MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL

First Published 1928 Second Edition 1929

T n

My Grandfather, SIR JOHN STRACHEY, G.C.S.I., C.I.E., D.C.L

Author's P.	REFACE	C	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	xiii
AUTHOR'S P	REFACE	то	THE SE	ECOND ]	Ерітіо	N	•••	xvii
Preface.—	Ву Н	IS	EXCEL	LENCY	Signo	or Be	NITO
Musso	LINI	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	xxv
Introduction	ON .	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	1
Sociology and Political Science—The Universal Aspects of Fascism—The Fascist Revolution—Mussolini.
			PA	RT I
CHAPTER I	-Fasc	ISM	IN THE	Light	of Hi	STORY	•••	35
CHAPTER I.—FASCISM IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY General Definition of Fascism—The Immediate Antecedents of Fascism—The Revival of Catholic Life—Syndicalism—Nationalism—The State—National States and Imperial States—A Nation—Race—Empire—City States and Tribal States—Political and Social Progress—The Roman Empire—The Holy Roman Empire—The Decline of Rome—The Dark Ages—The Middle Ages—The Rise of Modern National States—The Pagan Renaissance—The French Revolution—19th-Century Nationalism—The Unity of Europe—Italian Nationalism before the War—Three Meanings of Nationalism—Summary—The Historical Function of Fascism.
CHAPTER II	—Тне	ST	ATE	•••	•••	•••	•••	64
The S Author	State an	d its he C	Origins- oncrete—	—Autho -The Lii	rity in t	he Absti Authorit	ract y.

CHAPTER III.—THE MAIN PRINCIPLES OF FASCISM	97
Summary of the Main Principles of a True Theory of the State—The Nation-State—The Principle of Authority—The Moral Authority—The General Will—Some Secondary Absolute Principles—The State and the Individual—The End of Laissez-Faire—Liberty—Absolute and Contingent Principles—Democracy and Empire.
CHAPTER IV.—FASCISM AND DEMOCRACY	131
Various Meanings of Democracy—Parliamentarism— Majority Government.
CHAPTER V.—FASCISM AND EMPIRE	152
Imperialism—The Fascist View of Empire—The Struggle for Existence—The League of Nations—The Ideal of Empire.
CHAPTER VI.—THE WELTANSCHAUUNG OF FASCISM	164
PART II
SECTION I.—GENERAL REMARKS	175
SECTION II.—HETEROGENEOUS LEGISLATION IN ITALY	183
Education—Finance—The Fighting Forces—Foreign Treaties—The Judiciary—Miscellaneous—Recodification of the Laws—New Autonomous State Institutions—The Moral and Physical Protection of the Race—Administrative Reform—The After-Work Institute.
Section III.—The law on the Attributions and
Prerogatives of the Prime Minister	197

Section IV.—The Law Defining the Powers of	PAGE
THE EXECUTIVE	200
Section V.—The Law of the Corporations	203
The Professional Associations—The Corporations—The Magistrature of Labour—Strikes and Lock-outs—The Corporative State.
SECTION VI.—THE LABOUR CHARTER	215
Section VII.—The New Italian Parliament	229
The Senate—The House of Commons—The Abolition of Party Government.
SECTION VIII.—EPILOGUE	238
T)

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

This itself is an additional reason why I have chosen the scholastic method by which to expound the political Philosophy underlying Fascism. It is the method of common sense, the method, in its elementary stages, most easily assimilated by the general reader. I

My own knowledge of Italy and of Italians dates from my earliest childhood. Practically the first ten years of my life were spent in Florence in the house of my grandfather, the late Sir John Strachey, to whom this work is dedicated, and with Italy I have never since lost touch. Apart from minor visits, I spent nine months in Italy in 1909, when I was nineteen years of age, ten months in 1911, seven months in 1914 and six months during the War as liaison officer between the British and Italian Air Forces. I was in Italy during the seizure of the factories by the workmen in 1920, and since 1923 I have been living continuously in Rome as my headquarters, and have had occasion, during these years, of visiting, without exception, every province of this fair land.

J.S.B.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

In preparing this book for the second edition, I have limited corrections to the second part only with the object of bringing various matters there treated up-to-date. On the other hand, I take this opportunity of making a short auto-criticism of my own work.

A year's training since I published my book, in the calm and impartial atmosphere of the International Centre of Fascist Studies at Lausanne, has enabled me to take stock of the situation and to acquire a profounder intuition of the bigger truths of Fascism, truths which are apt to escape the notice of many of even the creators of Fascism itself. In fact, it would be difficult to find two Fascists who would be able to give quite the same coherent explanation of the movement; for like all great movements it is something which transcends the wills and personalities of the principal actors, who, though in retrospect they find themselves moved in the same general direction by an irresistible undercurrent, are yet so agitated and so swept hither and thither by innumerable eddies and cross-currents that they often seem at each stage of their journey to

xvii

xviii AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

be travelling in different directions, each preoccupied with his own problem of adjustment to the main pull of the stream and convinced that his own relative motion corresponds with the direction of the final inevitable plunge.

materialism and every form of naturalistic theory of the State, whether of the type advocated by Maurras or by Marx or by Hegel or by Rousseau or the hundred and one other philosophies which have flowered into fashion since culture ceased to have its roots in Christian thought.

The success of Fascism entirely depends on the extent to which the new generation growing up will be capable of making this transcendental outlook on life part of its very being; for Fascism indefinitely presupposing the existence of a divine Providence is determined to educate the new generation into one of believers in the supernatural, to make of it a generation of heroes who know not fear because of their faith, who would gladly fly in the face of any danger run in a worthy case, and welcome martyrdom with a smile. This is no exaggeration. This is the root of the Fascist Revolution, which may be described as a furious revolt against the various forms of materialism that have avowedly dominated our civilisation since the era of the Pagan Renaissance.

One of the defects of my own book was to omit to place this fact in evidence as the foundation on which to build up an explanation of all the rest; for this fact explains how Fascism started without any definite theoretical ideas. It explains its fury against everything representative of the old régime, it explains its

intolerance. It is the key to the understanding of Mussolini's character, it explains all the differences of opinion between those who would attempt to rationalise the movement and at the same time explains their unanimity in action, their desire to be disciplined and led, and to acquiesce even in mistakes of leadership rather than have no leadership.

genuinely felt needs, were indeed live issues. But they were transformed: Corradini's nationalism lost its naturalistic bias, in so far as it possessed this bias—in particular its tendency to advocate the subordination of the individual to the State in an absolute, as distinct from a purely juridical, sense was redressed; for Fascism, in contrast to certain forms of Nationalism, regards man, not in the abstract manner of so many philosophies, but as a concrete being compounded of both the individual and the member of society, who, in order to be in harmony with himself, must make his interests one with those of the society to which he belongs; while Syndicalism, on the other hand, became national and demanded the seal of the State's authority for its functioning.

My book is certainly pregnant with this truth about Fascism; but I failed to make many important distinctions, as, for instance, that the revolt against materialism was manifest in many different ways, by a modernist movement, by the growth of neo-idealism, as well as by a revival of orthodox religion. Fascism is not necessarily bound up with orthodoxy. This is now to me obvious and there are many Italians, fascists, who would energetically repudiate any such assertion. The whole powerful school of neo-idealism, with Gentile at their back, would probably repudiate it, and if I had made this distinction, I would have better explained the

xxii AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

This is prophecy and only time will show whether or not I am right. But it is one thing to affirm the faith

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xxiii

The book which I have the pleasure of prefacing is from the pen of a clear-minded English thinker who knows Italy and the Italians perfectly, and not less perfectly Fascism. It is, therefore, a book destined to dissipate—among men of good faith—that halo of incomprehension which for so many years has surrounded Fascism in the world at large and is due to many causes, of which the principal are the following.

Before all things, a new movement that announces itself as the destroyer, not only in doctrine but also in practice, of principles universally considered and followed, is bound to arouse violent hostility. It is wholly in the logic of things that the international Socialist, Democratic, Liberal, Masonic and Bolshevist world should be furiously anti-Fascist. The extent of the fury is the measure of the upheaval of ideas brought about by the Fascist Revolution. It is also logical that the anti-Fascist forces throughout the world should seek to keep men's minds in ignorance of what Fascism really stands for both in respect of its

These three causes—with the minor ones it is useless to concern ourselves—are sufficient to explain how it is that, after five years of Fascist rule, the world is still full of anti-Fascist prejudices.

solid, interesting, exhaustive volume by Barnes, an

Whoever reads it will convince himself that Barnes is well prepared for his task. His work is, in fact, the product of a direct knowledge of the question: Barnes knows Fascism both in its doctrinal elaboration and in its practical realisation. His book is not the result of a rapid tour or a brief sojourn in Italy, but is the witness of a man who, having lived long in Italy, and knowing the language and mind of Italians, is able to penetrate into the intimacy of things and see what a hurried and distracted traveller cannot see.

This valuable testimony of Barnes is expressed in the title which he has given his book. He has sought to make clear and to illustrate the universal aspects of Fascism; and he has succeeded. These aspects exist. Fascism is a purely Italian phenomenon in its historical expression, but its doctrinal postulates have a universal character. Fascism sets and solves problems which are common to many peoples, and precisely to those peoples who have experienced and are tired of Demo-Liberal rule and of the conventional lies attached thereto. The fact that the application of Demo-Liberal principles (the individual outside and opposed to the State) has varied from nation to nation, in no wise destroys the character of universality which these principles have enjoyed from 1848 to 1914. In the

PREFACE BY H.E. BENITO MUSSOLINI xxi

begging the western middle classes for experts and dollars.

INTRODUCTION

i i

life of human society. By natural laws are meant uniformities in the ordinary scientific sense, that is, generalities having the character of successive approximations to the truth.*

A Science of this kind is essentially amoral. It follows a method wholly inductive and empirical, asking of history and of observation answers to such questions as the following: Are there any general and constant conditions, and, if so, what are they, that

entail the decadence or corruption of the body politic? Are there other conditions, and, if so, what, that are invariably associated with the health and prosperity of human societies?*

Such a Science may be calculated, also, to throw light, if only indirectly, on a number of practical questions. For example: Given an end proposed by a given Government in given conditions, what choice of means are there by which that end may be furthered? And again: Given certain pathological conditions affecting a particular community, what remedies are available, if any, to restore to that community its health?

Macchiavelli may, with justice, be regarded as the founder of Sociology. It is true that he was more of a physician prescribing remedies for the ills from which his country was suffering at the time than a man of Science concerned mainly with the discovery of general laws. But his nostrums were the fruit of the then newly-stirring scientific spirit, fertilised by a passionate desire to free Italy from foreign dominion,—that is, they were the result of inductive and empirical reasoning upon a number of carefully classified and analysed facts bearing upon collective human nature and applied to the end he had in view—facts, moreover, culled from

^* Cf. Jacques Maritain, Une Opinion sur Charles Maurras et le Devoir des Catholiques, p. 22, (Librairie Plon, Paris, 1926).

In modern times, another Italian, Vilfredo Pareto, gifted with something of Macchiavelli's wit and economy of style, but possessed of the fully developed scientific spirit of the present generation, has, with very considerable success, endeavoured to lay a secure foundation for this Science.* And there are others, only less distinguished, who have essayed the same task, notably Durkheim, Le Play and Maurras, to mention three names with whose works I am personally acquainted. Students, too, of mob-psychology, like Gustave Le Bon and Graham Wallas, may be considered a branch of the same root.

This "Sociology" may be described, indeed, as the Physiology of society; and, as the handmaiden of Physiology is the practising physician, so the handmaiden of Sociology is the practical statesman.

No one will deny that a Science of this kind (assuming, as I think we have the right to assume, that it has

^* Vilfredo Pareto, Trattato di Sociologia.

4 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

already shown itself capable of elucidating a number of important laws and promises to achieve a considerable development) deserves to be encouraged as an extremely useful branch of study, being the synthesis, as Pareto defines it (while admitting the definition to be imperfect) of the special social Sciences of History, Jurisprudence, Economics, etc.* To be versed in it should sharpen the intuition and widen the experience of a statesman and provide him with landmarks to guide him in the piloting of the Ship of State, tempering his idealism with the stern facts of reality.

Sociology, however, is itself only a branch of Political Science in the wide sense of the term. It is of importance to make this distinction, whether or not we regard Political Science as an autonomous Science or as the general term applicable to the whole group of Sciences that bear directly upon politics. However this may be, I insist that there can be no real Political

^\$

Let me illustrate this distinction, in the first place, by an analogy. Physiology tells us of the construction and functioning of the human body, from which we may deduce certain rules of physical health, granted that we set ourselves the practical question, in the light of the facts elucidated by Physiology, how to maintain ourselves in physical health. If we include within this

Science an examination of the effects of moral states of mind on physical health, pathology and so forth, our rules of health should be fairly comprehensive. Similarly, rules of health and rules of material prosperity may be deduced from Sociology for the body politic. Did we assume, however, that physical health were the sole end of human existence and, conversely, that material prosperity were the sole end of human society, we should already be stepping outside the respective domains of Physiology and Sociology. We should be subscribing to a materialistic Philosophy. It follows, therefore, that Sociology, as defined, cannot really stand by itself as the Science of Politics.

