THE DOCTRINE OF FASCISM
BENITO MUSSOLINI (1932)
(ONLY COMPLETE OFFICIAL TEXT ON THE INTERNET)
(This article, co-written by Giovanni Gentile, is considered to be the most complete articulation of Mussolini's political views. This is the only complete official translation we know of on the web, copied directly from an official Fascist government publication of 1935, Fascism Doctrine and Institutions, by Benito Mussolini. This translation includes all the footnotes from the original.) Subtitles in article have been put in by us to make the article more readable.
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Like all sound political
conceptions, Fascism is action and it is thought; action in which doctrine is
immanent, and doctrine arising from a given system of historical forces in
which it is inserted, and working on them from within (1). It has therefore a form correlated to
contingencies of time and space; but it has also an ideal content which makes
it an expression of truth in the higher region of the history of thought (2). There is no way of exercising a spiritual
influence in the world as a human will dominating the will of others, unless
one has a conception both of the transient and the specific reality on which
that action is to be exercised, and of the permanent and universal reality in
which the transient dwells and has its being. To know men one must know man;
and to know man one must be acquainted with reality and its laws. There can be
no conception of the State which is not fundamentally a conception of life:
philosophy or intuition, system of ideas evolving within the framework of logic
or concentrated in a vision or a faith, but always, at least potentially, an
organic conception of the world.
SPIRITUAL VIEW OF LIFE
Thus many of the practical
expressions of Fascism such as party organization, system of education, and
discipline can only be understood when considered in relation to its general
attitude toward life. A spiritual attitude (3). Fascism sees in the world not only those
superficial, material aspects in which man appears as an individual, standing
by himself, self-centered, subject to natural law, which instinctively urges
him toward a life of selfish momentary pleasure; it sees not only the
individual but the nation and the country; individuals and generations bound
together by a moral law, with common traditions and a mission which suppressing
the instinct for life closed in a brief circle of pleasure, builds up a higher
life, founded on duty, a life free from the limitations of time and space, in
which the individual, by self-sacrifice, the renunciation of self-interest, by
death itself, can achieve that purely spiritual existence in which his value as
a man consists.
The conception is therefore a
spiritual one, arising from the general reaction of the century against the
materialistic positivism of the XIXth century. Anti-positivistic but positive;
neither skeptical nor agnostic; neither pessimistic nor supinely optimistic as
are, generally speaking, the doctrines (all negative) which place the center of
life outside man; whereas, by the exercise of his free will, man can and must
create his own world.
Fascism wants man to be active and
to engage in action with all his energies; it wants him to be manfully aware of
the difficulties besetting him and ready to face them. It conceives of life as
a struggle in which it behooves a man to win for himself a really worthy place,
first of all by fitting himself (physically, morally, intellectually) to become
the implement required for winning it. As for the individual, so for the
nation, and so for mankind (4). Hence the high value of culture in all its
forms (artistic, religious, scientific) (5) and the outstanding importance of education.
Hence also the essential value of work, by which man subjugates nature and
creates the human world (economic, political, ethical, and intellectual).
This positive conception of life is
obviously an ethical one. It invests the whole field of reality as well as the
human activities which master it. No action is exempt from moral judgment; no
activity can be despoiled of the value which a moral purpose confers on all
things. Therefore life, as conceived of by the Fascist, is serious, austere,
and religious; all its manifestations are poised in a world sustained by moral
forces and subject to spiritual responsibilities. The Fascist disdains an
“easy" life (6).
The Fascist conception of life is a
religious one (7), in which man is viewed in his immanent
relation to a higher law, endowed with an objective will transcending the
individual and raising him to conscious membership of a spiritual society.
"Those who perceive nothing beyond opportunistic considerations in the
religious policy of the Fascist regime fail to realize that Fascism is not only
a system of government but also and above all a system of thought.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRADITION
In the Fascist conception of
history, man is man only by virtue of the spiritual process to which he
contributes as a member of the family, the social group, the nation, and in
function of history to which all nations bring their contribution. Hence the
great value of tradition in records, in language, in customs, in the rules of
social life (8). Outside history man is a nonentity.
REJECTION OF INDIVIDUALISM AND THE
IMPORTANCE OF THE STATE
Fascism is therefore opposed to all
individualistic abstractions based on eighteenth century materialism; and it is
opposed to all Jacobinistic utopias and innovations. It does not believe in the
possibility of "happiness" on earth as conceived by the economistic
literature of the XVIIIth century, and it therefore rejects the theological
notion that at some future time the human family will secure a final settlement
of all its difficulties. This notion runs counter to experience which teaches
that life is in continual flux and in process of evolution. In politics Fascism
aims at realism; in practice it desires to deal only with those problems which
are the spontaneous product of historic conditions and which find or suggest
their own solutions (9). Only by entering in to the process of
reality and taking possession of the forces at work within it, can man act on
man and on nature (10).
Anti-individualistic, the Fascist
conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the
individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State,
which stands for the conscience and the universal, will of man as a historic
entity (11). It is opposed to classical liberalism which
arose as a reaction to absolutism and exhausted its historical function when
the State became the expression of the conscience and will of the people.
Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts
the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual (12). And if liberty is to he the attribute of
living men and not of abstract dummies invented by individualistic liberalism,
then Fascism stands for liberty, and for the only liberty worth having, the
liberty of the State and of the individual within the State (13). The Fascist conception of the State is all
embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have
value. Thus understood, Fascism, is totalitarian, and the Fascist State
- a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values - interprets, develops,
and potentates the whole life of a people (14).
No individuals or groups (political
parties, cultural associations, economic unions, social classes) outside the
State (15). Fascism is therefore opposed to Socialism
to which unity within the State (which amalgamates classes into a single
economic and ethical reality) is unknown, and which sees in history nothing but
the class struggle. Fascism is likewise opposed to trade unionism as a class
weapon. But when brought within the orbit of the State, Fascism recognizes the
real needs which gave rise to socialism and trade unionism, giving them due
weight in the guild or corporative system in which divergent interests are
coordinated and harmonized in the unity of the State (16).
Grouped according to their several
interests, individuals form classes; they form trade-unions when organized
according to their several economic activities; but first and foremost they
form the State, which is no mere matter of numbers, the suns of the individuals
forming the majority. Fascism is therefore opposed to that form of democracy
which equates a nation to the majority, lowering it to the level of the largest
number (17); but it is the purest form of
democracy if the nation be considered as it should be from the point of view of
quality rather than quantity, as an idea, the mightiest because the most
ethical, the most coherent, the truest, expressing itself in a people as the
conscience and will of the few, if not, indeed, of one, and ending to express
itself in the conscience and the will of the mass, of the whole group
ethnically molded by natural and historical conditions into a nation, advancing,
as one conscience and one will, along the self same line of development and
spiritual formation (18). Not a race, nor a geographically defined region,
but a people, historically perpetuating itself; a multitude unified by an idea
and imbued with the will to live, the will to power, self-consciousness,
personality (19).
