone is not enough to truly deal with the country's problems. Those who wish to address such problems require a much vaster array of analytical tools than those who opt for propaganda.

*Lectio Magistralis by Alberto Martini before the Italian Senate

Adjunct Professor of Economic Statistics at the Faculty of Political Science at the Piemonte Orientale University, he won the 2017 edition of the prestigious Peter Rossi Award for Contributions to the Theory or Practice of Program Evaluation assigned by Maryland University.