Corrado Gini: Difference between revisions

| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1884|05|23}}

| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1965|03|13|1884|05|23}}

| signature        = <!--(filename only)-->

Gini was born on May 23, 1884, in [[Motta di Livenza]], near [[Treviso]], into an old [[landed family]]. He entered the Faculty of Law at the [[University of Bologna]], where in addition to law he studied mathematics, economics, and biology.

Gini's scientific work ran in two directions: towards the [[social sciences]] and towards statistics. His interests ranged well beyond the formal aspects of statistics—to the laws that govern biological and [[social phenomenon|social phenomena]].

His first published work was ''Il sesso dal punto di vista statistico'' (1908). This work is a thorough review of the natal [[sex ratio]], looking at past theories and at how new hypothesis fit the statistical data. In particular, it presents evidence that the tendency to produce one or the other sex of child is, to some extent, heritable.

In 1926, he also founded the journal "Italian economic life" ({{lang|it|La vita economica italiana }}), which was issued until 1943.<ref name="Giorgi-2017" />  

In 1927 he published a treatise entitled ''The Scientific Basis of Fascism''.<ref>"The Scientific Basis of Fascism", ''[[Political Science Quarterly]]'' Vol.42, No 1, March 1927 pp. 99-115.</ref>

In 1929, Gini founded the Italian Committee for the Study of Population Problems (''Comitato italiano per lo studio dei problemi della popolazione'') which, two years later, organised the first Population Congress in Rome.

A eugenicist apart from being a demographer, Gini led an expedition to survey Polish populations, among them the [[Karaite Judaism|Karaites]]. Gini was throughout the 20s a supporter of fascism, and expressed his hope that Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy would emerge as victors in WW2. However, he never supported any measure of exclusion of the Jews.<ref>Mikhail Kizilov,  [https://books.google.com/books?id=hGILHIgEl7cC&pg=PA281&lpg=PA281 ''The Karaites of Galicia: An Ethnoreligious Minority Among the Ashkenazim, the Turks, and the Slavs, 1772-1945,''] BRILL, 2009 pp.278ff.</ref><ref>Riccardo Calimani, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kMb_CAAAQBAJ&pg=PT583 ''Storia degli ebrei italiani,''] vol.3, Mondadori 2015 p.583.</ref>

His role in the racial and anti-Jewish policies of the regime are more sinister, according to what is explained in detail in the book ''Scienza e razza nell'Italia fascista'' by [[Giorgio Israel]] and Pietro Nastasi published by Il Mulino in Bologna in 1998.

On October 12, 1944, Gini joined with the Calabrian activist [[Santi Paladino]],<ref name="Wilson-2016">{{cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=Richard |title=Fluoride: Considerations on the Assassination of William Shakespeare |journal=[[Critical Survey]] |date=1 January 2016 |volume=28 |issue=1 |doi=10.3167/cs.2016.280109 |url=https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/critical-survey/28/1/cs280109.xml |jstor=24712601 |access-date=28 July 2025}}</ref> and fellow-statistician [[Ugo Damiani]] to found the [[Italian Unionist Movement]], for which the emblem was the [[Flag of the United States|Stars and Stripes]], the [[Italian flag]] and a world map. According to the three men, the government of the United States should annex all free and democratic nations worldwide, thereby transforming itself into a [[world government]], and allowing Washington, D.C. to maintain Earth in a perpetual condition of [[peace]]. The party existed up to 1948 but had little success<ref name="Favero-2017" /> and its aims were not supported by the United States.

Gini was a proponent of [[organicism]] and saw nations as organic in nature.<ref name="pp40"/> Gini shared the view held by [[Oswald Spengler]] that populations go through a cycle of birth, growth, and decay.<ref name="pp40"/> Gini claimed that nations at a primitive level have a high [[birth rate]], but, as they evolve, the [[upper class]]es birth rate drops while the [[Working class|lower class]] birth rate, while higher, will inevitably deplete as their stronger members emigrate, die in war, or enter into the upper classes.<ref name="pp40"/> If a nation continues on this path without resistance, Gini claimed the nation would enter a final [[Decadence|decadent]] stage where the nation would degenerate as noted by decreasing birth rate, decreasing cultural output, and the lack of [[Imperialism|imperial]] conquest.<ref name="pp41">Aaron Gillette. ''Racial theories in fascist Italy''. London, England, UK; New York, New York, USA. Pp. 41.</ref> At this point, the decadent nation with its aging population can be overrun by a more youthful and vigorous nation.<ref name="pp41"/> Gini's organicist theories of nations and natality are believed to have influenced policies of [[Italian Fascism]].<ref name="pp40"/>

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[[Category:Politicians of Veneto]]