In so far as it is embodied in a
State, this higher personality becomes a nation. It is not the nation which
generates the State; that is an antiquated naturalistic concept which afforded
a basis for XIXth century publicity in favor of national governments. Rather is
it the State which creates the nation, conferring volition and therefore real
life on a people made aware of their moral unity.
The right to national independence
does not arise from any merely literary and idealistic form of
self-consciousness; still less from a more or less passive and unconscious de
facto situation, but from an active, self-conscious, political will expressing
itself in action and ready to prove its rights. It arises, in short, from the
existence, at least in fieri, of a State. Indeed, it is the State which, as the
expression of a universal ethical will, creates the right to national
independence (20).
A nation, as expressed in the State,
is a living, ethical entity only in so far as it is active. Inactivity is
death. Therefore the State is not only Authority which governs and confers
legal form and spiritual value on individual wills, but it is also Power which
makes its will felt and respected beyond its own frontiers, thus affording
practical proof of the universal character of the decisions necessary to ensure
its development. This implies organization and expansion, potential if not
actual. Thus the State equates itself to the will of man, whose development
cannot he checked by obstacles and which, by achieving self-expression,
demonstrates its infinity (21).
FASCIST STATE AS A SPIRITUAL FORCE
The Fascist State, as a higher and
more powerful expression of personality, is a force, but a spiritual one. It
sums up all the manifestations of the moral and intellectual life of man. Its
functions cannot therefore be limited to those of enforcing order and keeping
the peace, as the liberal doctrine had it. It is no mere mechanical device for
defining the sphere within which the individual may duly exercise his supposed
rights. The Fascist State is an inwardly accepted standard and rule of conduct,
a discipline of the whole person; it permeates the will no less than the
intellect. It stands for a principle which becomes the central motive of man as
a member of civilized society, sinking deep down into his personality; it
dwells in the heart of the man of action and of the thinker, of the artist and
of the man of science: soul of the soul (22).
Fascism, in short, is not only a
law-giver and a founder of institutions, but an educator and a promoter of
spiritual life. It aims at refashioning not only the forms of life but their
content - man, his character, and his faith. To achieve this propose it
enforces discipline and uses authority, entering into the soul and ruling with
undisputed sway. Therefore it has chosen as its emblem the Lictor’s rods, the
symbol of unity, strength, and justice.
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL DOCTRINE -
EVOLUTION FROM SOCIALISM
When in the now distant March
of 1919, speaking through the columns of the Popolo d'Italia I summoned
to Milan the surviving interventionists who had intervened, and who had
followed me ever since the foundation of the Fasci of revolutionary action in
January 1915, I had in mind no specific doctrinal program. The only doctrine of
which I had practical experience was that of socialism, from until the winter
of 1914 - nearly a decade. My experience was that both of a follower and a
leader but it was not doctrinal experience. My doctrine during that period had
been the doctrine of action. A uniform, universally accepted doctrine of
Socialism had not existed since 1905, when the revisionist movement, headed by
Bernstein, arose in Germany, countered by the formation, in the see-saw of
tendencies, of a left revolutionary movement which in Italy never quitted the
field of phrases, whereas, in the case of Russian socialism, it became the
prelude to Bolshevism.
Reformism, revolutionism, centrism,
the very echo of that terminology is dead, while in the great river of Fascism
one can trace currents which had their source in Sorel, Peguy, Lagardelle of
the Movement Socialists, and in the cohort of Italian syndicalist who from 1904
to 1914 brought a new note into the Italian socialist environment - previously
emasculated and chloroformed by fornicating with Giolitti's party - a note
sounded in Olivetti's Pagine Libere, Orano's Lupa, Enrico Leone's Divenirs
Socials.
When the war ended in 1919
Socialism, as a doctrine, was already dead; it continued to exist only as a
grudge, especially in Italy where its only chance lay in inciting to reprisals
against the men who had willed the war and who were to be made to pay for it.
The Popolo d'Italia described itself
in its subtitle as the daily organ of fighters and producers. The word producer
was already the expression of a mental trend. Fascism was not the nursling of a
doctrine previously drafted at a desk; it was born of the need of action, and
was action; it was not a party but, in the first two years, an anti-party and a
movement. The name I gave the organization fixed its character.
Yet if anyone cares to reread the
now crumpled sheets of those days giving an account of the meeting at which the
Italian Fasci di combattimento were founded, he will find not a doctrine but a
series of pointers, forecasts, hints which, when freed from the inevitable
matrix of contingencies, were to develop in a few years time into a series of
doctrinal positions entitling Fascism to rank as a political doctrine differing
from all others, past or present.
“If the bourgeoisie - I then
said - believe that they have found in us their lightening-conductors, they arc
mistaken. We must go towards the people... We wish the working classes to accustom
themselves to the responsibilities of management so that they may realize that
it is no easy matter to run a business... We will fight both technical and
spiritual rear-guirdism... Now that the succession of the regime is open we
must not be fainthearted. We must rush forward; if the present regime is to be
superseded we must take its place. The right of succession is ours, for we
urged the country to enter the war and we led it to victory... The existing
forms of political representation cannot satisfy us; we want direst
representation of the several interests... It may be objected that this program
implies a return to the guilds (corporazioni). No matter!. I therefore hope
this assembly will accept the economic claims advanced by national syndicalism
…
Is it not strange that from the very
first day, at Piazza San Sepolcro, the word "guild" (corporazione)
was pronounced, a word which, as the Revolution developed, was to express one
of the basic legislative and social creations of the regime?
The years preceding the march on
Rome cover a period during which the need of action forbade delay and careful
doctrinal elaborations. Fighting was going on in the towns and villages. There
were discussions but... there was something more sacred and more important...
death... Fascists knew how to die. A doctrine - fully elaborated, divided up
into chapters and paragraphs with annotations, may have been lacking, but it
was replaced by something far more decisive, - by a faith. All the same, if
with the help of books, articles, resolutions passed at congresses, major and
minor speeches, anyone should care to revive the memory of those days, he will
find, provided he knows how to seek and select, that the doctrinal foundations
were laid while the battle was still raging. Indeed, it was during those years
that Fascist thought armed, refined itself, and proceeded ahead with its
organization. The problems of the individual and the State; the problems of
authority and liberty; political, social, and more especially national problems
were discussed; the conflict with liberal, democratic, socialistic, Masonic
doctrines and with those of the Partito Popolare, was carried on at the same
time as the punitive expeditions. Nevertheless, the lack of a formal system was
used by disingenuous adversaries as an argument for proclaiming Fascism
incapable of elaborating a doctrine at the very time when that doctrine was
being formulated - no matter how tumultuously, - first, as is the case with all
new ideas, in the guise of violent dogmatic negations; then in the more
positive guise of constructive theories, subsequently incorporated, in 1926,
1927, and 1928, in the laws and institutions of the regime.