The truth is that Sociology, like every other empirical science, is incapable itself of leading us anywhere in the practical affairs of life. These Sciences merely increase our hold over nature and so enable us to do more easily and with less risk of failure what we choose. They do not choose for us. They contain no categorical imperative. They merely say, "If you do this or that, such and such a consequence or consequences may be regarded as more or less certain to ensue."*

Sociology, for example, may affirm in a particular

^* G. K. Chesterton has put this point somewhere, very neatly, to the effect that a law of nature can be recognised as much by resisting it as by submitting to it, by out-manœuvring it or even using it against itself, as in the case of the arch.

women-kind, etc., to which end there is no influence more powerful than that of Religion.

^* Jacques Maritain, Une Opinion sur Charles Maurras et le Devoir des Catholiques, p. 47, (Librairie Plon, Paris, 1926).

que la préparation, la phase de déblaiement expérimental qui précède la science."* It may be, like Macchiavelli's Principe, a treasure-house of worldly wisdom; or it may reveal to us, in masterly fashion, as in Pareto's Trattato di Sociologia, the effects on the general health and prosperity of the body politic of different institutions, constitutions, laws, customs, religions, philosophies, habits of thought and emotion, systems of economy, climate, topography, etc., etc., in varying or analogous conditions. It may be deemed, indeed, the vade-mecum of the practical statesman. But unless the statesman possess also a Religion or a Philosophy, even if it be only a practical philosophy or one intuitioned as through a glass darkly, or, to say the least, a definite Weltanschauung, Sociology can be of no practical use to him whatever.

§ Ⅱ

The purpose of this book, as the title denotes, is to

^* Ibid., p. 24. Cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1, 980, b. 26.

expound the universal aspects of Fascism. Now, the only absolutely universal aspects of Fascism are the Philosophy underlying the movement, and its Weltanschauung. In a sense it is stretching it a little far to call either of these things Fascism, particularly the first; for the Philosophy underlying Fascism existed before Fascism;* and its Weltanschauung is only an emphasis on certain qualities of the human spirit, the value of which, taken by themselves, has never been called in question.

Nevertheless, I have decided to call these things Fascism, if only because they are, indeed, the stuff of which Fascism is made and the rock upon which Fascism is building a new political order and a new type of State. Moreover, it is this movement, called Fascism, which is bringing once more into honour, in men's minds, the truths enshrined in the old Philosophy.

Then there is another quasi-universal aspect of Fascism. This is the new political order, the new type of State—in other words, the new institutions, which the movement is bringing into existence—an aspect which is not absolutely universal, because what suits one Nation will not necessarily suit another, living in different conditions, at different times, with different characteristics and different needs. But all the greater

^• Its existence before Fascism does not imply that, in the meantime, it has not developed, nor that Fascism itself may not have given a special impetus to its development. Truth is a vital principle. If it is not lost it grows, it develops; but it grows consistently. Within the acorn is the image of the oak.

t2 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

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§ III

What I shall refrain from discussing outside this introduction are the vicissitudes of the fascist Revolution; the ephemeral episodes of its Fascist Revolution. development; the pros and cons. of the transitory measures adopted to secure its triumph;

14 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

its various excesses; its picturesque aspects, and so forth. Something, on the other hand, will be said here of the personality of Mussolini; while a chapter will be dedicated to the history of the movement, more, however, with the object of demonstrating its traditional character than to set out a chronicle of events.

a minority, possessed of a creed and the zeal of missionaries, who seized power in the first instance by violence, albeit with the passive consent of the vast majority of Italian citizens, sick to death of the old order. Since it is the fashion among certain sections of the Opposition in Italy to deny that any Revolution has taken place, in order to allow no excuses for certain fascist excesses, I can only ask, having stated the case with exactness, what then, indeed, constitutes a Revolution?*

Unfortunately excesses are the inevitable accompaniments of every great Revolution. Excesses—by which I mean acts of violence or persecution committed by private persons or groups of persons, with or without the tolerance of an extra-legal revolutionary authority—are never morally justifiable. But every fair-minded man, with a knowledge of human nature as it is, will, in the circumstances of a Revolution, make allowances for them.

A Revolution lets loose human passions. Fundamental principles are at stake, which both sides regard as vitally affecting the well-being of society, of all that they hold in reverence. Every Revolution presents opportunities to unscrupulous and undesirable persons for attempting to exploit the situation to their personal advantage and for indulging in crime. Numbers of

^* As Georges Sorel amply shows in his La Révolution Dreyfusienne the essence of a Revolution is a change of ideas.

To be fair, the excesses of a Revolution must be judged in comparison with the excesses of other equally important Revolutions, by the progressive diminution of the excesses as the Revolution runs its course, and by the efforts made by the Government to put a stop to them. The following paragraphs will deal with these points.

^* Cf. Luigi Villari, The Awakening of Italy, (Methuen, London, 1924), in which an accurate and documented account is included of the Communist outrages committed in Italy before the Fascist march on Rome

tive attempts on Mussolini's life in the autumn of 1926. What was the answer of the Fascist Government? The prosecution and imprisonment of hundreds of Fascists, the expulsion from the ranks of the Party of hundreds more, the dismissal of a large number of Prefects, the strengthening of the numbers and authority of the regular police, and the assumption of the Ministry of the Interior by Mussolini himself, in order that his great prestige and authority might be exercised directly on the preservation of order and the enforcement of discipline.*

Finally, it may be said, in this connection, to the credit of the fascist Revolution, that the death-roll has been exceedingly small in comparison with that entailed by other great Revolutions. The total death-roll of the Revolution is little more than 4,000; and of these 4,000 deaths, half have been incurred by the revolutionaries themselves. The victims of the Revolution number scarcely 2,000! Compare the figures of the French and Russian Revolutions, and the result must be regarded as quite exceptional.†

^• The circular issued to the Prefects by Mussolini on his assuming office as Minister of the Interior is a document pregnant with evidence of the will of the Government to put an end to every kind of excesses.

recovery and present relative prosperity independent of the action and legislation of the fascist Government, no impartial observer can deny the greater part of the credit to Mussolini and his collaborators. The doing away of strikes and lock-outs, the new spirit of goodwill engendered between masters and men, the economies effected in the bureaucratic machine, the corn "campaign," the drastic collection of taxes, the comprehensive measures adopted to improve the lot of Southern Italy, are six points for which Fascism can legitimately take all the credit; and together they account for most of the economic ground gained.

Then there is another point with which I wish to deal here and here alone. Fascism is held up by its opponents as the enemy of Liberty. The principles governing the fascist conception of Liberty will be dealt with later on in the proper place. Here I only wish to emphasise the fact that exceptional restrictions of Liberty are necessitated in revolutionary times, just as they are in war-time. A Revolution is a fight, a fight between two opposing principles for the soul of the Nation. No compromise is possible between Parties who hold diametrically opposite principles, considered as fundamentally affecting the welfare and happiness of society. Hence a revolutionary Government cannot tolerate, while the issues are still at stake, the

unrestricted propaganda of its enemies. Toleration of fundamentally adverse principles is, if we examine our consciences aright, usually due either to lack of conviction, to impotence making a virtue of necessity, or to contempt. None of these conditions apply to a revolutionary state of affairs. There would be no Revolution in the absence of conviction, there would be open civil war in the absence of authority, while contempt for the power of the enemy, when he is still in the field, would spell suicide.

smallest historical sense will readily concede this point.*

^• Cf. A recent effusion of Mr. H. G. Wells, which, were it not for the wide reputation gained by Mr. Wells as a popular and distinguished novelist, no self-respecting publisher would consider worthy of reproduction.

If Mussolini has a weakness, it is his susceptibility to personal influences. He may judge fallen human nature pretty shrewdly in the mass; but he has the impulse to go out to meet the best in each individual with whom he comes in contact, and the realisation of the good in each is apt to obscure for him the bad. He is too apt to judge others by his own generous self. He will readily forgive an injury, readily excuse an apparent disloyalty; too often for the sake of an old

friendship he will give a man another chance, who has let him badly down. Napoleon, never. Mussolini is well aware of this weakness. Bitter experience has taught him to be on his guard against it. But there it is, the defect of a quality, which we would not wish away. For if Napoleon was loved because he could intoxicate men's minds, as he led them up to share with him and through him the exhilaration and glory of his achievements, Mussolini is loved because he loves.

worthy means; hence a continual self-criticism and selfmartyrdom, which, if it were not for his faith, his sense of duty to his vocation, and his moral courage, would drive him to a contemplative life. Not Napoleon but, rather, St. Ignatius is Mussolini's spiritual companion.

rist, rist, st. rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, rist, ri

Mussolini, who began his life as a Socialist, has passed through many stages of opinion in the course of his evolution. But his evolution may be likened to an ascending straight line. This is his true consistency; and it would be absurd to quote any stage of his past, even of his comparatively recent past, against his present.

The same may be said of the political doctrines underlying Fascism. Fascism never possessed a readymade Philosophy. It arose as a Party of action. Its aims at first appeared obscure to the ordinary man in the street, apart from the immediate aim of re-establishing the authority of the State. Consequently, recruits joined the movement in the beginning from every kind of source; or many others, for fear of committing

CHAPTER I

FASCISM IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY

social movement having as its object the re-establishment of a political and social order, based upon the main current of traditions that Definition of Fascism have formed our European civilisation, traditions created by Rome, first by the Empire and

traditions created by Rome, first by the Empire and subsequently by the Catholic Church. Conversely, Fascism may be described as the repudiation of that individualist mentality that found expression first in the Pagan Renaissance, then in the Reformation and later in the French Revolution, not to speak of the Industrial Revolution, which issued in "Capitalism,"* itself the product of the Reformation.†

Thus, according to our definition, which has Mussolini's sanction, the accusation made by certain persons that Fascism, in its defence of the Church and its restoration of Religion to a place of honour in

^* Cf. footnote, defining "Capitalism," on p. 12 of the Introduction.

the State, is acting from purely opportunistic motives, falls to the ground.

In order to be quite clear, what is meant by "opportunistic motives?" They are three: First, that by defending the Church with its wide-flung influence, Italy may be enabled to spread her influence, too.* Secondly, that, by upholding Religion, the cause of Fascism may gain the popular support of Italian Catholics, who form the vast majority of the population.† Thirdly, the mere appreciation of the fact that Religion is a powerful aid in the maintenance of social order, in the disciplining of men's selfish appetites and in instilling in them the virtue of self-sacrifice.

Although the above definition is an accurate one, nevertheless there is a universal aspect of Fascism independent, in a certain sense, of the Roman tradition. What I mean to say is simply this: that, although Japan, for instance, is in no sense an heir to Rome, nevertheless Japan, while maintaining her own traditions, might yet be, in a certain sense, a fascist State. This point will be dealt with later. It is sufficient for the reader to bear it in mind, lest he

^* Compare official atheist France's patronage of French Catholic Schools and Missions abroad, the while discouraging Catholic action at home.

^† Compare the Catholic policy of Napoleon III., who sought thereby to gain the Catholic vote.

should, at this stage, draw too absolute conclusions from my definition.

The revival of Catholic life had no leanings towards Clericalism, which may be defined as a political order wherein the influence of the Priest predominates, nor yet towards Ultramontanism

Revival of Catholic
(the aim of which was the restoration of Life.

Rome in full sovereignty to the Pope—a term which explains itself, in that all its principal advocates lived beyond the Alps).

Catholic opinion, after the taking of Rome in 1870, took a long time to become absorbed into the new

^* The ban was finally removed altogether by Benedict XV.

there were vivid signs of their coming triumph, which signified also the triumph of tradition.*

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HIS EXCELLENCY SIGNOR ALFREDO ROCCO

Minister of Justice.

owns his own means of livelihood, has contributed much to the popularity of Fascism; for there exists, in Italy, a very large proportion of the people who remain their own masters.* The average Italian would far prefer to be relatively poor, but his own master, than relatively rich and at the beck and call of another. Fascism would defend and encourage this healthy inclination. Fascist economic policy is, in fact, a moderate, realistic "Distributism." But it recognises that in the struggle for existence between States in the modern world a place must be found for the great industries within the national economy. These also must be encouraged and at the same time a solution found for the present invidious position of the wage-earner.

