Thread by @yallseetheshoes

ECONOMY OF FASCIST ITALY; PART 1: WELFARE AND STRUCTURE
#fascism #fascist #corporatist #corporatism #italy #mussolini #fascist_italy

One of the things that is usually forgotten about when discussing fascism has to be economics, as usually most mainstream definitions of fascism either never mention it or are heavily reductionist i.e fascism is just when capitalism

but you probably already know, that's pretty wrong fascism definitely has a certain economic policy which is rather flexible but it exists, Corporatism, which can be defined as Syndicalism but without the antithesis between the syndicate and the state
as gentile puts it: (1)

in practice, the Italian economy was organized so that syndicates would represent individual workers/employers while corporations would represent all factors in production and coordinate it (2) (3)

this system proved to be rather successful in protecting the interests of workers, for example during the great depression (1930 specifically) some companies demanded wage cuts as high as 50% but only 8% were actually implemented due to syndical action, in 1934 some other wage c-

uts were allowed by the Syndicate but only the employer who hadn't made the cuts from earlier were allowed to do them (4) indeed most syndical disputes ended up to the in favour of the workers, 65% for workers, 32% laid aside with the option of appeal andONLY 3% for employers (5)

while wages certainly were below that of the modern European countries, it is fair to state that italy was the smallest of the great powers and the cost of living and prices were going down during fascist leadership (6) (7)

there were other things to note like a MASSIVE decrease in working hours by the advent of fascist leadership (8) (9)

also massive welfare and insurance campaigns, mainly the dopolavoro with 3 million members in 1937 and ballila with with 4 million members, which was mainly for children and it had things like regular two-week summer
vacations in seashore and mountain campsi (10)

i can go on and on and on about the insurance system but ill just slap tables by Welk on their membership status (11)

Who paid for this insurance and welfare? a lot of anti fascists claimed those were funded mostly by taxes on the working class, which would be a far cry from reality if you look at the taxing system/syndical taxes (dues) in italy, lets look at the actual tax system (12) (13)

one interesting anti fascist article primarily focused on welfare in Fascist italy, (cato.org/commentary/eco…) makes some rather silly claims that are flat out wrong or a misrepresentaion of data, take this part for example

Firstly, as i said earlier it is not fair to compare italy to the modernzied and industralized countries of europe as they were the least of the great powers only a bit better than spain, secondly, that claim on caloric intake doesn't take into account the caloric needs of the-

average italian, these tables show that under fascism caloric intake was a bit better than the preeceding liberal regime and definitely better than the following liberal regime as seen by the MASSIVE gap between needs and intake (14)

which led to a massive increase in deaths from cardiovascular and neoplastic diseases (15)

SOURCES: (1) origins and doctrine of fascism p 29-30

(2) what italy owes to mussolini by mario missiroli p 39

(3) Fascist economic policy by William george welk page 133

(4) the truth about mussolini and fascism by martin Goldberg p 75

(5) ibid p 76

(6) government in fascist italy by Arthur Steiner p 103

(7) economic fascism: primary sources on Mussolini's crony Capitalism by carlo celli

(8) industrial policy and
productivity growth in fascist
itay by ferdinando giugliano p 235

(9) the oxford handbook of the italian economy since unification by gianni tonilio p 232

(10) an economic history of twentieth-century europe by Ivan T berend p 124

(11) Fascist economic policy by willaim george welk p 102-105

(12) fascist economic policy by willaim george welk p 93-94-131

(13) the truth about mussolini and fascism by martin Goldberg p 63

(14) measuring the wellbeing of the italians by Giovanni vecchi p 14-28

(15) ibid p 97