Fascism is now clearly defined not
only as a regime but as a doctrine. This means that Fascism, exercising its
critical faculties on itself and on others, has studied from its own special
standpoint and judged by its own standards all the problems affecting the
material and intellectual interests now causing such grave anxiety to the
nations of the world, and is ready to deal with them by its own policies.
REJECTION OF PACIFISM
First of all, as regards the future
development of mankind, and quite apart from all present political
considerations. Fascism does not, generally speaking, believe in the
possibility or utility of perpetual peace. It therefore discards pacifism as a
cloak for cowardly supine renunciation in contradistinction to self-sacrifice.
War alone keys up all human energies to their maximum tension and sets the seal
of nobility on those peoples who have the courage to face it. All other tests
are substitutes which never place a man face to face with himself before the
alternative of life or death. Therefore all doctrines which postulate peace at
all costs are incompatible with Fascism. Equally foreign to the spirit of
Fascism, even if accepted as useful in meeting special political situations --
are all internationalistic or League superstructures which, as history shows,
crumble to the ground whenever the heart of nations is deeply stirred by
sentimental, idealistic or practical considerations. Fascism carries this
anti-pacifistic attitude into the life of the individual. " I don't care a
damn „ (me ne frego) - the proud motto of the fighting squads scrawled by a wounded
man on his bandages, is not only an act of philosophic stoicism, it sums up a
doctrine which is not merely political: it is evidence of a fighting spirit
which accepts all risks. It signifies new style of Italian life. The Fascist
accepts and loves life; he rejects and despises suicide as cowardly. Life as he
understands it means duty, elevation, conquest; life must be lofty and full, it
must be lived for oneself but above all for others, both near bye and far off,
present and future.
The population policy of the regime
is the consequence of these premises. The Fascist loves his neighbor, but the
word neighbor does not stand for some vague and unseizable conception. Love of
one's neighbor does not exclude necessary educational severity; still less does
it exclude differentiation and rank. Fascism will have nothing to do with
universal embraces; as a member of the community of nations it looks other
peoples straight in the eyes; it is vigilant and on its guard; it follows
others in all their manifestations and notes any changes in their interests;
and it does not allow itself to be deceived by mutable and fallacious
appearances.
REJECTION OF MARXISM
Such a conception of life makes
Fascism the resolute negation of the doctrine underlying so-called scientific
and Marxian socialism, the doctrine of historic materialism which would explain
the history of mankind in terms of the class struggle and by changes in the
processes and instruments of production, to the exclusion of all else.
That the vicissitudes of economic
life - discoveries of raw materials, new technical processes, and scientific
inventions - have their importance, no one denies; but that they suffice to
explain human history to the exclusion of other factors is absurd. Fascism
believes now and always in sanctity and heroism, that is to say in acts in
which no economic motive - remote or immediate - is at work. Having denied
historic materialism, which sees in men mere puppets on the surface of history,
appearing and disappearing on the crest of the waves while in the depths the
real directing forces move and work, Fascism also denies the immutable and
irreparable character of the class struggle which is the natural outcome of
this economic conception of history; above all it denies that the class struggle
is the preponderating agent in social transformations. Having thus struck a
blow at socialism in the two main points of its doctrine, all that remains of
it is the sentimental aspiration, old as humanity itself-toward social
relations in which the sufferings and sorrows of the humbler folk will be
alleviated. But here again Fascism rejects the economic interpretation of
felicity as something to be secured socialistically, almost automatically, at a
given stage of economic evolution when all will be assured a maximum of
material comfort. Fascism denies the materialistic conception of happiness as a
possibility, and abandons it to the economists of the mid-eighteenth century.
This means that Fascism denies the equation: well-being = happiness, which sees
in men mere animals, content when they can feed and fatten, thus reducing them
to a vegetative existence pure and simple.
REJECTION OF PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY
AS A SHAM AND A FRAUD
After socialism, Fascism trains its
guns on the whole block of democratic ideologies, and rejects both their
premises and their practical applications and implements. Fascism denies that
numbers, as such, can be the determining factor in human society; it denies the
right of numbers to govern by means of periodical consultations; it asserts the
irremediable and fertile and beneficent inequality of men who cannot be leveled
by any such mechanical and extrinsic device as universal suffrage. Democratic
regimes may be described as those under which the people are, from time to
time, deluded into the belief that they exercise sovereignty, while all the
time real sovereignty resides in and is exercised by other and sometimes
irresponsible and secret forces. Democracy is a kingless regime infested by
many kings who are sometimes more exclusive, tyrannical, and destructive than
one, even if he be a tyrant. This explains why Fascism - although, for
contingent reasons, it was republican in tendency prior to 1922 - abandoned
that stand before the March on Rome, convinced that the form of government is
no longer a matter of preeminent importance, and because the study of past and
present monarchies and past and present republics shows that neither monarchy
nor republic can be judged sub specie aeternitatis, but that each stands for a
form of government expressing the political evolution, the history, the
traditions, and the psychology of a given country.
Fascism has outgrown the dilemma:
monarchy v. republic, over which democratic regimes too long dallied,
attributing all insufficiencies to the former and proning the latter as a
regime of perfection, whereas experience teaches that some republics are
inherently reactionary and absolutist while some monarchies accept the most
daring political and social experiments.
In one of his philosophic Meditations
Renan - who had prefascist intuitions remarks, "Reason and science are the
products of mankind, but it is chimerical to seek reason directly for the
people and through the people. It is not essential to the existence of reason
that all should be familiar with it; and even if all had to be initiated, this
could not be achieved through democracy which seems fated to lead to the
extinction of all arduous forms of culture and all highest forms of learning.
The maxim that society exists only for the well-being and freedom of the
individuals composing it does not seem to be in conformity with nature's plans,
which care only for the species and seem ready to sacrifice the individual. It
is much to be feared that the last word of democracy thus understood (and let
me hasten to add that it is susceptible of a different interpretation) would be
a form of society in which a degenerate mass would have no thought beyond that
of enjoying the ignoble pleasures of the vulgar."
REJECTION OF EGALITARIANISM
In rejecting democracy, Fascism
rejects the absurd conventional lie of political equalitarianism, the habit of
collective irresponsibility, the myth of felicity and indefinite progress.
DEFINITION OF FASCISM AS REAL
DEMOCRACY
But if democracy be understood as
meaning a regime in which the masses are not driven back to the margin of the
State, and then the writer of these pages has already defined Fascism as an
organized, centralized, authoritarian democracy.