Fascism, however, has the good sense to realise, too, that there is no simple solution of the problem, no short cut to Utopia. Much depends on creating, first, the proper moral state of mind in both masters and men. Much, therefore, depends on gradual education and judicious propaganda. Moreover, each industry in its particular circumstances must solve the problem,

^* According to the census of 1921, nearly fifty per cent. of the population belong to the following classes: small and great agricultural proprietors; mezzadri (who have a co-operative interest in the land and great security of tenure); owners of small and large shops, stores, workshops or factories; artisans owning their own tools; persons deriving their sole income from investments or pensions; and professional men, who have chosen their vocation largely from the love of the work itself.

42 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

I now come to the consideration of Nationalism, a

National-\nism. we wish to avoid misunderstandings and
gauge its import.

Before analysing, however, the various meanings of the term "Nationalism," let us consider for a moment the meaning of such terms as "State," "Nation," "Race," "Empire," and trace in broad outline the origins of the great national States of Europe to-day, which arose ouf to the wreck of the Roman Empire.

A State may be deemed that system of Government, administration and laws, the supreme authority of which is recognised by a body of men, a Nation or group of Nations. This is the special meaning of the term "State" that we find frequently adopted by eminent writers. In this sense, it was scarcely an exaggeration when an absolute monarch like Louis XIV. of France declared: "L'Etat, c'est moi."

On the other hand, in common usage, the term "State" signifies something broader; it is identified with the community which recognises the supreme authority of a particular system of Government, administration and laws. Both definitions, in my opinion, should be allowed to stand. The two ideas reciprocally imply each other, and we can safely leave it to the context to prevent any confusion of thought.

A "Nation" must not be confused with "Race." Nor is it merely the sum of individuals, composing a body politic at a given moment and recog- A Nation. nising the authority of the State. If this were so,

^* Cf. the speech delivered by His Excellency, Alfredo Rocco, Italian Minister of Justice, delivered at Perugia on 30th August, 1925, published in an English version by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October, 1926; and included in the work by the same author, La Trasformazione dello Stato (Libreria della "Voce," Florence, 1927.

By "Race" I mean the various ethnographical groups of which society is formed.

Race

An "Empire" is a group of Nations or peoples recognising the authority of an Imperial State.

Empire.

"national" State as applying to relatively large national units only, and use the terms "city" or "tribal" State to denote a distinct class, differentiated by common sense.

remained, the Latin and the Greek, besides a number of minor ones; and in this connection it is interesting to note that in the Church, which is the heir to ancient Rome, a survival of the various unassimilated Nations that composed the Roman Empire at the time of its decay is preserved to this day in her various rites.* So, when the Empire declined, it inevitably split along the lines traced where the process of assimilation had ended, and there became two Romes, the Rome of Romulus and the Rome of Constantine.

The Roman Empire may thus be considered the prototype of the great imperial State, and, for us Westerners, the prototype also of the great national State. It was a vital organism distinguished by its unity in variety, the firm foundation on which our European civilisation has been built, the mother of us all. Its vast extent, its pre-eminent civilisation, its dominating strength, its long duration, gave it a prestige which outlasted its concrete existence. Before its virtual demise it had already become Christian, so that

Catholic and Roman in ordinary parlance had become interchangeable terms;† and out of it there grew, in the West, the Holy

^* The Latin rite and the Greek rite correspond, of course, to the main divisions into which the Empire fell, the Armenian and Coptic rites, etc., to those Nations of the Eastern Empire which had not been perfectly assimilated by the Greek civilisation.

^† Cf. James Bryce's masterpiece, The Holy Roman Empire, (Mac-Millan & Co., London, revised edition, 1922).

Roman Empire, at first a concrete fact under Charlemagne, but gradually to become little more than an outward form and an aspiration. In theory it continued to exist right down to the Napoleonic era, long, long after its very shadow had become obscured; and it continued to exist thus because the hearts of men turned back with longing, as in a dream, to the time when all civilisation was united under a single paternal Government; a past to which men clung as if reluctant to give up the hope of one day reconstituting the unity they had lost. This was especially so among those peoples who had remained Catholic; for the spiritual side of the great Empire had not only never decayed, but on the contrary had grown from strength to strength and spread its wings to the uttermost corners of the earth.

Now, as the Roman State decayed (and this is particularly true of the Western half of the Empire, where, with the removal of the seat of the Empire to Constantinople, political decay Decline of Rome.

Was both earlier and more thorough), the central heart ceased to beat out the life-blood required

central heart ceased to beat out the life-blood required to nourish the body politic; and since the Western Roman world had been practically assimilated into a single Nation during the preceding period of political progress, the decay here could not take the form of a mere split-up into national States, for more than one,

conditions.* So, whereas Europe had decayed politically, she had advanced socially; and this social advance, carrying with it a rich harvest of intellectual and artistic achievements, economic development and comparative security, brought about in turn a new impulse towards political progress.

^* Cf. Alfredo Oriani's great work in three volumes, La Lotta Politica in Italia, (Libreria della "Voce," Florence, 1917).

52 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

At the centre of things, on the other hand, the impulse towards political progress was less favoured, chiefly because it was there that the form of the Empire still persisted in a visible manner, where the prestige of the Empire and the surviving sense of Roman nationality was still so strongly felt that men continued vainly to aspire to the Empire's reconstruction. The idea of the universal Catholic State, the Roman State, with its local municipal organisation, that had once comprised, and, as it was fondly hoped, was destined again to comprise, the whole of civilisation, overshadowed the narrower national State idea. Political progress was accordingly less marked (though by no means stagnant), for having aspired too high.

Nevertheless, small regional States did indeed form themselves, in Italy often quasi-national or else in the shape of miniature Empires, with a city State at their head, like Venice, or like Florence, which gradually absorbed Tuscany, or like the Papal States; while, in the Germanies, either the same phenomenon occurred, or, more often, regional States grew out of the feudal system without transcending it, and in central Europe a local imperial system, a concrete Empire in the very lap of the ideal Holy Roman Empire, formed out of a group of such regional States, under the ægis of the Austrian Monarchy, came also gradually into being. This Austrian Empire, in fact, may be regarded as the

extent to which the aspiration to reconstitute the Roman Empire had succeeded. But it was a barbarous production, incapable of assimilating the more cultured peoples of Italy or of satisfying the Italian imperial ideal. Throughout its history, it was characterised by arrested growth, and ever contained within itself the germs of decay. Further East, the Turkish conquest had meantime laid a dead hand on what had once been Byzantium.

bartered away, sold or partitioned, without any regard for the proper ends of society. Religion was a decaying force and with its decay social conditions decayed everywhere too. Nor have we succeeded in regaining the social ground lost during those fateful centuries which culminated in the French Revolution.

The condition of affairs. In so far as it was French Revolution. heaven-sent punishment on the heads of those in authority, who had forgotten their very raison d'être, the promotion of the welfare of the whole people over whom they ruled. It was a morally legitimate breaking of the privileged class-system into which the State had degenerated, and it undoubtedly resulted in a number of permanent conquests for the cause of civilisation. The world badly needed a breath of Liberty and it was in the name of Liberty that the Revolution was made.

The political Philosophy, however, which fed the revolutionary movement was still the child of the cynical, individualistic, purely rationalistic atmosphere of the eighteenth century, tempered only by the thin broth of Humanitarianism. Though it had power to destroy, though it provoked the stimulus required to enable peoples to throw off the yoke of self-seeking rulers, it had no power to construct a healthy State system in the place of the old one. It merely cleared the ground for some other order to take its place, for better or for worse. It hastened rather than arrested the catastrophic course taken by Europe in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of which the epilogue was the Great War.

left behind her and still survive, are sufficient to form a cement strong enough to bind these national groups together again into one genuine political unity. Fascism would answer: Yes, but on the one condition The Unity that these various national groups, before it is too late, recant the political and religious heresies, which have deformed the true traditions. Europe, it affirms, can only be re-united on the basis of the Roman tradition. Reinforce this great common tradition—the only common tradition—by a general conformation to the Roman political and religious traditions, and we may yet have good reason to hope.

. . . .

This historical sketch is necessarily a very summary one; but I think it brings out pretty clearly the main facts for my purpose. An important point to remember, in connection with it, is that nineteenth-century European Nationalism, and with it the Italian Risorgimento, was largely nourished on and found its stimulus from the doctrines of Liberalism. This alliance, however, nay, confusion between Nationalism and Liberalism was of an entirely accidental nature, owing to the fact that the latter, being the dominating political tendency of the times, constituted a trump card for the Nationalists to play in their efforts to weaken the resistance of those Powers, whose continual existence depended on the preservation of the territorial statu quo. The Nationalism, on the other hand, which could be

preceding the War, was of a different kind. It was a Nationalism completely severed

Italian Nationalism before the War.

Descending to analysis, there are three chief meanings to the word "Nationalism," two of which are when translated into practice, morally justifiable, one of which is not. Italian NationMeanings of Meanings of Nationalism.

free from the implications of the third

to this end I cannot do better than paraphrase at length passages from that wonderful little book, already referred to, Une Opinion sur Charles Maurras et le Devoir Catholique, by Jacques Maritain.

1. Nationalism may simply mean—in opposition to the humanitarian myths—that the Nation, taken as synonymous with the terms civitas or fatherland, is the highest natural social unity.
1. Or it may mean—in opposition to the fallacious individualistic conception of society—that the common good is "more divine," as Aristotle and St. Thomas* lay down, than the individual good; and that it is something by nature different from the simple sum or collection of individual goods; that natural law enjoins on us (as indeed also the 4th Commandment) to love the good of the fatherland more than our own private interests.

Summa Theol., 2, 2^ae, q. 31, art. 3 ad 2^um.

• The principle of Self-determination, in any sense—whether racial or national—can only be admitted as a very secondary principle in the determination of State frontiers, even if it can be admitted at all. The reason why it can only be admitted as a secondary principle, if at all, is that we must necessarily first define our area within which the principle is to be applied, before we can even begin to apply it; and on the definition of this area, which must depend on other principles, will depend the practical results of self-determination.

Take, for instance, the old Irish question. Had Ireland or any portion of Ireland any right to secede? Imagine this question put to the test of a plebiscite, as, in effect, it was. What area is to be chosen for the plebiscite? If we take the larger geographical unity, which is the British Isles, the result of the plebiscite would be the sacrifice of the vast majority of Irish opinion. If we restrict the plebiscite to the lesser geographical unity, which is Ireland, on the other hand, we sacrifice, in the first place, the claim of the English, the Welsh and the Scots, whose interests may be very deeply affected by the question, to have any say in the matter; in the second place, we sacrifice the scattered unionist minorities in Southern Ireland and the compact unionist element in the North. If the vote were taken likewise in the separate historical divisions of Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught, we should get the same unsatisfactory result. But if the vote were taken by counties, only four counties would contract to remain within the United Kingdom; and that being so, would they not, for economic reasons, soon repent of their action? Again, if the vote were taken by parishes, we should get a still different result. Or we should get different results again if the vote were taken on the question limited by certain guarantees. As it is, with, in effect, two simple plebiscites, choosing as our areas what are now Southern and Northern Ireland, we have, in the result, first sacrificed the general opinion of the other British Island, we have then sacrificed the opinion of Southern Ireland

The third sense in which the term "Nationalism" may be used is the corrupt form of its legitimate meaning. It then signifies the blind worship of the Nation, taken as something superior to all moral or religious Law,—that kind of Nationalism which is in opposition to God and to the Kingdom of God—the cult of the Nation-God or State-God.

Fascism has definitely repudiated this interpretation and is in course of rejecting from its ranks those who would identify Fascism with this reprehensible idea. Fascism regards God as the only true sovereign, and as Alfredo Rocco, Minister of Justice, has authoritatively declared,* "the fascist State must defend and diffuse

and finally we have done violence to the principle itself along the whole border. Where, indeed, is the process to stop? What, indeed, is the blessed principle at all, when it comes to be analysed? Surely one that becomes immediately resolved into a number of others, involving questions of geography, economics, convenience, justice and common sense. In these circumstances, need it ever be invoked? Maybe the present Irish solution is a good one. But it is not a good one merely because the majority in Northern Ireland are for the Union and the majority in Southern Ireland are for the Free State. For, on the same principle, it could be considered a bad one, because the majority of the British Isles are for the Union, because the majority of Ireland are for the Free State, because the majority of two of the counties forming part of Northern Ireland are against the Union—and so on. No. If the present solution is a good one, it is because it has brought useless blood-shed, at least for the time being, to an end, without doing violence to the unity of the British Empire, which is the most important of all the unities involved.

