Fascist Italy Flashcards
Lack of fascist economic policy
None, despite rhetoric about the ‘third way’, the corporate state and autarchy
Italy relied on imports so could not be a hermit kingdom
Mussolini believed more in will power than economic theory - ‘battles’ against intractable problems
Always reluctant to challenge big business or agrarians
Strengthening of industrialists and agrarians
Due to dismantling of Rossoni’s confederation and the disbanding of non-fascist unions and co-operatives
Economic ‘battles’
Battle of the lira attempted to solve inflation with ‘90 liras to the pound’, when it should have been 120
Battle for grain raised tariffs on wheat imports
Great depression in Italy
Struck in the early 1930s, making nonsense of the ‘third way’ claim
Official unemployment figures rose to over 1 million
State had to intervene, buying stock holdings from companies in peril with the IRI
Economic lack of progress for workers
Workers enjoyed some pay rises, but were still worse off than in the late 1920s, and their consumption of foodstuffs declined
Middle classes became increasingly dependent on posts in fascist organisations
Establishment of mass organisations
Huge, national organisations included 1/3 to 1/2 of the population by the end of the 1930s
5 million in the PNF and various auxiliaries
Relief for the masses
Organisations were something of a safety net for the distressed
Relief and sports and recreations all aimed at ‘socialisation’ and the integration of all groups into the regime
Role of Achille Starace
Appointed party secretary 1931-9 to create the illusion of movement in an increasingly static regime
Educational reform
From 1923 with Giovani Gentile - piecemeal and narrow class basis of ‘fewer but better’
Female political rights
Contribution to WW1 led to belief in vote, but this was never granted (local election vote allowed in 1925, then abolished the next year)
Fasci femminili were given very limited scope - forbidden from taking any political intiatives
‘Battle of the births’
Showed preoccupation with boosting population figures
OMNI set up in 1925 for welfare of unmarried mothers
Tax on celibacy, crack down on prostitution and abortion, also health and welfare units set up
Accepted by the Pope, allowing the Union of Catholic Women to be tolerated
Efficacy of women policy
Limited, both in terms of birth rate and work - only 38% of agricultural workers were women in 1936
Dopolovaro set up
In 1925, to control leisure and incorporate the masses into the regime - impressive social engineering
Converted into an integral part of the regime in 1937 under supervision of Duce
Class regimes were very obvious nonetheless (lower classes segregated)
Dopolovaro as propaganda
It was seen as instrument of propaganda, however direct political indoctrination played a very small part in it
It did not want or expect a fanatical response - passive acceptance of the current situation was all that was required
Popularity of the dopolovaro
Certainly very popular, and served the regime well by activities diverting attention from the many economic and social problems, preventing widespread opposition
So popular because it enabled the average Italian to enjoy the PNF’s resources without the obligation of any full commitment to fascist ideals of practice
Weakness of the dopolovaro
Enabled critics of the regime to infiltrate its branches and meet together without attracting attention from the police
Also lacked a sense of dynamism, which was a fundamental flaw of the wider regime
Decidedly counter-productive if the fascists had wished to create a forceful, militaristic society
Similarities between church and state
Similar attitudes towards women, family, and a form of corporativism that would bring an end to class war
Pope was initially supportive of crushing the socialists and freemasons
1929 Lateran Pacts
Signed by the Duce and Cardinal Gasparri - secured the Catholic Church as the sole state religion, legal validity of marriages and freedom to pursue spiritual duties
Mussolini had sanctioned the Vatican, creating a state within a state which made totalitarian power impossible
1931 Catholic Church issues
Major conflict, as Catholic Action members were accused of forming secret political groups
Youth clubs and offices were closed, and the pope replied with an encyclical attacking fascist attempts to monopolise education and the traditional rights of the family
Eventual compromise, with state recognising Catholic Action
Catholic Church relations deterioration
After the introduction of racial laws in 1938 and the even close links to Nazi Germany, which led the pope to voice his public disquiet
Nation prepared for war
The Duce had often declared that Italy was a nation permanently mobilised for war
After 1935, he unwisely decided to prove the validity of this boastful assertion and destroyed the regime in the process
Lack of a fascist ideology
Initially the embodiment of mindless brutality, fascism suffered from too many ideas rather than a lack of them - almost impossible to reach any ideological consensus
Lack of propaganda
Took a while to establish a propaganda apparatus that even remotely resembled the formidable machine set in motion by Goebbels
Central press office was present from the beginning, however there was a lack of exploitation of radios and cinema
Propaganda after 1935
The Ministry for Press and Propaganda mobilised all the media to present the Italian tase int Ethiopian war
Start of racial discrimination
Started in 1938 - surprising as the Duce had often poured scorn on Nazi racial theories
Less than 50,000 Jews in Italy anyway, well-integrated and many of them patriotic members of the PNF
1938 Racial policy
Manifesto of Racist Scientists appeared, followed by a series of racial laws, part of closer relationship with the Reich since 1936
Jewish children excluded, mixed marriages banned and purge from party and cultural establishments
Most Italians deplored the discrimination, and it was a sad commentary on a society that had prided itself on its humanitarian instincts - many Italians did help out Jews in distress