REJECTION OF ECONOMIC LIBERALISM -
ADMIRATION OF BISMARCK
Fascism is definitely and absolutely
opposed to the doctrines of liberalism, both in the political and the economic
sphere. The importance of liberalism in the XIXth century should not be
exaggerated for present day polemical purposes, nor should we make of one of the
many doctrines which flourished in that century a religion for mankind for the
present and for all time to come. Liberalism really flourished for fifteen
years only. It arose in 1830 as a reaction to the Holy Alliance which tried to
force Europe to recede further back than 1789; it touched its zenith in 1848
when even Pius IXth was a liberal. Its decline began immediately after that
year. If 1848 was a year of light and poetry, 1849 was a year of darkness and
tragedy. The Roman Republic was killed by a sister republic, that of France. In
that same year Marx, in his famous Communist Manifesto, launched the gospel of
socialism.
In 1851 Napoleon III made his
illiberal coup d'etat and ruled France until 1870 when he was turned out by a
popular rising following one of the severest military defeats known to history.
The victor was Bismarck who never even knew the whereabouts of liberalism and
its prophets. It is symptomatic that throughout the XIXth century the religion
of liberalism was completely unknown to so highly civilized a people as the
Germans but for one parenthesis which has been described as the “ridiculous
parliament of Frankfort " which lasted just one season. Germany attained
her national unity outside liberalism and in opposition to liberalism, a
doctrine which seems foreign to the German temperament, essentially
monarchical, whereas liberalism is the historic and logical anteroom to
anarchy. The three stages in the making of German unity were the three wars of
1864, 1866, and 1870, led by such "liberals" as Moltke and
Bismarck. And in the upbuilding of Italian unity liberalism played a very
minor part when compared to the contribution made by Mazzini and Garibaldi who
were not liberals. But for the intervention of the illiberal Napoleon III we
should not have had Lombardy, and without that of the illiberal Bismarck at
Sadowa and at Sedan very probably we should not have had Venetia in 1866 and in
1870 we should not have entered Rome. The years going from 1870 to 1915 cover a
period which marked, even in the opinion of the high priests of the new creed,
the twilight of their religion, attacked by decadentism in literature and by
activism in practice. Activism: that is to say nationalism, futurism, fascism.
rengten
rengten
The liberal century, after piling up
innumerable Gordian Knots, tried to cut them with the sword of the world war.
Never has any religion claimed so cruel a sacrifice. Were the Gods of
liberalism thirsting for blood?
Now liberalism is preparing to close
the doors of its temples, deserted by the peoples who feel that the agnosticism
it professed in the sphere of economics and the indifferentism of which it has
given proof in the sphere of politics and morals, would lead the world to ruin
in the future as they have done in the past.
This explains why all the political
experiments of our day are anti-liberal, and it is supremely ridiculous to
endeavor on this account to put them outside the pale of history, as though
history were a preserve set aside for liberalism and its adepts; as though
liberalism were the last word in civilization beyond which no one can go.
THE FASCIST TOTALITARIAN VISION OF
THE FUTURE
The Fascist negation of socialism,
democracy, liberalism, should not, however, be interpreted as implying a desire
to drive the world backwards to positions occupied prior to 1789, a year
commonly referred to as that which opened the demo-liberal century. History
does not travel backwards. The Fascist doctrine has not taken De Maistre as its
prophet. Monarchical absolutism is of the past, and so is ecclesiolatry. Dead
and done for are feudal privileges and the division of society into closed,
uncommunicating castes. Neither has the Fascist conception of authority
anything in common with that of a police ridden State.
A party governing a nation
“totalitarianly" is a new departure in history. There are no points of
reference nor of comparison. From beneath the ruins of liberal, socialist, and
democratic doctrines, Fascism extracts those elements which are still vital. It
preserves what may be described as "the acquired facts" of history;
it rejects all else. That is to say, it rejects the idea of a doctrine suited
to all times and to all people. Granted that the XIXth century was the century
of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the XXth century
must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political
doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century
of authority, a century tending to the " right ", a Fascist century.
If the XIXth century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies
individualism) we are free to believe that this is the "collective"
century, and therefore the century of the State. It is quite logical for a new
doctrine to make use of the still vital elements of other doctrines. No
doctrine was ever born quite new and bright and unheard of. No doctrine can
boast absolute originality. It is always connected, it only historically, with
those which preceded it and those which will follow it. Thus the scientific
socialism of Marx links up to the utopian socialism of the Fouriers, the Owens,
the Saint-Simons ; thus the liberalism of the XIXth century traces its origin
back to the illuministic movement of the XVIIIth, and the doctrines of democracy
to those of the Encyclopaedists. All doctrines aim at directing the activities
of men towards a given objective; but these activities in their turn react on
the doctrine, modifying and adjusting it to new needs, or outstripping it. A
doctrine must therefore be a vital act and not a verbal display. Hence the
pragmatic strain in Fascism, it’s will to power, its will to live, its attitude
toward violence, and its value.
THE ABSOLUTE PRIMACY OF THE STATE
The keystone of the Fascist doctrine
is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims.
For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative. Individuals
and groups are admissible in so far as they come within the State. Instead of
directing the game and guiding the material and moral progress of the
community, the liberal State restricts its activities to recording results. The
Fascist State is wide awake and has a will of its own. For this reason it can
be described as " ethical ".
At the first quinquennial assembly
of the regime, in 1929, I said “The Fascist State is not a night
watchman, solicitous only of the personal safety of the citizens; not is it
organized exclusively for the purpose of guarantying a certain degree of
material prosperity and relatively peaceful conditions of life, a board of
directors would do as much. Neither is it exclusively political, divorced from
practical realities and holding itself aloof from the multifarious activities
of the citizens and the nation. The State, as conceived and realized by
Fascism, is a spiritual and ethical entity for securing the political,
juridical, and economic organization of the nation, an organization which in
its origin and growth is a manifestation of the spirit. The State guarantees
the internal and external safety of the country, but it also safeguards and
transmits the spirit of the people, elaborated down the ages in its language,
its customs, its faith. The State is not only the present; it is also the past
and above all the future. Transcending the individual's brief spell of life,
the State stands for the immanent conscience of the nation. The forms in which
it finds expression change, but the need for it remains. The State educates the
citizens to civism, makes them aware of their mission, urges them to unity; its
justice harmonizes their divergent interests; it transmits to future
generations the conquests of the mind in the fields of science, art, law, human
solidarity; it leads men up from primitive tribal life to that highest
manifestation of human power, imperial rule.