^*It should be noted here that Marinetti's "Futurist" movement also but in a minor degree, unquestionably contributed to the formation of Fascism. D'Annunzio, too, has exercised a great influence on the practical development of fascism, the programme of which has,

have been less popular and theatrical and certainly less 'repressive,' because it would not have had to combat alien ideas. . . ." The post-war crisis, in fact, brought matters to a head; liberal statecraft was found bankrupt; and to save Italy from economic ruin there was nothing for it but for a minority of intrepid souls, acting in advance of, but not against, public opinion, to seize the State and to achieve Fascism by Revolution. By great fortune, the movement also produced the man, gifted with all the true marks of a leader, a man of the people, who could read deep into the soul of the people and thereby be able to drive the movement closer and closer to the Italian Nation's true traditions, ridding it, as it developed, of its impurities and moderating its excesses.

For this reason alone Fascism has come to stay in Italy. For Europe it stands at the cross-roads looking back towards the two Romes, Imperial and Catholic, that made her civilisation, and pointing to its straight continuation as the of Fascism.

The Historical Function of Fascism.

its historical function and mission is simply this: to prepare the ground for a new European political and social synthesis, founded on the sure traditions of the past, when Europe was vet one.

in many respects, been inspired by D'Annunzio's ideas embodied in his constitution for the State of Fiume—ideas very akin to those of Guild Socialism. Cf. Odon Por, Fascism (Labour Publishing Co., London, 1923).

CHAPTER II

THE STATE

This trenchant and succinct paragraph from the pen of Leo XIII. summarises the burden of the following chapter; and so well is the classic, Catholic, traditionalist idea of the State therein expressed and proved, that it would almost seem superfluous to add anything to it. But for the sake of the profane general reader, it would be well, nevertheless, to beat round the questions involved in order to make quite certain that no point be misunderstood; and to use the opportunity thereby given to criticise certain opposing theories and to make some few little excursions into regions closely connected, if only indirectly, with the main theory. I shall accordingly divide the remainder of the chapter under a series of headings.

Whenever a ruling authority, not humanly subject to any higher ruling authority, exists over a given society of human families, that society constitutes a State, however barand its Origins.

barous, however primitive it may be. Here

Cf. also Aristotle, Politics, III, 2, "Man is by nature a political animal," and St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol. 2^a, 2^ae, q. 109, arts. 3 and 6 ad 1^em., 3 q. 65, art. 1.

extended.* National ur

The establishment of States is not due to men's caprice. Historically speaking, the establishment of States has not followed upon an era of anarchy. Their establishment is a product of nature, the consequence of man being by nature a social animal, in that no society of families can hold together without a supreme ruling authority, the presence of which makes of that society a State and man a political animal. In other

^† Cf. A. Valensin, Traité de Droit Naturel, Vol. II, Chap. IV, par. 2 (Edition Spes, Paris, 1925).

for which the State is constituted.* It is too often forgotten that many wars are waged in perfect good faith, whether in fact justified or not, owing to the fear of succumbing to a power thought to be morally inferior.

So the State is a political unity, the juridical institutions of which are an aspect of itself. Thus, too, the notion of a State and of authority go together; for the exercise of a supreme ruling authority is the function of the State. The State, moreover, is an organism (as indeed are all human societies, but more specifically the State as being the most perfect and formal of human societies), albeit an organism sui generis, a fact which Sociology demonstrates, in that the State may be observed to be a living unity, subject to growth and decay, like any other living organism. Hence it is not the mere sum of its parts, but the resultant thereof, with an autonomy of its own, having as the object of its existence the general good.

As Herbert Spencer has pointed out: "The State undergoes, like every living organism, a continuous

^* For this reason the establishment of religious unity would, more than anything else, in an age of political progress, promote the establishment of an universal State. But no religious unity is possible without the acceptance of the principle of religious authority—not that religious authority can coerce individual judgment, but because the presence of a religious authority preserves the given deposit of doctrine from becoming lost or corrupted, insures its consistent development and is the only effective check on the process of indefinite disintegration.

growth. As it grows, its parts become unlike; it exhibits increase of structure. The unlike parts simultaneously assume activities of unlike kinds. These activities are not simply different, but their differences are so related as to make one another possible. The reciprocal aid thus given causes mutual dependence of the parts, and the mutually dependent parts, living by and for one another, form an aggregate constituted on the same general principle as is an individual organism.

. . The analogy of a society (State) to an organism becomes clearer on learning that every organism of appreciable size is a society; and on further learning that, in both, the lives of the units continue for some time if the life of the aggregate becomes suddenly arrested, while, if the aggregate is not destroyed by violence its life greatly exceeds the life of its units."

The natural tendency of all organisms is to fight for their continued existence; and Sociology demonstrates that States exhibit this natural tendency as powerfully and instinctively as any other living organism. This is a natural law, which the Moral Law transcends, but does not lay aside. The Moral Law can never be in essential conflict with Natural Law. So here we have a law of life; and the manner in which the Moral Law transcends it is by sanctioning the sacrifice of individual

^* Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology. Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, De Regimine Princ., 4. 33.

rist, rist, sor. 19. (18.5) 18. (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%, rist) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%) (18.5%

^* Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol. 24, 24, q. 31, art. 3 ad

Authority is essential to any form of society, whether it be domestic or civil, barbarous or civilised,

Authority legitimate or illegitimate, free or necessary.
\nin the

Abstract. Authority will invariably be present in some form or society will cease to be.*

^* Cf. Leibnitz, quoted by A. Valensin, Traité de Droit Naturel.

So authority consists in the right of Government. It is a moral power, a reasonable, a unifying and beneficent principle, to which respect is due on the one hand, which requires a consciousness of responsibility in those who exercise it on the other.† Most of all is this true respecting the State, the supreme ruling

^* Albert Valensin, Traité de Droit Naturel, Vol. II, Chap. IV, par.3. Reason is man's title to freedom; and if reason binds him to observe the Moral Law, he loses thereby nothing of his freedom. Whosoever committeth sin—who denies what is reasonable—is the slave of sin or of Unreason—(John, VIII, 34). So that submission to authority, which Reason demonstrates to be necessary whereby man may live peacefully in society, is no loss of freedom. The question of a given authority losing its right to govern owing to its own neglect of reason's dictates, is dealt with in due course.

^† Cf. Ibid.

74 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

Another false theory in juxtaposition to ours is that States arose in the first instance through some actual or tacit social contract entered into between the individual members of a society. This theory is no less false historically. It was popularised, if not invented, by Rousseau for the purpose of providing some historical and reasonable foundation in support of the contention that Democracy and the "Sovereignty of the People"

C.—The notion of a "state of nature," where man

^• See Footnote, p. 73.

was happy in his complete independence, existing anterior to the formation of the State, is an entirely arbitrary presupposition. It is not merely contrary to the teachings of the Church, but contrary to the conclusions of ethnography. (N.B.—A "state of innocence" is not the same thing as a "state of nature.") Even Voltaire, who shared some of Rousseau's conclusions, considered this notion of his as a piece of prodigious nonsense, as indeed it is. "Non-social man would be a miserable, naked, helpless biped, exposed to the rapacity of beasts and to the elements"*

D.—Rousseau declares the necessity of a pact in order to account for the State and in order to legitimise authority. In other words, he commits himself to the following untenable position: Assuming that a given State came into existence following a pact, unless the pact be renewed every twenty years, as Sieyès logically suggested, that State cannot continue de jure, but only de facto. For why should a pact, even supposing it were once made and brought a State originally into existence, bind indefinitely future generations of men "born free," that is, born essentially independent? And what of children and women and of all those men who happen to be disenfranchised? Is any pact valid

^* Cf. Richard Aldington, Voltaire, Part II, Chap. XIII (George Routledge, London, 1925).

^• Cf. A. Valensin, Traité de Droit Naturel, Part II, Chap. XIV, par. 11.

FILIPPO CORRIDONI.

Rousseau failed, in the first instance, to make this most important distinction, namely, that the two propositions:
(1) that man is a rational animal, and (2) that man must needs act reasonably, do not mean the same thing. The first proposition is true. The second is false. The first supports the theory that good Government should be reasonable, that Reason is the criterion of good Government, that any Government, however formed, is legitimate if reasonable—all three true propositions. The second supports the theory that the popular will must be right, that a Government not based on the popular will must be wrong—both false propositions.

We have seen that authority arises spontaneously as a condition of society. Historically speaking, the actual sovereign power is found to be wielded in innumerably different ways. In primitive societies it is often wielded under a patriarchal system or by a council of Elders. Or the constitution of a State, whether established in accordance with Law or Custom having the force of Law, may be based on the rule of one or of the few or of the many, according to circumstances.

Have any of these forms of Government more than another the right to exercise authority? The answer given, in accordance with the doctrines so much advertised during the past century, whether Rousseau's theory be subscribed to or not, is that only the many have the right to exercise authority, in the sense that the "general will" is the only legitimate authority.

serving the organism's life: animals are endowed by a very acute instinct of the kind. But men are not merely animals, though man in the mass acts very like an animal. Is the State then to be guided in the last resort by instinct, when Reason is available—Reason, which, to say the least, is unquestionably a fitter instrument for preserving life?

^* Cf. W. Sanderson, Statecraft (Methuen, London, 1927): "To grant the franchise to ordinary citizens as individuals is to invite political decisions based on myriads of eccentric opinions, no two of which can be exactly alike and none correct."

"general will" would be by employing a medium.*
But I have not heard yet of any serious suggestion to employ a medium as a method of Government; although the greatest statesmen are usually endowed with a medium-like sense, by which, within limits, they are enabled, so to speak, to sound the "general will." For by all means let the "general will" be sounded in so far as this be possible. But there is no reason whatever for necessarily allowing the actions of Government to be dictated by it.

The truth is that any such notion respecting the inherent right of the people as a whole to govern is manifestly absurd.† This does not mean, however, that I deny all merit to the "general will," especially when it is understood as that esprit de corps, issuing in patriotic sentiment.‡ On the contrary, this may be

^* The ancient device of consulting oracles may, perhaps, be cited as an attempt to consult the "general will" by means of a medium.

^† It may be argued with a good deal of reason that the force of public opinion, on the other hand, is something very different to the instinctive mass reaction to certain circumstances which I have identified with the "general will"; that, on the contrary, public opinion is a rational force, against which no Government should act. It should be noted, however, that apart from the practical difficulty of gauging public opinion and especially the degree of its unanimity; apart from the fact that a strong expression of public opinion, whether right or wrong, necessarily sets limits to the powers of any Government; its value is very relative, because its value depends entirely on the kind and degree of public education. So it is not so much a question of the right of public opinion to control Government, as it is a question of the duty of Government to create a really healthy public opinion.

a great force for good, and its latent presence is a sign of political maturity. Neither does what I have said mean that a popular form of Government may not be highly desirable. This is quite another question, which will be dealt with in its proper place. Here I am solely concerned with the concrete question as to what it is that sanctions the right to govern.

A. N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern World, (Cambridge University Press, 1925).

high place Ineptitude and Folly, to prove their eternal efficacy.

Of course, sweet reasonableness, as we have had occasion to point out, is not always in practice to the

The answers which I propose to give to these questions are as follows: First, being practical questions, certain practical tests, certain practical ways and means, can propose the solutions to the difficulties they adumbrate. No Government, for instance, can in

This reflection leads us to deal with another important, though none the less fallacious theory, of the State,

in juxtaposition to ours and conveniently dealt with under the heading of the present section. I refer to that "Gothic" theory of the State,* repellent to the Latin mind, but which has not been without its influence in Latin countries, elaborated by Hegel, Schelling and Fichte, who would make "reasons of State" the sole moral sanction. Needless to say, such a theory would subordinate the individual entirely to the State and justify any form of tyranny resulting in the successful survival of a State and in its aggrandisement.

The theory entails that perverted form of "Nationalism" to which we alluded in the last chapter, and is a particular form of that political "Naturalism" to which we alluded in the introduction. It is based on a Metaphysic, which substitutes for a transcendent God, an

^{• &}quot;A Gothic theory of the State repellant to the Latin mind." This is how my friend, His Excellency Dr. Emilio Brodrero, Under-Secretary of State for Public Instruction, in a letter addressed to me in February 1927, commented on "Naturalism" and that false form of Nationalism which is the form of Naturalism advocated by the Action Française. Daudet and Maurras, with all their French Patriotism, appear indeed to have become in this respect the adepts of the German professors who contributed so largely to creating German Militarism. This is, of course, the logical consequence of their alliance with and tolerance of Atheism, combined with their just horror of the individualist doctrines that are carrying their country to ruin. In other words, if you posit the need of authority, but are prepared to rule out God, you have no theoretical alternative but to enthrone the State in God's place. It is in the acknowledgment of God as the Supreme Sovereign, and all Governments, however constituted, as merely the temporal vicars of Christ, where Fascism parts company with the doctrines advocated by the Action Française.

immanent God, a God who manifests himself as an eternal "becoming;" a Metaphysic that endorses a kind of Pantheism and concludes that because God and Nature are in some way confounded, whatever is must be right. It further raises the idea of power to the place occupied by the idea of love in Christian Metaphysics. The "will to power" becomes the proper law of action. It would make a state of war the natural and inevitable condition of man, that is, it would sanctify that condition. Hegel actually does attempt to do so. It may, in fact, be said to be the very theory that led Lucifer to let loose war in Heaven.

