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Only the elements of a theory of purposiveness are presented in this paper, the two main items being the effectiveness of a purpose with respect to a system and the generation of a purpose by a system. The author then gives some preliminary definitions and studies the PPG‐concept. The role of the body‐machine in the actualization of the PPG‐concept is discussed, the latter serving as a model of the theory of purposiveness. The paper concludes with a proposal concerning a system's systematization on the basis of its ability to passively follow or to actively select goals for itself. A normative theory has to be considered as a presupposition of the theory of purposiveness.

Therapy is reflexive but not synonymous with therapists' accounting practices. It is displayed and engenders dominance but it is not an institutional rhetoric or a mechanism of social control. Six properties of therapeutic work are enumerated — reflexiveness, interpretativeness, interventionalism, domination, habituation tendencies and selectivity. All apart from reflexiveness are subject to differences of form and extension in different therapeutic communities. These variations in therapeutic work and communities can be empirically mapped. Such a conception of therapeutic work may have applications to therapeutic work outside the therapeutic communities and any other institutional setting. Two data extracts empirically ground the discussion.

The purpose of the paper is to characterize an evaluation protocol of the social discount rate (SDR). This is based on the social rate of time preference (SRTP) principles, according to which the investment selection process must tend to maximize the utility of the community.

The theoretical reference of the evaluation protocol is represented by the Ramsey formula. It is widely used in many countries with advanced economics for the SRTP estimation, through the maximization of the Social Welfare Function (SWF).

The protocol structure and the protocol applications to the Italian and US economies explain how the SDR value is influenced by the socio-economic structure of the single nation.

The strong variability of the results of the SDR according to the theoretical approach of reference and the operating path that follows can lead to judgments decidedly divergent on the acceptability of the public project, hence, the important policy implications for the entire allocation process of public resources.

The applications allow to highlight the important operational problems that must be resolved with regard to the choice of the time intervals of the evaluations, as well as logical-operational tools to be used to express estimates of parameters.

They are relevant in relation to the effects of a more equitable allocation of the resources.

The protocol for the SDR estimation is based both on solid disciplinary principles and on objective data of non-complex availability and representative of the economic and socio-demographic context of the country in which the decision-making process is implemented.