The State hands down to future
generations the memory of those who laid down their lives to ensure its safety
or to obey its laws; it sets up as examples and records for future ages the
names of the captains who enlarged its territory and of the men of genius who
have made it famous. Whenever respect for the State declines and the
disintegrating and centrifugal tendencies of individuals and groups prevail,
nations are headed for decay". Since 1929 economic and political
development have everywhere emphasized these truths. The importance of the
State is rapidly growing. The so-called crisis can only be settled by State
action and within the orbit of the State. Where are the shades of the Jules
Simons who, in the early days of liberalism proclaimed that the "State
should endeavor to render itself useless and prepare to hand in its resignation
"? Or of the MacCullochs who, in the second half of last century, urged
that the State should desist from governing too much? And what of the English
Bentham who considered that all industry asked of government was to be left
alone, and of the German Humbolt who expressed the opinion that the best
government was a lazy " one? What would they say now to the unceasing,
inevitable, and urgently requested interventions of government in business? It
is true that the second generation of economists was less uncompromising in
this respect than the first, and that even Adam Smith left the door ajar -
however cautiously - for government intervention in business.
If liberalism spells individualism,
Fascism spells government.
The Fascist State is, however, a
unique and original creation. It is not reactionary but revolutionary, for it
anticipates the solution of certain universal problems which have been raised
elsewhere, in the political field by the splitting up of parties, the
usurpation of power by parliaments, the irresponsibility of assemblies; in the
economic field by the increasingly numerous and important functions discharged
by trade unions and trade associations with their disputes and ententes,
affecting both capital and labor; in the ethical field by the need felt for
order, discipline, obedience to the moral dictates of patriotism.
Fascism desires the State to be
strong and organic, based on broad foundations of popular support. The Fascist
State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it makes
its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by means of
its corporative, social, and educational institutions, and all the political,
economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organized in their respective
associations, circulate within the State. A State based on millions of
individuals who recognize its authority, feel its action, and are ready to
serve its ends is not the tyrannical state of a mediaeval lordling. It has
nothing in common with the despotic States existing prior to or subsequent to
1789.
Far from crushing the individual,
the Fascist State multiplies his energies, just as in a regiment a soldier is not
diminished but multiplied by the number of his fellow soldiers. The Fascist
State organizes the nation, but it leaves the individual adequate elbow room.
It has curtailed useless or harmful liberties while preserving those which are
essential. In such matters the individual cannot be the judge, but the State
only. The Fascist
State is not indifferent to
religious phenomena in general nor does it maintain an attitude of indifference
to Roman Catholicism, the special, positive religion of Italians. The State has
not got a theology but it has a moral code. The Fascist State sees in religion
one of the deepest of spiritual manifestations and for this reason it not only
respects religion but defends and protects it. The Fascist State does not
attempt, as did Robespierre at the height of the revolutionary delirium of the
Convention, to set up a "god” of its own; nor does it vainly seek, as does
Bolshevism, to efface God from the soul of man.
Fascism respects the God of
ascetics, saints, and heroes, and it also respects God as conceived by the
ingenuous and primitive heart of the people, the God to whom their prayers are
raised.
The Fascist State expresses the will
to exercise power and to command. Here the Roman tradition is embodied in a
conception of strength. Imperial power, as understood by the Fascist doctrine,
is not only territorial, or military, or commercial; it is also spiritual and
ethical. An imperial nation, that is to say a nation a which directly or
indirectly is a leader of others, can exist without the need of conquering a
single square mile of territory. Fascism sees in the imperialistic spirit --
i.e. in the tendency of nations to expand - a manifestation of their vitality.
In the opposite tendency, which would limit their interests to the home
country, it sees a symptom of decadence. Peoples who rise or rearise are
imperialistic; renunciation is characteristic of dying peoples. The Fascist
doctrine is that best suited to the tendencies and feelings of a people which,
like the Italian, after lying fallow during centuries of foreign servitude, are
now reasserting itself in the world.
But imperialism implies discipline,
the coordination of efforts, a deep sense of duty and a spirit of
self-sacrifice. This explains many aspects of the practical activity of the
regime, and the direction taken by many of the forces of the State, as also the
severity which has to be exercised towards those who would oppose this
spontaneous and inevitable movement of XXth century Italy by agitating outgrown
ideologies of the XIXth century, ideologies rejected wherever great experiments
in political and social transformations are being dared.
Never before have the peoples
thirsted for authority, direction, order, as they do now. If each age has its
doctrine, then innumerable symptoms indicate that the doctrine of our age is
the Fascist. That it is vital is shown by the fact that it has aroused a faith;
that this faith has conquered souls is shown by the fact that Fascism can point
to its fallen heroes and its martyrs.
Fascism has now acquired throughout
the world that universally which belongs to all doctrines which by achieving
self-expression represent a moment in the history of human thought.
APPENDIX
FOOTNOTES
1. Philosophic conception
(1)
If Fascism does not wish to die or, worse still, commit suicide, it must now
provide itself with a doctrine. Yet this shall not and must not be a robe of
Nessus clinging to us for all eternity, for tomorrow is some thing mysterious
and unforeseen. This doctrine shall be a norm to guide political and individual
action in our daily life.
I who have I dictated this doctrine,
am the first to realize that the modest tables of our laws and program the
theoretical and practical guidance of Fascism should be revised, corrected,
enlarged, developed, because already in parts they have suffered injury at the
hand of time. I believe the essence and fundamentals of the doctrine are still
to be found in the postulates which throughout two years have acted as a call
to arms for the recruits of Italian Fascism. However, in taking those first
fundamental assumptions for a starting point, we must proceed to carry our
program into a vaster field. Italian Fascists, one and all, should
cooperate in this task, one of vital importance to Fascism, and more especially
those who belong to regions where with and without agreement peaceful
coexistence has been achieved between two antagonistic movements.
The word I am about to use is a great
one, but indeed I do wish that during the two months which are still to elapse
before our National Assembly meets, the philosophy of Fascism could be created.
Milan is already contributing with the first Fascist school of propaganda. It
is not merely a question of gathering elements for a program, to be used as a
solid foundation for the constitution of a party which must inevitably arise
from the Fascist movement; it is also a question of denying the silly tale that
Fascism is all made up of violent men. In point of fact among Fascists there
are many men who belong to the restless but meditative class.
The new course taken by Fascist
activity will in no way diminish the fighting spirit typical of Fascism. To
furnish the mind with doctrines and creeds does not mean to disarm, rather it
signifies to strengthen our power of action, and make us ever more
conscious of our work. Soldiers who fight fully conscious of the cause make the
best of warriors. Fascism takes for its own the twofold device of Mazzini :
Thought and Action u. (Letter to Michele Bianchi, written on August 27, 1921,
for the opening of the School of Fascist Culture and Propaganda in Milan, in
Messaggi e Proclami, Milano, Libreria d'Italia, 1929, P. 39).
Fascists must be placed in contact
with one another; their activity must be an activity of doctrine, an activity
of the spirit and of thought. Had our adversaries been present at our
meeting, they would have been convinced that Fascism is not only action, but thought
as well (Speech before the National Council of the Fascist Party, August
8, 1924, in La Nuova Politica dell'Italia, Milano, Alpes, 1928, p. 267).
