L’amministrazione pubblica in David Hume: la critica scettica al dispotismo burocratico e il legalismo costituzionale

This article explores David Hume’s influence on the contemporary understanding of public administration, both positively and negatively. His cautious doubts about the true extent of human knowledge in all domains, including the political, encouraged those who opposed bureaucratic rationalism to push for a strict and unwavering empiricism in the disciplined approach to public administration. Particularly, Hume’s theories helped shape criticism of public administration as a set of rules that the powerful bureaucratic hierarchies were forced to follow without question, at least inadvertently. However, constitutional legalism turns out to be very significant for both administrative practice and the scientific study of administration and public management.