Abstract

The fiscal reform launched by the Cabinet Berlusconi claims to have an ethical background. This should be found in the old fashion idea of the "just tax". More specifically taxation should not withdraw too much from individuals nor to interfere with their sphere of freedom. The roots and the cons of these ideas are discussed in the first section of this short paper. Unfortunately however the most pressing issues of fiscal reform in Italy don't stay in the sky of the ethical domain. The current decline of Italian economy requires a deeper enhancing growth reform, a possible outline of which is depicted in the second section. Obviously, the main topics of the proposal would require further and deeper elaboration, but this might be only a useless exercise. The radical features of the project makes it very difficult to be accomplished. Its quantity dimensions are well larger than those experimented by taxation reforms adopted during the '90s or under way in almost all European countries. Further such a project seems to be unfeasible in the institutional and political setting of Italy. In the mind of the Author this conclusion is quite discouraging, but it reflects the ancient Italian tradition both to debate about the sex of the angels when the barbarians are at the doors and to confine the most of political action to the partisan political politics.