(2)
Today I hold that Fascism as an idea, a doctrine, a realization, is universal;
it is Italian in its particular institutions, but it is universal in the
spirit, nor could it be otherwise. The spirit is universal by reason of its
nature. Therefore anyone may foresee a Fascist Europe. Drawing
inspiration for her institutions from the doctrine and practice of Fascism;
Europe , in other words, giving a Fascist turn to the solution of problems
which beset the modern State, the Twentieth Century State which is very
different from the States existing before 1789, and the States formed
immediately after. Today Fascism fills universal requirements; Fascism solves
the threefold problem of relations between State and individual, between State
and associations, between associations and organized associations. (Message for
the year 1 October 27, 1930, in Discorsi del 1930, Milano, Alpes, 1931, p.
211).
2. Spiritualized conception
(3)
This political process is flanked by a philosophic process. If it be true
that matter was on the altars for one century, today it is the spirit which
takes its place. All manifestations peculiar to the democratic spirit are
consequently repudiated: easygoingness, improvisation, the lack of a personal
sense of responsibility, the exaltation of numbers and of that mysterious
divinity called n The People a. All creations of the spirit starting with that
religious are coming to the fore, and nobody dare keep up the attitude of
anticlericalism which, for several decades, was a favorite with Democracy in
the Western world. By saying that God is returning, we mean that spiritual
values are returning. (Da the parte va it mondo, in Tempi della Rivoluzione
Fascista, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 34).
There is a field reserved more to
meditation upon the supreme ends of life than to a research of these ends.
Consequently science starts from experience, but breaks out fatally into
philosophy and, in my opinion, philosophy alone can enlighten science and lead
to the universal idea. (To the Congress of Science at Bologna , October 31,
19,26, in Discorsidel 1926. Milano, Alpes, 1927, p. 268).
In order to understand the Fascist
movement one must first appreciate the underlying spiritual phenomenon in all
its vastness and depth. The manifestations of the movement have been of a
powerful and decisive nature, but one should go further. In point of fact
Italian Fascism has not only been a political revolt against weak and incapable
governments who had allowed State authority to decay and were threatening to
arrest the progress of the country, but also a spiritual revolt against old
ideas which had corrupted the sacred principles of religion, of faith, of
country. Fascism, therefore, has been a revolt of the people. (Message to the
British people; January 5, 1924, in Messaggi e Proclami, Milano, Libreria d'
Italia, 1929, p. 107).
3. Positive conception of life
as a struggle
(4) Struggle is at the origin of all things, for life is full of contrasts: there is love and hatred, white and black, day and night, good and evil; and until these contrasts achieve balance, struggle fatefully remains at the root of human nature. However, it is good for it to be so. Today we can indulge in wars, economic battles, conflicts of ideas, but if a day came to pass when struggle ceased to exist, that day would be tinged with melancholy; it would be a day of ruin, the day of ending. But thaver discloses new horizons. By attempting to restore calm, peace, tranquility, or. A would be fighting the tendencies of the present period of dynamism. Ore must be prepared for other struggles and for other surprises. Peace will only come when people surrender to a Christian dream of universal brotherhood, when they can hold out hands across the ocean and over the mountains. Personally I do not believe very much in these idealisms, but I do not exclude them for I exclude nothing. (At the Politeama Rossetti, Trieste, September 20, 1920 in Discorsi Politici, Milano, Stab. Tipografico del « Popolo d' Italia » , 1921, p. 107).
(4) Struggle is at the origin of all things, for life is full of contrasts: there is love and hatred, white and black, day and night, good and evil; and until these contrasts achieve balance, struggle fatefully remains at the root of human nature. However, it is good for it to be so. Today we can indulge in wars, economic battles, conflicts of ideas, but if a day came to pass when struggle ceased to exist, that day would be tinged with melancholy; it would be a day of ruin, the day of ending. But thaver discloses new horizons. By attempting to restore calm, peace, tranquility, or. A would be fighting the tendencies of the present period of dynamism. Ore must be prepared for other struggles and for other surprises. Peace will only come when people surrender to a Christian dream of universal brotherhood, when they can hold out hands across the ocean and over the mountains. Personally I do not believe very much in these idealisms, but I do not exclude them for I exclude nothing. (At the Politeama Rossetti, Trieste, September 20, 1920 in Discorsi Politici, Milano, Stab. Tipografico del « Popolo d' Italia » , 1921, p. 107).
(5) For
me the honor of nations consists in the contribution they have severally made
to human civilization. (E. Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, London, Allen and
Unwin, 1932, p. 199)
4. Ethical conception
I called the organization Fasci Italiani Di Combatimento. This hard metallic name compromised the whole program of Fascism as I dreamed it. Comrades, this is still our program: fight. Life for the Fascist is a continuous, ceaseless fight, which we accept with ease, with great courage, with the necessary intrepidity. (On the VIIth anniversary of the Foundation of the Fasci, March 28, 1926, in Discorsi del 1926, Milano, Alpes, 7, p.98 You touch the core of Fascist philosophy. When recently a Finnish philosopher asked me to expound to him the significance of Fascism in one sentence, I wrote in German: ((We are against the “easy life"! (E. Ludwig: Talks with Mussolini, London, Allen and Unwin, 1932, p. 190).
4. Ethical conception
I called the organization Fasci Italiani Di Combatimento. This hard metallic name compromised the whole program of Fascism as I dreamed it. Comrades, this is still our program: fight. Life for the Fascist is a continuous, ceaseless fight, which we accept with ease, with great courage, with the necessary intrepidity. (On the VIIth anniversary of the Foundation of the Fasci, March 28, 1926, in Discorsi del 1926, Milano, Alpes, 7, p.98 You touch the core of Fascist philosophy. When recently a Finnish philosopher asked me to expound to him the significance of Fascism in one sentence, I wrote in German: ((We are against the “easy life"! (E. Ludwig: Talks with Mussolini, London, Allen and Unwin, 1932, p. 190).
5. Religious conception
(7)
If Fascism were not a creed, how could it endow its followers with courage and
stoicism only a creed which has soared to the heights of religion can inspire
such words as passed the lips, now lifeless alas, of Federico Florio. (Legami
di Sangue, in Diuturna, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 256).
6. Historical and realistic
conception
(8)
Tradition certainly is one of the greatest spiritual forces of a people,
inasmuch as it is a successive and constant creation of their soul. (Breve
Preludio, in Tempi della Rivoluzione Fascista, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p.
13)
(9)
Our temperament leads us to appraise the concrete aspect of problems, rather
than their ideological or mystical sublimation. Therefore we easily regain our
balance. (Aspetti del Dramma, in Diuturna, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 86).
Our battle is an ungrateful one, yet
it is a beautiful battle since it compels us to count only upon our own forces.