Hegel's represents, indeed, the quintessence of all the doctrines which, in the course of the last centuries, propagated in one form or another the idea of the State being an end in itself, and identified, as did the Pagans, the moral with the civil law. His Philosophy is the ripe fruit of the Pagan Renaissance. It is the eldest child of eighteenth-century cynicism and the father of German Militarism, while it affords a bait for all that is criminal in us, in that it consists of a hash of Materialism (positivist, utilitarian, and evolutionist), dished up under the disguise of a false Idealism that appeals to man's only too easily aroused predatory instincts, pride and the lust for power.

There are various forms of this pernicious Philosophy

^* Cf. Hegel, Rechtsphilosophie, par. 321.

and it is impossible to follow these various forms into detail. The Italian so-called neo-Hegelians, Spaventa, Benedetto Croce and Giovanni Gentile, have each in turn contributed much to attenuate the German theses, to purge them of their gross materialism. They have also valiantly served the urgent historical purpose of working the German theses out into a bare thread; although, as a result, I must confess from my own point of view, which may indeed be due to my own limitations, they leave behind such a tangled skein that it is somewhat difficult to make head or tail of their conclusions.

German Idealism unfortunately arrived to endorse "Historical Fatalism," which is Italy's most conspicuous contribution to the philosophical heresies that have dominated European thought since the Renaissance, a contribution of which Vico, with all his grand gifts to the world, cannot be wholly acquitted.

Vico is generally considered the founder of the "Philosophy of History." But although there may be a true History of Philosophy, there can be, strictly speaking, no true Philosophy of History. History is, when all is said and done, merely an accurate description of past events. A good historian is one who, besides accurately describing the events, possesses sound judgment in the choice for the purposes he has in view of the relative importance of events he describes and of their inter-relationship. From History, it is true,

certain social laws may be deduced, that is, certain uniformities in the scientific sense. But such laws belong to the conclusions of Sociology, a Science not a Philosophy, a Science moreover based only partly on historical data.

For my part, I believe that dynamite—a general assault on Hegelian logic—would, as a matter of fact,

do the work quicker and, in the long run, probably better too. I have a notion that Hegel and his bedfellows have sucked out of the Italian heresy most of the falsehood, so that a frontal attack on Hegel would do more good in Italy than anything else. This, how-\never, is beyond the scope of this book to undertake; and as Hegel's theory of the State and all kindred heresies can only be fully exposed by criticising his general Philosophy, I am afraid I must refer the reader elsewhere for a refutation.* Let him be quite certain, nevertheless, that the notion of the State as an end in itself forms no part whatever of orthodox Fascism."†

• Cf. Benedetto Croce's Saggio sullo Hegel (Laterza, Bari), which, if it does not go as far as I would wish, remains a most admirable criticism.

† All the so-called "Idealist" philosophies seem to me to exhibit one fatal flaw, by which the commonest pitfall into which logicians are apt to fall is erected into a logical principle, as G. E. Moore, of Cambridge, has shown in the most brilliant of his essays, "The Refutation of Idealism" (Philosophical Studies, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London, 1922). The following is, perhaps, the most arresting paragraph of this essay, well worth quoting if it will lead the reader to study the question which I have here raised but cannot conclude:

made of this principle and what perhaps would be expressly acknowledged as its meaning, is something much the reverse of useful. The principle is used to assert that certain abstractions are in all cases illegitimate; that, whenever you try to assert anything whatever of that which is part of an organic whole, what you assert can only be true of the whole. And this principle, so far from being a useful truth, is necessarily false. For if the whole can, nay must, be substituted for the part in all propositions and for all purposes, this can only be because the whole is absolutely identical with the part. When, therefore, we are told that green and the sensation of green are certainly distinct but yet are not separable, or that it is an illegitimate abstraction to consider the one apart from the other, what these provisos are used to assert is that, though the two things are distinct, yet you not only can, but must treat them as if they were not. Many philosophers, therefore, when they admit a distinction, yet (following the lead of Hegel) boldly assert their right, in a slightly more obscure form of words, also to deny it. The principle of organic unities, like that of combined analysis and synthesis, is mainly used to defend the practice of holding both of two contradictory propositions, wherever this may seem convenient. In this, as in other matters, Hegel's main service to philosophy has consisted in giving a name to and erecting into a principle, a type of fallacy to which experience had shown philosophers, along with the rest of mankind, to be addicted. No wonder that he has followers and admirers."

CHAPTER III

THE MAIN PRINCIPLES OF FASCISM

THE general theory of the State enunciated in the last chapter may be truthfully said to be the con-

I. Man is by nature a social animal. Living in society is the natural condition of mankind. Society cannot hold together, however, without there being some authority ruling it. Authority is of the Main Principle implicit in every society. Authority thereciples of a True Theory fore belongs to the natural order of things as of the State.

much as society itself, and, having thus its source in nature, it has God for its author. So the principle of authority is a divine principle. Wherever a supreme authority exists, acknowledging no higher authority save the sovereignty of God alone, we call that authority the State, which is society juridically

organised for the purpose of promoting the general good. The State is thus a political unity, and every political unity is an organism, with a life which transcends that of the individuals which compose it, and outlasts that of any particular generation of men. For this reason, the family is the true unit of the State, not single individuals. The State, owing to its acknowledging no higher authority, save God alone, is the highest form of human authority; and since, as we have shown, it belongs, like all authority, to the natural order of things, man may be justly said to be, by nature, not only a social animal but also a political animal.

when national unity, based on a community of traditions, coincides with political unity. National unity, moreover, reinforces authority and is an element of vitality in the State. But in the order of evolution (though not necessarily in the order of involution) political unity precedes national unity; that is, political unity creates national unity, at least whenever the State's authority is exercised over a relatively long period of time, firmly and justly for the general good. Thus, also, vital imperial States tend towards losing their imperial character in a process of assimilation and so towards becoming large national States. The political ideal or goal of mankind is.

^* Some experts, notably in Germany, are now denying this! Whether this view be true or false, however, the argument here is not affected.

Once this idea is grasped, it will be seen how futile was Austin's attempt to solve the question juridically of where sovereignty ultimately resides. As Ramiro de Maeztu, in his stimulating book on Guild Socialism (Authority, Liberty and Function, Allen and Unwin, London, 1916), clearly shows, the question of sovereignty is a question of power. The body wielding it is continually shifting and it is for the historian and not the jurist to designate the body that happens to be wielding the sovereign power at any particular moment.

IV. Private moral judgment, if it is not founded on true doctrine, on a true Moral Philosophy,

The Moral means moral chaos. In the absence, therefore, of an admitted independent moral authority, such as is the Church, the practical tests are the only tests, by which to judge the extent to which the State authority is performing its duty. In any case, the State has no right to arrogate to itself the right to judge itself; nor has the individual the right to lay down capricious standards. Both the all-sufficing and the agnostic State, therefore, reflect a false principle. So the State, to say the least, must conform to a Moral Philosophy and be judged according to that Moral Philosophy. Hence it is important that the Moral Philosophy, acknowledged, protected and vulgarised by the State, should be a true Moral Philosophy.

Thus the Scylla and Charybdis of State Agnosticism and State Infallibility must in any case be equally avoided. In practice, this means the recognition by the State Constitution of a Religion of the State. The recognition of the principles of some Moral Philosophy only may work to a certain extent in practice, especially if it reflects the general moral consciousness of the age. But such a makeshift is vague and consequently highly unsatisfactory. By the recognition of a definite Religion the case is otherwise, provided the Religion in question be under the direction of a body independent of the State.

Fascism has formally recognised the Catholic Religion as the Religion of the State in Italy, and has thereby chosen well, not only because it is the Religion of the vast majority of Italians; not only because the Catholic tradition is part of the very soul of Italy and, given the historical antecedents of Fascism, leaves Fascism really no alternative choice; but because the Catholic Religion is perhaps the only Religion that preserves in every sense its complete independence of State authority. I recommend this point par-

ticularly to the consideration of thoughtful persons.*

^• It is precisely this independence which those States who desire to be judges in their own case are so afraid of. The cry which, from time to time, is raised against the political interference of Rome is almost invariably the cry of a guilty man who is anxious either to save himself from condemnation or to perpetrate some crime.

^† The disbanding of the Catholic Boy Scout organisations in the smaller towns would have been, according to our theory, intolerable, if emphatic and ample provision had not been made in the law govern-

and its Bishops is recognised. Lastly, public propaganda by other religious sects is forbidden, though, of course, full toleration is granted to the practice of other Religions that are not definitely repugnant to Christian feelings and morals.

by every living organism and directed to maintain that organism's existence. With respect to that organism which is the State, this instinctive General Will.

force finds expression in the "general will," which is consequently a useful touchstone for every Government to sound, however this may be possible; for the first duty of Government within the Moral Law is to preserve society from dissolution, since society is a necessary condition wherein man may attain his highest development and satisfy his needs. But there is no sure means of ascertaining the "general will," and in any case, unless Reason supports the direction apparently pointed out by the "general will," no cause is shown why that direction should be followed. Reason and not instinct must be the final

ing the "Balilla" organisation, for the religious instruction for the boys. In this connection it should be noted, too, that one of the main reasons for the disbanding of the Catholic Boy Scout organisations in the smaller towns was precisely in order to insure that the local "Balilla" organisations should not be deprived of the Catholic element and so risk falling into the hands of local anti-clericals or those elements in Fascism who would idelise the State and so bring the "Balilla" under the ban of the Church.

criterion of Government action, as well as of individual action. In this connection, it may be useful also to point out that good Government insures Government with the consent of the governed; for any protracted or widespread discontent is a symptom of bad Government, unless such discontent arises out of an agitation organised by vested interests pursuing selfish ends, that is, particular ends not coincident with the general good.

tive and effective criticism may be brought to bear on the acts and proposed acts of Government, and the Government influenced by such criticism should be provided. Likewise means should be provided to act as checks against the possibility of power being utilised to defeat the real purpose of Government, which is the general good as opposed to any particular good, and to enable incompetent members of Government to be easily substituted by others. Means, too, should be provided to enable a form of Government to adapt itself easily to changing conditions. On the other hand, no Government can carry on the business of the State properly, if it has to take truck of purely captious criticism, or if it is at the mercy of gusts of popular sentiment, or depends for its continuance in power on its popularity only.

The list of such secondary absolute principles to which every form of Government should properly subscribe could be prolonged indefinitely; but no useful purpose would be served here by formulating a greater number. The above will illustrate for the reader the kind of principle intended. Those enumerated are perhaps the more important ones. They are of a kind which almost any school of political thought, whether fascist, liberal or socialist, would regard as practically non-controversial.

110 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

It is not this conception of solidarity and moral responsibility that is likely to issue in Tyranny. On the contrary, it is precisely Individualism and

• • As St. Thomas Aquinas points out: "The part indeed desires (and should desire) the good of the whole in so far as it is fitting to itself (i.e., to the part); but not so that the part refers the good of the whole to itself, but rather so that it refers itself to the good of the whole."

(Summa Theol. 2^a, 2^ac, q. 26, art, 3 ad 2^um). Or to paraphrase, on the other hand, Gentile:—The conceptions of the individual and of the society to which he belongs are complimentary ideas, which form a real, concrete unity, inseparable except in abstraction. The rights and duties of the one are the function of the other's, and vice versa.

Agnosticism that has always been (as History amply proves) and always will be the enemy of true freedom.

individual self-realisation all round, or, in other words, the highest realisable mean of opportunity for the self-realisation of each individual (the formula "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" was an effort to express this ideal).

Thus the ideal of the perfect liberal State becomes merely a kind of opportunistic combine of the feeble and mediocre, of the many who live in fear of exploitation by the few of energy and ambition!

No wonder under this dispensation, rather than acquiesce in such drab mediocrity, so many of the gifted few have hailed Nietzsche as their prophet. No wonder, as different classes in the community gain self-consciousness, class warfare becomes a fact, since each one knows, whether individual or group, that whoever gains control of the State is in a position to increase his opportunities of self-realisation at the expense of his less fortunate neighbour! Nay, he would also be justified in doing so where no universal moral law is admitted and all is a matter of individual judgment!

Liberalism indeed may be accounted for, in a world permeated by Individualism and Agnosticism, as a desperate and vain attempt to escape from Tyranny, which is the logical consequence of such a world. For the Tyranny of the Ancien Régime was the direct result of the Individualism and Agnosticism of the

Renaissance, operating in a society politically undeveloped and so easily exploited by the bold and unscrupulous. Liberalism, under more evolved political conditions, managed to overthrow this Tyranny, only to prepare the way, however, so it seems, for the alternative dictatorship of a class (Bolshevism), unless it can succeed in stereotyping its colourless ideal in the shape of the socialist slave State, whereby all men may be turned into machines. In fine, as its best, Liberalism can propose but an unstable equilibrium. It is a gloomy edifice built upon the shifting sands.

