Economist and sociologist, born in Paris. Brought up in Italy, he studied
at Turin University, became an engineer, and directed a railway company
in Italy. He then studied philosphy and politics, and became professor
of political economy at Lausanne from 1893. He wrote several influential
textbooks on the subject, in which he demonstrated a mathematical approach.
In sociology, his Trattato di sociologica generale (1916, trans The Mind
and Society) enquired into the nature of individual and social action;
it presented a theory of the superiority of an elite class which anticipated
some of the principles of Fascism.