Revealed truths we have torn to shreds, dogmas we have spat upon, we have
rejected all theories of paradise, we have baffled charlatans white, red, black
charlatans who placed miraculous drugs on the market to give a happiness n to
mankind. We do not believe in program, in plans, in saints or apostles, above
all we believe not in happiness, in salvation, in the Promised Land. (Diuturna,
Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 223).
We do not believe in a single
solution, be it economical, political or moral, a linear solution of the
problems of life, because of illustrious choristers from all the sacristies
life is not linear and can never be reduced to a segment traced by primordial
needs. (Navigare necesse, in Diuturna, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 233).
(10) We are not and do not wish to
be motionless mummies, with faces perpetually turned towards the same horizon,
nor do we wish to shut ourselves up within the narrow hedges of subversive
bigotry, where formulas, like prayers of a professed religion, are muttered
mechanically. We are men, living men, who wish to give our contribution, however
'modest, to the creation of history. (Audacia, in Diu turna, Milano, Alpes,
1930, p.233)
We uphold moral and traditional values which Socialism neglects or despises; but, above all, Fascism has a horror of anything implying an arbitrary mortgage on the mysterious future. (Dopo due anni, in Diuturna, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 242).
In spite of the theories of conservation and renovation, of tradition and progress expounded by the right and the left, we do not cling desperately to the past as to a last board of salvation: yet we do not dash headlong into the seductive mists of the future. (Breve preludio, in Diuturna, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 14) Negation, eternal immobility, mean damnation. I am all for motion. I am, one who marches on (E. Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, Lot Jon, Allen and Unwin, 1932, p. 203).
We uphold moral and traditional values which Socialism neglects or despises; but, above all, Fascism has a horror of anything implying an arbitrary mortgage on the mysterious future. (Dopo due anni, in Diuturna, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 242).
In spite of the theories of conservation and renovation, of tradition and progress expounded by the right and the left, we do not cling desperately to the past as to a last board of salvation: yet we do not dash headlong into the seductive mists of the future. (Breve preludio, in Diuturna, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 14) Negation, eternal immobility, mean damnation. I am all for motion. I am, one who marches on (E. Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, Lot Jon, Allen and Unwin, 1932, p. 203).
7. The individual and liberty
(11)
We were the first to state, in the face of demo liberal individualism, that the
individual exists only in so far as he is within the State and subjected to the
requirements of the state and that, as civilization assumes aspects which grow
more and more complicated, individual freedom becomes more and more restricted.
(To the General staff Conference of Fascism, in Discorsi del 1929, Milano,
Alpes, 1930, p. 280).
The sense of the state grows within the consciousness of Italians, for they feel that the state alone is the irreplaceable safeguard of their unit and independence; that the state alone represents continuity into the future of their stock and their history. (Message on the VIIth all anniversary, October 25, 1929, Discorsi del 1929, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 300).
The sense of the state grows within the consciousness of Italians, for they feel that the state alone is the irreplaceable safeguard of their unit and independence; that the state alone represents continuity into the future of their stock and their history. (Message on the VIIth all anniversary, October 25, 1929, Discorsi del 1929, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 300).
If, in the course of the past eight
years, we have made such astounding progress, you may well think suppose and
foresee that in the course of the next fifty or eighty years the onward trend
of Italy, of this Italy we feel to be so powerful, so full of vital fluid, will
really be grandiose. It will be so especially if concord lasts among citizens,
if the State continues to be sole arbitrator in political and social conflicts,
if all remains within the state and nothing outside the State, because it is
impossible to conceive any individual existing outside the State unless he be a
savage whose home is in the solitude of she sandy desert. (Speech before the
Senate, May 12, 1928, in Discorsi del 1928, Milano, Alpes, 1929, p. 109).
Fascism has restored to the State
its sovereign functions by claiming its absolute ethical meaning, against the
egotism of classes and categories; to the Government of the state, which was
reduced to a mere instrument of electoral assemblies, it has restored dignity,
as representing the personality of the state and its power of Empire. It has
rescued State administration from the weight of factions and party interests
(To the council of state, December 22, 1928, in Discorsi Del 1928, Milano,
Alpes, 1929 p.328).
(12) Let no one think of denying the moral character of
Fascism. For I should be ashamed to speak from this tribune if I did not feel
that I represent the moral and spiritual powers of the state. What would the
state be if it did not possess a spirit of its own, and a morality of its own,
which lend power to the laws in virtue of which the state is obeyed by its
citizens?
The Fascist state claims its ethical
character: it is Catholic but above all it is Fascist, in fact it is
exclusively and essentially Fascist. Catholicism completes Fascism, and this we
openly declare, but let no one think they can turn the tables on us, under
cover of metaphysics or philosophy. (To the Chamber of Deputies, May 13, 1929,
in Discorsi del 1929, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 182).
A State which is fully aware of its
mission and represents a people which are marching on; a state which
necessarily transforms the people even in their physical aspect. In order to be
something more than a mere administrator, the State must utter great words,
expound great ideas and place great problems before this people (Di scorsi del
1929, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 183).
(13) The concept of freedom is not absolute because nothing is ever absolute in life. Freedom is not a right, it is a duty. It is not a gift, it is a conquest; it is not equality, it is a privilege. The concept of freedom changes with the passing of time. There is a freedom in times of peace which is not the freedom of times of war. There is a freedom in times of prosperity which is not a freedom to be allowed in times of poverty. (Fifth anniversary of the foundation of the Fasci di Combattimento, March 24, 1924, in La nuova politica dell'Italia, vol. III, Milano, Alpes, 1925, p. 30).
(13) The concept of freedom is not absolute because nothing is ever absolute in life. Freedom is not a right, it is a duty. It is not a gift, it is a conquest; it is not equality, it is a privilege. The concept of freedom changes with the passing of time. There is a freedom in times of peace which is not the freedom of times of war. There is a freedom in times of prosperity which is not a freedom to be allowed in times of poverty. (Fifth anniversary of the foundation of the Fasci di Combattimento, March 24, 1924, in La nuova politica dell'Italia, vol. III, Milano, Alpes, 1925, p. 30).
In our state the individual is not
deprived of freedom. In fact, he has greater liberty than an isolated man,
because the state protects him and he is part of the State. Isolated man is
without defence. (E. Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, London, Allen and Unwin,
1932, p. 129).
(14) Today we may tell the world of the creation of the powerful united State of Italy, ranging from the Alps to Sicily; this State is expressed by a well-organized, centralized, unitarian democracy, where people circulate at case. Indeed, gentlemen, you admit the people into the citadel of the State and the people will defend it, if you close them out, the people will assault it. (speech before the Chamber of Deputies, May 26, 1927, in Discorsi del 1927, Milano, Alpes, 1928, p. 159).