VIII. The acceptance of fascist principles means the end of Laissez-Faire as an absolute principle—that is, the principle of Laissez-Faire ceases to be a dogma into which it had come to be erected of Laissez-Faire. In the course of the nineteenth century. Its application becomes merely a matter of expediency, dependent on judgment as to whether or not, in given circumstances, its application in particular cases would more or less contribute to the promotion of the general good. Its general application is by now authoritatively condemned, as indeed experience has condemned it. In this Fascism entirely agrees with Mr. Maynard Keynes, despite the latter's prominent position as a Liberal. In fact, Mr. Keynes' excellent little book, The End of Laissez-Faire (Hogarth Press, London, 1926), might, so far as it goes, serve as a useful intro-

114 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

All this is pure fascist premises and I cordially recommend Mr. Keynes to proceed to Italy and there to study Fascism with an open mind and with the same scrupulous care as he has studied Bolshevism. An essay from his pen on Fascism would doubtless prove a most valuable piece of constructive criticism. Dare we say that he would come to acknowledge the fascist principle, which, in the place of the principle of Laissez-Faire: "Each for himself for the good of all," re-

proclaims the Christian and Mediæval ideal of "Each for all, and all for God"?

^• Cf. Eustace Dudley, National Resurrection, (Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1926).

this; but it discards the socialist formula that prescribes, as a remedy, the nationalisation of the means of production, considering this as a mere reductio ad absurdum of Capitalism.

IX. In much of the above there is already implied the fascist conception of Liberty, which I propose to consider next. The fascist conception of Liberty. Liberty is very clear and very concrete. As we have already seen, the authority of the State must in any case be limited by the Moral Law. There must be no overstepping of this limit. The individual possesses by nature certain personal rights, rights which belong to him, because, though he cannot live except

as a member of society and under the authority of the State, they are not subject to State interference as having authority to do with his position qua member of society, but as having solely to do with him as an individual and as a member of a family. This is a corollary of the Moral Law. Hence the State has no right to coerce an individual in any way beyond what is necessary to safeguard and promote the collective interest; and any form of coercion in excess of what is strictly required to achieve the divinely ordained end of the State, that is, the general good, is to be condemned.

The line may not always be easy to demarcate in practice; but the principle is clear. The rights of a father over his family, for instance, the family itself, which is the real cell on which the State is built up, the vigour and solidarity of which cannot be, besides, weakened without grave consequences for society itself, must be respected by the State. Children must not be forcibly removed from their parents, without urgent and grave reasons touching the general well-being. The father and mother, moreover, have certain paramount claims with regard to the education of their children, especially with regard to their moral and religious education. No State has the right to persecute an individual with respect to his private opinions and private relations, as long as they remain private. It is impossible to coerce a man's Conscience and Reason;

Enrico Corradini,
Founder of Italian Nationalism.

to destroy wealth, to attempt to disrupt society. Any liberties beyond those which appertain to his natural rights and which may be granted to the individual in excess of such rights are such as the State, in legislating, calculates will prove beneficent to the community as a whole, invigorate it, vitalise it, and so give individuals the opportunity for a better and higher life. Such liberties are definite and concrete, as all liberties should be. There is no such thing as freeing man in the abstract.

Liberty is and can only be a concrete thing, a right admitted by principle or conferred and limited by Law in the interest of collectivity. This, indeed, is the old English idea of Liberty. There was a happy time when Englishmen spoke proudly of their liberties. Too often now they vapour about Liberty in the abstract.

Liberty, moreover, is a relative question. As Mussolini has pointed out in one of his most characteristic speeches: "Liberty is not a right, it is a duty. It is not a concession granted to us, it is a conquest. It is not a matter of equality, it is a privilege. The notion of Liberty changes in time. There is a Liberty for times of peace and another Liberty in times of war. There is a Liberty for prosperous times, another for lean times. . . . " Serving God, which means identifying our individual good with the good of the whole body of our fellow-men, is the only true freedom.

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physical cruelty to children and attempts to undermine the discipline of the forces of the Realm—in other words, they do draw the line, in practice at least, against gross immorality and treasonable propaganda. Fascism, which does not fear for its popularity, which has not to pander to the velleity of individuals, has merely the courage to dot the i's and cross the t's, to draw the line quite fairly where it logically and reasonably lies. In doing this it promotes no loss of Liberty.

Mussolini has flattered the compatriots of William James and Charles Pierce by declaring (or so it seems,

^* Cf. Ramiro de Maeztu, Authority, Liberty and Function (Allen & Unwin, London, 1916).

126 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

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Fascism does not and cannot absolutely condemn popular Government, for instance, or parliamentary Government. Nor does Fascism, conversely, stand absolutely by the idea of the "Corporative State," the form of Government which, in Italy, it is bringing into vogue. These matters are contingent matters, and they remain contingent even if, as in the case in point, certain forms of Government come to be rejected by experience as hopelessly unsuited in general to promote the common good and certain

others be calculated as likely to prove efficient instruments. It is all a matter of judgment. Therefore, rules of practical expedience, based on experience and common sense, however they may approximate to

or that they are prepared to live on the moral legacy left them by their forbears, but are too illogical or dull to realise that there would have been no legacy at all, were it not for the dogmas believed in by their forbears, and too lazy to trace the inevitable connection. You cannot honestly have it both ways. An honest Unitarian cannot behave quite in the same way or approve quite the same way of life as a man who believes in the Trinity. So if you really believe, as Mussolini came to realise by experience, that the Catholic Christian way of life is the best, you are driven inexorably, if you are of courage and sound logic, to becoming, by the grace of God, a Catholic. And the same might be said, mutatis mutandis, of any other form of religion.

Cf. also A. G. Moore, "William James' Pragmatism," (Philosophical Studies, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London, 1922).

To conclude: Mussolini's admiration for James or, to take other examples, Sorel or Nietzsche, is due to the incidental influence which the opinions of these men happen to have exercised on Mussolini's mind in certain decisive phases of his development. Sorel, for instance, undoubtedly helped to open Mussolini's mind to the pettiness, the materialism, the mean ideology of his Socialist contemporaries educated on the doctrines of Mark; while Nietzsche brought home to him the truth that the multitude must be led by the few and hence the necessity of an Aristocracy which represents the refinement, the exaltation, the embodiment of that kind of individualism, which is worthy of encouragement, namely, the capacity of individuals to realise themselves in harmony with the good of the community to which they belong, the capacity of transcending themselves, of making themselves worthy of that Communion of Saints, which is the blessed goal of every individual. His admiration for or gratitude to these men, however, does not make him their disciple. A false prophet may very well, despite his heresy—for all heresies having any wide diffusion succeed only by virtue of the truths that they contain—prove to be the turning influence of the life of a true prophet. It would be dangerous, therefore, even if it were not known to the writer to be untrue, to conclude that Mussolini, in praising James, Sorel, or Nietzsche, looks upon the writings of any one of these philosophers as representing in any sense a full or balanced view of the truth.

contemporary, despite the latters' Christian heritage.*

Or further light may be thrown on this point if we put it in this way:—It is as clearly obvious that a Catholic need not necessarily be a Fascist in any practical sense, as it is obvious that a non-Catholic may, on the other hand, be one. But a non-Catholic Fascist will find himself, within the debatable territory which even the strictest theologian admits, in agreement with the fundamental Catholic conception of the State, and will recognise in the last resort the need for an independent moral authority, such as the Church claims to be, in order to provide the coping stone for any truly perfect polity.

* Unfortunately it is often the corrupted form of the great European heritage (its individualistic egoism, its materialism, its mechanical aspects) that are better known and more frequently imitated in the East. In certain respects, the world being what it is, this may be necessitated in self-defence. But it is a strange paradox that so many Chinese Nationalists, for instance, have europeanised themselves in so many ways just when a true and cultivated European begins to be ashamed of his own example. To take a small matter: European dress. If I were a Japanese or a Chinese Nationalist, I would wear my beautiful national dress, which in most cases is also extremely practical, instead, in the false desire to be modern, of adopting the hideous clothes worn by European men. A Japanese Fascist should look upon the wearing of his national dress throughout the world as a symbol of his sincere faith. The East has much to teach the West and a higher world civilisation depends very largely on the East and the West assimilating the best of each other. Unfortunately often the contrary is the more apparent; and it would be as well for the progressive Nations of the East to acquaint themselves better with the valuable side of the great European heritage, that which is the outcome of Roman and Catholic civilisations, rather than of its corruptions.

CHAPTER IV

FASCISM AND DEMOCRACY

THE word "Democracy" has various meanings, to many of which Fascism is not only not opposed, but positively favourable; to others it is Various unfavourable; to one particular meaning of Democracy.

It follows, therefore, that we must carefully distinguish what we mean

(i) States in which authority is concentrated into the hands of one person, e.g., a Monarchy in its normal form; a Tyranny in its perverted form.
(ii) States in which authority is exercised by relatively few persons, or by one or more few classes of persons only, e.g., an Aristocracy in its normal form; an Oligarchy in its perverted form.

(iii) States in which authority is exercised by a relatively large number of persons or by all free subjects irrespective of class distinction, e.g., a Polity, in its normal form, a Democracy, in its perverted form.

It is curious that the word universally adopted in modern times to express a popular form of Government should be precisely the word which in old times designated a corrupted form of popular Government only. It is more than curious. It is significant. It is, to those who have studied History and Philosophy, delightfully ironic.

The perverted form in any case is the one whereby authority is exercised with a wrong intention and according to wrong principles. Consequently, as a matter of fact, a Monarchy, in the absolute sense, may prove every bit as good a form of Government as an Aristocracy or a Polity. Nevertheless, as Aristotle himself is at pains to point out, it is very easy for any of the three types, taken absolutely, to become perverted; and experience shows that some kind of mixed form of Government is likely to prove the less easily perverted. But any form of Government whereby authority is exercised by many, would already appear to be a kind of Polity. Therefore we may conclude that a Polity, whereby authority is exercised by many, but in accordance with a system of checks and balances, wherein the more responsible offices are held by an

Aristocracy of intelligence and morality, wherein there exists one office of outstanding or unifying authority, is likely to prove, in practice, the best form of Government. With this conclusion Fascism completely agrees. It is a practical conclusion, not an abstract conclusion. It involves no absolute principle, but a sound contingent principle based on common sense and experience.

Using the word "Democracy," therefore, in one of its modern senses, e.g., as equivalent to a "mixed Polity," Fascism may claim to be as democratic as any other political creed. Fascism, in other words, definitely stands, as a practical policy, for a Constitution "broadly based upon the people." Such a practical idea of Democracy as this is essentially traditional. It is advocated, not only by Aristotle in the fourth century before Christ, but by St. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century and by Suarez, the Jesuit, in the seventeenth century. We have no quarrel with Democracy in this sense.

Then there is a second meaning of Democracy with which we have no quarrel, the sense in which homage is paid to the ideal of "equal opportunity," the sense in which we speak of every man "carrying in his knapsack a Marshal's baton."

necessarily born into conditions where the opportunities for advancement widely differ. If it were possible or desirable to eliminate the unfit at an early age, remove all children from the control of their parents at the age, say, of six; see to it that up to that age all received equally an adequate amount of nourishment, protection and hygiene; and if, subsequently, all were educated by the State in more or less equally efficient establishments, and none allowed to benefit by the accumulated wealth of relations or friends, we might indeed approach towards the realisation of the ideal. But such an ideal is not only impossible, but undesirable—in that it would mean sacrificing the family, which is the most sacred institution in the State, as well as many other things, which make for responsibility and variety, desirable in themselves.

The ideal of "equal opportunity," therefore, is in any case somewhat of a chimera and, in any absolute sense, both undesirable and contrary to nature. But in the ordinary practical sense of the term there is nothing objectionable in the ideal. On the contrary, there is everything in justice to be said for it. We require that the more responsible offices of the State be filled by the best people, by the people best fitted to occupy such offices, by people conspicuous in intelligence and morality; and such virtues are not the prerogative of any one class. Hence it is right that

ideal is an undying Latin tradition, dating from ancient Roman republican times. Even under the Empire, however in practice the ideal was discounted, as a theory it was never abandoned. The principle of an hereditary Emperor was never juridically admitted. The highest post in the Empire was always theoretically reserved to the Roman citizen who held the most apt combination of qualities; and when the Roman Empire became Christian, to be a Christian, to be a Catholic (the terms were then identical) was merged in the conception of citizenship.

rascism, which is nothing if not traditional, is wholly at one, then, with this practical ideal of equal opportunity. So it is wholly democratic in tendency in this sense also; and if it departs from this principle in any particular, as, for instance, in favouring an hereditary Monarchy, it is for reason of utility. The advantages of an hereditary Monarchy are numerous. By it, above all, is insured the continuity of the State at all times; and though some form of Republic, like the Venetian Republic, having a president or Doge, elected for life, or rather selected, by some elaborate method calculated to result in the choice of a man truly representative and belonging to no particular Party to fulfil the highest post in the State, is an alternative form of Government to that of a limited hereditary Monarchy, with much to recommend it, the balance of advantages,

under present circumstances, in most modern States, remains, I dare say, with the latter. In any case, it is not a matter on which to dogmatise.

