Know before Legislating

Abstract

‘The solution is too long in coming’; ‘now that the problem has been raised, it must be solved’; ‘the matter is urgent, it must be addressed without further delay’. Those who read these and similar comments might well think: why are the government, the parliament, the minister responsible, so slow to act? These hasty people don’t stop to ask: is this really the problem and not just one of the many? How is it that every day there are so many different urgent problems, whose solution cannot be put off without harm, indeed without serious harm? Why is the list of urgent problems so long and the list of documents in which their substance is clearly explained so short? How can we legislate without knowing?

First published as ‘Conoscere per Deliberare’ in Luigi Einaudi, Le prediche inutili (Turin: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1956).