(14) Today we may tell the world of the creation of the powerful united State of Italy, ranging from the Alps to Sicily; this State is expressed by a well-organized, centralized, unitarian democracy, where people circulate at case. Indeed, gentlemen, you admit the people into the citadel of the State and the people will defend it, if you close them out, the people will assault it. (speech before the Chamber of Deputies, May 26, 1927, in Discorsi del 1927, Milano, Alpes, 1928, p. 159).
In the Fascist regime the unity of
classes, the political, social and coral unity of the Italian people is
realized within the state, and only within the Fascist state. (speech before
the Chamber of Deputies,
December 9, 1928, in Discorsi del
1928, Milano, Alpes, 1929, p. 333).
8. Conception of a corporative state
(15)
We have created the united state of Italy remember that since the Empire Italy
had not been a united state. Here I wish to reaffirm solemnly our doctrine of
the State. Here I wish to reaffirm with no weaker energy, the formula I
expounded at the scala in Milan everything in the state, nothing against the
State, nothing outside the state. (speech before the Chamber of Deputies, May
26, 1927, Discorsi del 1927, Milano, Alpes, 1928, p. 157).
(16) We are, in other words, a state which controls all forces acting in nature. We control political forces, we control moral forces we control economic forces, therefore we are a full-blown Corporative state. We stand for a new principle in the world, we stand for sheer, categorical, definitive antithesis to the world of democracy, plutocracy, free-masonry, to the world which still abides by the fundamental principles laid down in 1789. (Speech before the new National Directory of the Party, April 7, 1926, in Discorsi del 1926, Milano, Alpes, 1927, p. 120).
(16) We are, in other words, a state which controls all forces acting in nature. We control political forces, we control moral forces we control economic forces, therefore we are a full-blown Corporative state. We stand for a new principle in the world, we stand for sheer, categorical, definitive antithesis to the world of democracy, plutocracy, free-masonry, to the world which still abides by the fundamental principles laid down in 1789. (Speech before the new National Directory of the Party, April 7, 1926, in Discorsi del 1926, Milano, Alpes, 1927, p. 120).
The Ministry of Corporations is not
a bureaucratic organ, nor does it wish to exercise the functions of syndical
organizations which are necessarily independent, since they aim at organizing,
selecting and improving the members of syndicates. The Ministry of Corporations
is an institution in virtue of which, in the centre and outside, integral
corporation becomes an accomplished fact, where balance is achieved between
interests and forces of the economic world. Such a glance is only possible
within the sphere of the state, because the state alone transcends the
contrasting interests of groups and individuals, in view of co-coordinating
them to achieve higher aims. The achievement of these aims is speeded up by the
fact that all economic organizations, acknowledged, safeguarded and supported
by the Corporative State, exist within the orbit of Fascism; in other terms
they accept the conception of Fascism in theory and in practice. (speech at the
opening of the Ministry of Corporations, July 31, 1926, in Discorsi del 1926,
Milano, Alpes, 1927, p. 250).
We have constituted a Corporative
and Fascist state, the state of national society, a State which concentrates,
controls, harmonizes and tempers the interests of all social classes, which are
thereby protected in equal measure. Whereas, during the years of demo-liberal
regime, labour looked with diffidence upon the state, was, in fact, outside the
State and against the state, and considered the state an enemy of every day and
every hour, there is not one working Italian today who does not seek a place in
his Corporation or federation, who does not wish to be a living atom of that
great, immense, living organization which is the national Corporate State of
Fascism. (On the Fourth Anniversary of the March on Rome, October 28, 1926, in
Discorsi del 1926, Milano, Alpes, 1927, p. 340).
9. Democracy
(17)
The war was revolutionary, in the sense that with streams of blood it did away
with the century of Democracy, the century of number, the century of majorities
and of quantities. (Da che parte va il Mondo, in Tempi della Rivoluzione
Fascista, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 37)
(19) Race: it is a feeling and not a
reality; 95 %, a feeling. (E. Ludwig, Talks with Mussolini, London, Allen and
Unwin, 1932, p. 75).
10. Conception of the state
(20)
A nation exists inasmuch as it is a people. A people rise inasmuch as they are
numerous, hard working and well regulated. Power is the outcome of this
threefold principle. (To the General Assembly of the Party, March lo, 1929, in
Discorsi del 1929, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 24).
Fascism does not deny the State;
Fascism maintains that a civic society, national or imperial, cannot be
conceived unless in the form of a State (Stab, anti-Slato, Fascismo, in Tempi
della Rivoluzione Fascista, Milano, Alpes, 1930, p. 94).
For us the Nation is mainly spirit
and not only territory. There are States which owned immense territories and
yet left no trace in the history of mankind. Neither is it a question of
number, because there have been, in history, small, microscopic States, which
left immortal, imperishable documents in art and
philosophy. The greatness of a nation is the compound
of all these virtues and conditions. A nation is great when the power of the
spirit is translated into reality. (Speech at Naples, October 24, 1922, in
Discorsi della Rivoluzione, Milano, Alpes, 1928, p. 103). We wish to unity the
nation within the sovereign State, which is above everyone rid can afford to be
against everyone, since it represents the moral continuity of the nation in
history. Without the State there is no nation. There are, merely. human
aggregations. subject to all the disintegration's which history may inflict
upon them. (Speech before the National Council of the Fascist Party, August 8,
1924, in La Nuova Politica dell'Italia, vol. III; Milano, Alpes, 1928, p. 269).
11. Dynamic reality
(21) I believe that if a people wish to live, they should develop a will to power, otherwise they vegetate, live miserably and become prey to a stronger people, in whom this will to power is developed to a higher degree. (Speech to the Senate, May 28, 1926).
(22) It is Fascism which has refashioned the character of the Italians, removing impurity from our souls, tempering us to all sacrifices, restoring the true aspect of strength and beauty to our Italian face. (Speech delivered at Pisa ,
(21) I believe that if a people wish to live, they should develop a will to power, otherwise they vegetate, live miserably and become prey to a stronger people, in whom this will to power is developed to a higher degree. (Speech to the Senate, May 28, 1926).
(22) It is Fascism which has refashioned the character of the Italians, removing impurity from our souls, tempering us to all sacrifices, restoring the true aspect of strength and beauty to our Italian face. (Speech delivered at Pisa ,
May 25, 1926, in Discorsi del 1926,
Milano, Alpes, 1927, p. 193).
It is not
out of place to illustrate the intrinsic character and profound significance of
the Fascist Levy. It is not merely a ceremony, but a very important stage in
the system of education and integral preparation of Italian men which the Fascist
revolution considers one of the fundamental duties of the State: fundamental
indeed, for if the State does not fulfill this duty or in any way accepts to
place it under discussion, the State merely and simply forfeits its right to
exist. (Speech before the Chamber of Deputies, May 28, 1928, in Discorsi
del 1928, Milano, Alpes, 1929, p. 68).
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