Thirdly, there is another meaning to the word "Democracy" with which Fascism accords. I mean that "Demophily" such as is recommended by the Popes.* Here Democracy merely means a special zeal to give the labouring classes, who are oppressed in the modern world as scarcely ever they have been before, those humane conditions of life which not only Charity, but Justice dictates.†

Apart from the above meanings, however, Fascism is very much opposed to Democracy. We have already dealt with Democracy in the sense that Rousseau gives it or in some other sense by which the "general will" is made the sole legitimate authority. In these senses I will refer to it as "Democratism"—that religious myth of Democracy, which has nothing directly to do with the advocacy of Democracy in the sense of a Polity, as above described. "Democratism" is a dogma, not a policy. It is the dogma of the Sovereign People, the falsity of which I have already and exhaustively exposed, the dogma which would make us bow down inexorably to the "general will" and make us all the slaves of mere number. It is a form of political

^• Cf. Leo XIII., Encyclical, "Rerum Novarum," 1888.

^† Cf. Jacques Maritain, Charles Maurras et le Devoir des Catholiques.

138 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

Pantheism, of "Naturalism," which would make of the State a very God. It is not necessary for us to discuss it again here.*

^* Cf. Jacques Maritain: Charles Maurras et le Devoir des Catholiques (Librairie Plon, Paris, 1926).

When we come to look at the Constitutions of France, say, or of Great Britain, or of Italy before the fascist Revolution, the question enters the realm of practical politics. That Italy was drifting rapidly towards mob rule during the generation preceding the fascist Revolution, few will gainsay. That the condition of France, whose spokesmen openly preach "Democratism," appears to be very similar to that of the old Italy, there seems no reason at all to doubt. The case of Great Britain, however, is not so clear.

140 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

truth among the ill-instructed masses. The public-school man is not so powerfully entrenched as he was. The popularly elected Parliament is subject, in practice, to fewer and fewer checks. I should say, therefore, that Great Britain has been for some time sauntering down the path that leads eventually to the abyss and has now reached a turning where the gradient has become suddenly much steeper. France, on the other hand, has already gained a dangerous momentum further down. Both have meantime lost the companionship of Italy, who has turned round and is laboriously trudging in the opposite direction; and both are beginning to wonder if Italy is not right.

That is, roughly, how I would diagnose the situation. But we may conclude, in any case, that there is nothing in parliamentary Government, as usually understood, inherently pernicious. Nevertheless, coupled with whatever advantages it may possess as a practical system, it is open to many objections. In expounding a few of these objections, further below, I shall not be referring to those who would idolise the "general will." Such people are past praying for; and I can only refer them back to Chapter II, with the gentle reminder that, whatever may be said for their idol, parliamentary Government is no mouthpiece of it, because, as I have already pointed out:

142 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

(I) The sum of individual wills, even if unanimous, is not the same as the "general will."
(II) Where are you to draw the line as to the enfranchised and disenfranchised? For, if you leave out any class, with any claims to being reasonable, you make the result still less approximate to the "general will."

These, of course, are no arguments against parliamentary Government. They are, however, absolutely damning arguments against the idea that parliamentary Government follows as a logical consequence of setting up the idol of the "general will." Those who believe in the "general will" have not only to scrap Rousseau and fall back on a more brutal, more materialistic Philosophy still in order to justify their God, but invent a new method of consulting him. It would be interesting to hear what method they would now put forward.

the idol of the "general will," it generally rests on the idea of force; e.g., that what the majority wishes cannot be avoided because the majority possesses the force; and that, therefore, it is better to count heads than to break them.

This notion is an absolute fallacy. The majority of any body of opinion is always (except in moments of

As a matter of fact, the system puts a premium on men with a gift for speech, rather than on men with a gift for cool judgment. We know that not one-tenth of the members of the House of Commons are fitted to hold the rank of Cabinet Ministers. Most of those who reach that rank would, even as it is, be lost, were it not for the permanent official behind them with his technical knowledge. The choice of competent Cabinet Ministers and Under Secretaries of State, under a

No joint-stock company, in spite of the fact that here the shareholders have a definite and defined right to have a direct say in the management of their affairs by vote, would dream of adopting such a system. Any such company that did so would soon be in the hands of the receiver. Imagine Mr. Derrick and Lord Seepage, whose turn it is to retire from the Board of the Down-our-way Petroleum Company, but are both eligible for re-election, circularising the shareholders

146 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

before the next annual general meeting, with a "Vote for Derrick and big dividends," and a "Vote for Seepage and safety, with a big bonus to follow," at the head of their respective pamphlets. Would any of us, before such a spectacle, invest our savings in such a company? Never for a minute. Yet the far more technical and complex business of running a State competently we allow thoughtlessly to be carried on under a system that, if suggested for any other kind of business, would be ridiculed out of court.*

* In England, as we have seen, for special reasons the system works better than in most places, though none too well. The removal, therefore, of some of its worse features might prevent the breakdown which otherwise, given a few decades, looks inevitable. With some such limited programme in mind, I would suggest the following constitutional reforms:—
(1) Make the family (the real social cell) instead of the individual the basis for the suffrage (see below).
(2) Give the elector the right to vote against anyone or all en bloc of the parliamentary candidates in a given constituency as an alternative to voting in favour of any one of them—in other words, give him the right freely to refuse altogether the choices made by the Party machines, thus compelling, if necessary, new elections with new candidates.
(3) Institute second elections in order to insure that no member be returned without securing his quota of votes, which must be at least equal to the total number of votes cast, divided by the number of candidates. Thus, if there were three candidates and 10,000 votes recorded, no candidate could be elected unless he secured 3,334 votes, after deducting any adverse votes.
- (4) Make voting obligatory
(5) Cut down the total membership of Parliament to not more than to members per 1,000,000 habitants.
(6) Contrive to make (and to set up machinery for the purpose of revising and maintaining) the constituencies—all of which should be single member constituencies—roughly equal in population.

Again, who in his senses imagines that an electorate, even if confined to persons of education, is capable of deciding any important technical issue with any justice—Free Trade versus Tariff Reform, for instance—a valuable opinion in regard to which requires the possession of a special knowledge of the Science of Economics and an enormous amount of technical and statistical data to which this knowledge must then be applied. Finally, no Party, under the ordinary parliamentary system, dares put forward a measure, however good, if it runs the risk of unpopularity. What Government, for instance, resting on a parliamentary majority, would have stayed in office a week in any country, with such a Bill as the Gentile Education

⁽⁷⁾ Insist on the public auditing of Party funds, together with the periodical publication of the names of all contributors.

⁽⁸⁾ Restore the powers of the House of Lords to equal those in every respect enjoyed by the House of Commons, but contemporaneously make of the House of Lords a true House of Faculties, composed, that is to say, of:

⁽a) Only a very restricted hereditary element

Reform Bill on the table of the House? On its mair provisions hardly an expert in Italy disagreed as to its merits. It was a wonderful measure, but it meant that every household would be affected in the sense that it would immediately become more difficult for the young members of the family to pass their examinations and acquire those much-sought-after diplomas, which on the Continent, mean a great deal towards obtaining so-called respectable "black-coated" employment Moreover, the measure wrenched the whole teaching

(d) A limited number of life appointments selected from among Privy Counsellors of at least one year's seniority, not already entitled to sit by virtue of some other qualification.

The hereditary element I would suggest restricting to:

(a) Princes and Princesses by blood closely related to the King.
(b) Peers and Peeresses in their own right of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, whose title to sit dates from the reign of James I., who have reached the age of 40.
(c) Representative Peers (or Peeresses in their own right) of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland elected severally by their peers in the proportion of 1 to 25.
(a) Married men and women.

profession out of their rut and put them, so to speak, "back to school," to their great personal inconvenience. The consequence was a howl of protest, wherein the voices of countless disappointed fathers mingled with those of injured vested interests. Only a form of Government, which protects the Government from the consequences of unpopularity, would ever have enabled such a Bill to become Law. Who knows, indeed, how many useful measures have never even been contem-

mother, as the case may be, would also have the power to enfranchise their children or wards at any time within their own discretion. Such a law would confer absolutely equal rights on men and women, except the prior right of the father to exercise the additional votes. Thus the male vote would predominate. So, likewise, would the vote of those bearing the greater responsibilities. Finally, the system would place the centre of gravity of power between the responsible but vigorous ages of 35 and 55.

(9) Reduction by concentration of portfolios in the number of
- - (b) Much further decentralisation in the technical and administrative sense; centralisation, on the other hand, in the political sense.
- (c) Introduction of the Corporative system on the Italian model, but adapted to English needs, as the basis on which local authorities should be constructed.
(11) Ministers to have the right of speaking, but not of voting, in both Houses. This provision is rendered necessary by the institution of a non-Party House of Lords.
- (12) The office of Lord Chancellor to be made a life appointment.

plated under parliamentary régimes, merely because they would have meant governmental suicide? The truth is that the parliamentary system makes Government the panderer to popularity, on the one hand—gives power to the masses to decide innumerable issues about which they cannot possibly have the knowledge required in order to exercise a sound judgment—and for the rest it is only too often a game, which flatters the masses into thinking they are the masters, but in reality is played by a limited number of wire pullers.

Fascism, in freeing opinion from the hypnotism of these false ideas, has made it possible in Italy to look at the parliamentary system, as it is generally developed, for the first time objectively. What are its practical advantages? What are its disadvantages? In the light of an unprejudiced examination, under Italian conditions at any rate, there is so little to be said for it, that, even among the opponents of the present régime in Italy, it has few defenders outside the dispossessed clique of professional politicians. If the same problem could be examined elsewhere, with equal absence of prejudice, on the sole criterion of advantages versus disadvantages, I wonder how the system would fare, say, in France or in England. I believe very little better. Fascism in this has shown itself a great emancipating movement. It is like a breath of fresh air in a stifling room.

CHAPTER V

FASCISM AND EMPIRE

I REFER the reader back to Chapter I for the definition of Empire. An Empire is a particular form of State; and, as I have already shown in Chapter II, it comes into being naturally like any other form of State, according to circumstances. Generally speaking, it is a form of State that succeeds historically the city or tribal State, but precedes the national State. For, as I have reiterated more than once, the vitality, and so the very justification, of an Empire is exhibited in its power of assimilation, that is, its power of welding into a single national State its various heterogeneous elements by creating within its limits a single national or super-national sentiment—and thus ensuring political progress.

Nor, as I have shown, is there anything inherently wrong, aggressive or unstable in the imperial State.

Imperial We have, therefore, to ask: Why is it that

The reason for this doubt lies in the history of Europe since the Pagan Renaissance, when Religion decayed and lust for power became the order of the day. It is, alas, true that modern Imperialism has exhibited the ugly side, not so much of Imperialism, as of human nature. Out of the lust for power and wealth, by the rapacity, indeed, of past generations of less mild men, the foundations of the modern Empires of the world have been largely built. So, too, in part were built the Roman

Unfortunately many of those who are proud to call themselves Imperialists are of the very type which merits our reprobation, Militarists and adventurers, men without an idea in their heads beyond themselves, men without religion, greedy financiers, hunters of wealth for wealth's sake, men with the eyes of fish. But there are some, many of whom are or have been simple soldiers and sailors, who have learnt to think

So, too, in spite of the humaner spirit of the day, the world is still suffering from the greedy atmosphere it has breathed during the past few centuries. There is much in this humaner spirit which springs rather from exhaustion than from a change of heart. Men have become more nervously sensitive, not more morally sensitive—or so it seems. The final justification of the Empires of to-day can only be accomplished with a truly positive change of heart.

But do not let us exaggerate. The Empires o to-day, no less than the Empires of yesterday, have no by any means been all built up on avarice and The lust. Empires exhibit natural growth. The Fascist View of conditions of the world are not static.

Empires grow, filling up by divine right the voids created by States in dissolution, by anarchy intervening. The State which is strong, that carries its head high, as every State should, whose citizens are loyal and enterprising and sane and healthy and prolific, the State that has much to give the world, will inevitably grow under favourable geographical conditions, expand, become an Empire, assimilate her parts, become a greater national State, expand again. This is the real way in which Empires are built even in the worst periods. The lust and the avarice of private individuals

and of statesmen, which, in all times, in varying degrees (fallen human nature being what it is), have characterised the growth of States, are, almost invariably, if we examine the phenomena carefully but broadly, episodical compared with nature's thrust of life, which, hating a void, imposes expansion, in the dynamic conditions of the world, on those States in whose veins life runs strong and generously.

This, in the first place, is the fascist view of Empire. Therein, in a sense, in the Biblical sense, it takes no thought of the morrow. Rome was not built in a day. And if fascist Italy again becomes worthy of an Empire, inevitably an Empire shall she possess. Without any aggressive intent, without any militarism, her Empire will grow, the work of God rather than of man.

The struggle for existence is another matter. It has nothing to do with Empire, though out of it, Empire may grow. A State has a right to fight for its life. This is a law of life, from which none of us can withdraw. The world is not one State yet, meting out justice for all; and in this world of comparative anarchy, the unprepared State will succumb. A sense of this reality is not incompatible with the highest ideals. On the contrary, the greatest idealists are the greatest realists. Idealism, in this sense (not the philosophical sense) is contrasted with materialism, not realism. The average English-

man, whose logical sense, under his present dispensation, has been left deplorably untrained, is apt to confuse materialism with realism, idealism with ideology; and thereby, owing to his practical talents operating perspicaciously despite his confusion of thought, he has, not altogether undeservedly, earned the name of humbug.

The struggle for existence in a world of comparative anarchy as between States may inevitably lead to further wars. Not so the ideal of Empire, as Fascism would interpret it. And if the world at large, if the big Empires that to-day control the raw materials and the empty spaces fit for colonisation, hem in a vital and prolific nation, not naturally enjoying the possession of abundant raw materials and empty spaces for her sons to settle in, and prevent, thereby, that Nation from maintaining a proper standard of life for her sons, by closing their doors to colonisation and exacting a monopoly toll for the raw materials on which her industry may thrive, it is they who will be responsible for any wars that break out in consequence of such a Nation's right to live and to enjoy a better life.

The chief hope here for accommodating matters, lies, perhaps, in the work of the League of Nations. If the League succeeds in not rendering itself sterile in the futile aim of maintain-\ning, for the sake of an illusory peace, static conditions in a world which is necessarily dynamic.

the League will justify its existence. Otherwise, it will be the cause of war, rather than of peace, like one who invites an explosion by the bottling up of steam in a confined space.

Italian Fascism at first looked askance at the League. It hoped little of a League, founded under the auspices of an ideologist like Wilson, a League that looked like the fulfilment of a prophecy by such a false prophet as Rousseau, planted in the fatherland of Rousseau and Calvin, and engendered in the cynical atmosphere of the Paris conference, a League whose assemblies have been characterised by the worst examples of fulsome, demogogic, hypocritical oratory and by political manœuvres recalling the worst features of parliamentary log-rolling, a League, too, whose most enthusiastic supporters spring from the ranks of just that sort of political sentimentalists with whom Italy at home will have nothing more to do.

But Mussolini's idealism, his realism, his capacity for piercing the veil of mere appearances, has gradually brought his followers round to a rather different view of the League. From an attitude of doubt and disapproval, an attitude of cautious hope has arisen, coupled with a determination to make use of the League as an instrument to promote justice and equity, as between States, rather than peace at any price. Fascists never disputed that the League was capable

But to return to the question of Empire, there is

Unwin, London, 1916): "An International Law based exclusively on Treaties would make present frontiers eternal... War itself is more violent but less unjust than such an abominable aspiration." The attempt to do so is largely responsible for the failure of the Hague Conferences, and may yet account for the failure of the League of Nations.

Empire, therefore, is indissolubly connected with a culture, an idea, a type of civilisation, a way of approaching the problems of life. Hence there is a sense in the word Empire which transcends its territorial sense; and this is its spiritual sense, its really more

^• Unfortunately the word Kultur has earned an evil savour, because the German Kultur, so widely advertised before and during the War, happened to be impregnated with the false Idealism of the leading German philosophers.

important sense, in that its territorial sense is but a ready-made receptacle to receive the spirit. But the spirit may, after filling the receptacle, be defused beyond it. A powerful national State, respected among other States, with a great civilisation, a great culture, will exercise inevitably a powerful attraction beyond its frontiers. It will influence the culture of other Nations. It will have an assimilating effect beyond what is strictly its own province; and this influence in itself is a kind of Empire-building. It is, in fact, the finest form of Empire-building, for it conquers without destroying life, that is, by the sincere flattery of imitation, so to speak, only.

Fascism would create for Italy also an Empire such as this. And it wili inevitably do so, if Italy has anything of real importance to give the world. And if, besides the importance of its gift, that gift be truly good, those who might thus become spiritually influenced by Italy would never have anything to regret. All-conquering Rome was in many ways spiritually conquered by little Greece and proudly handed on the culture of Greece, blended with her own, to the world at large. Italy appears, indeed, to have a genius for conquest of this sort. It was largely by Italian agency that Rome in the person of the Church spiritually conquered Europe again and created the

making of a new and better political and social synthesis, built on the old traditions.

But if this ideal be a worthy one and represent truly the right road for all to follow, the sooner others, besides Italy, take to it, the better; and if anyone can, in friendly rivalry, there take the lead from Italy, to him the greater glory. All on this road are welcomed as equals; but God will assign to the most vigorous and zealous, to the one who can achieve most perfectly the task of harmonising her own interests with those of the world at large in accordance with principles of universal justice, the honour of primus inter pares. The Roman idea has no restrictions of place or person.* In the pursuit of this ideal, because of its universality, there can be no exclusiveness. There is room for all. If pride keeps anyone away, so much the worse for him

^* Cf. James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, Chap. VII, "Theory of the Mediæval Empire," (Macmillan & Co., London, 1922, revised edition).

CHAPTER VI

THE WELTANSCHAUUNG OF FASCISM

The present Weltanschauung of Fascism may be summed up in one word: Youth. Fascism would have men look at the world with the eyes of a well-knit young man, the Knight Chivalrous; and if I were asked to choose an appropriate motto for Fascism, it would be "ανδρίζεσθε," "Quit ye like men." I remember this was the motto of my old school, St. Aubyns, Rottingdean; and maybe the ideals that were instigated in me there have contributed to my enthusiasm for Fascism now. Rottingdean, in those days, was also the home of Kipling, and it was then, if I remember rightly, or very shortly afterwards, he wrote that extraordinarily stirring little poem "If," which sums up all that is best in Kipling's ideal Imperialist, all that is best in the English public-school spirit. I will quote it in full, for it conveys the sentiment of one half of the Weltanschauung of Fascism:

"If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise

"If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much, If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!"

^* The fascist Boy Scout and Girl Guide organisation is known as the "Balilla," named after a Genoese boy hero, who started the revolt against the French occupation by throwing a stone at the foreign soldiery in 1746.

proposition; and I doubt if they can, as a whole, be transformed into the complete Fascist.

merit of allowing themselves to be led by the better ones among them and by Mussolini, who is a generation ahead of his own. But they are too many of them stamped by the defects of their up-bringing—too many boasters, too many self-opinionated, too many over-fond of rhetoric and of making, at all costs, a "bella figura," as they call it: cutting a fine figure—anything to be able to show off as just one better than their companions. Most of the troubles of Fascism in Italy are owing to the breaking out of these defects of this generation, which, though it made Fascism, cannot aspire to be its fulfilment.

The speeches of Mussolini and of the Secretary to the fascist Party, Signor A. Turati, have only to be read and it will be realised how hard the leaders of Fascism hammer the rank and file, who will not or cannot live the fascist ideal. But the process is undoubtedly telling and the result is a new generation growing up, who promise to make a governing class really worthy of the ideal. And in connection with the bringing up of these younger men and women, nothing has struck me more forcibly to the credit of Fascism than the manner in which it has saved them from that wave of unchastity and irresponsibility which elsewhere has proved one of the most serious consequences of the War. The plea which young men are apt to put forward to excuse or sanction periodical

The Italian knight chivalrous, however, is perhaps not quite the same person as the one associated with the term in the romantic North. He is anything but a

Augusto Turati,
Secretary of the Fascist Party.

172 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

minds than the simpler Biblical text. Moreover, a man can lose himself thus only in one way—and this is the secret of Youth—in activity, whether it be practical or intellectual, an activity which is also a creative passion and therefore born of love for his fellow-men. As the most typical of Italian philosophers and by far the greatest of them all, St. Thomas Aquinas, said, so simply and yet so adequately: Unumquodque . . . secundum naturam hoc ipsum quod est, alterius est,* and again: Pars habet inclinationem principalem ad actionem communem utilitate totius.†

^* St. Thomas Aquinas, Sum. Theo. I, q. 60, art. 5. † Ibidem, 2ª, 2ªe, q. 26, art. 3.

I PROPOSE to give, in this second part, which is intended as a kind of Appendix to Part I, a summary description of a few of the more important applications of fascist doctrine in Italy. As I pointed out in the Introduction, the constitution, public institutions and laws suitable to the conditions of one country may be quite unsuitable to another. Though a political Philosophy, to have any validity, must indeed have a universal application, its actual application must necessarily vary in different circumstances. Nevertheless all the civilised States of the world to-day have a great deal in common; and inasmuch as this is so, any successful applications of a doctrine in one civilised State may be usefully examined by others with a view to adaptation, if not to exact reproduction.

The time is not yet ripe for a detailed description or for a final criticism of the concrete applications of fascist doctrine in Italy. The present situation in Italy is transitional. The new constitution, the new public institutions and laws are in course of being brought into being. The process is as yet by no means complete. I am accordingly confining myself here to a summary description with the special purposes in view of illustrating the foregoing thesis and of arousing interest in the various measures already adopted, or foreshadowed, measures well worthy of attention and study by all who claim to be practical politicians and aim at finding a happy solution to our present discontents.

To this end, and in order to understand the full significance of this legislation, the student should perhaps particularly bear in mind the following principles, which are continually, if only implicitly as a rule, being referred to in the text of the fascist laws.

1. Fascism regards it as the duty of the individual so to contrive his life that the pursuit of his interests coincides with those of the community. The State is and can be the only impartial judge as to whether the individual is doing this or not. If he is not, the State has the right and duty to interfere.
1. Private initiative in the field of production is considered as a general rule the most efficacious and most useful instrument in the interest of the community (cf. Art. 7 of the Labour Charter, section VI); and thus the institution of private property is sanctioned as a natural right, whereby the family tie, the most important

and fundamental of all ties, is strengthened; which makes, more than anything else, when widely distributed, for true Liberty.

1. Private property, however, is also a public trust. If a man's subjective rights to private property are abused, if he fails to exercise his rights in a manner which corresponds with a sense of responsibility to the community at large, he becomes liable to having his rights curtailed or even abrogated altogether—that is, not in general, but in the particular department where his sense of duty has failed him.
1. We may say, indeed, that Fascism sanctions an objective, "functional" theory of rights.* Similarly, this sense of responsibility, which a true sense of Religion, which family affection, which patriotism and a consciousness of nationality provide, is the only true basis of citizenship, that is, the eligibility to assume responsibilities in the Government of the country. In other words, only those persons with a public conscience are fit to exercise public responsibilities and are therefore entitled to political rights.
1. Consequently the State cannot tolerate the propaganda of ideas which may reasonably be said to undermine Religion, the Family and the State; and

^• Cf. Ramiro de Maeztu, Authority, Liberty and Function (Allen & Unwin, London, 1916).

not only is it, therefore, the duty of the State to censure the propaganda of such ideas, but to prosecute individuals who, by disrespectful word or action, bring Religion, the institution of the Family and the main institutions of the State (the King, the Prime Minister, as responsible head of the Executive, Parliament and the Law Courts) into contempt.

1. Furthermore, it is the duty of the State to do what is possible so to construct society that it becomes easy for the individual, in the pursuit of his private interests, to make his interests coincide with those of the community; and its duty is to do everything in its power to raise the moral standards of the people and to encourage their sense of communal responsibility and self-discipline.
1. Individuals cannot serve two masters. They cannot own allegiance to a political body outside the State, such as a political Internationale, as well as to their own country's Government. They must choose; and if they prefer the former, they must be and deserve to be treated as foreigners.
1. Co-operation for the good of the whole must be the order of the day. Consequently those in charge of local Government or of autonomous public institutions must not be permitted to pull at variance with the general aims of the central Government. Hence,

whatever measure of administrative decentralisation may be deemed advisable, political centralisation is essential. So likewise only those class associations who admit the principle of class interdependence and the paramount interests of the community as a whole, whose constitution, moreover, is a guarantee of their bona fides in these respects, can be recognised by the State and be granted the right of representing their class economically. Here we have in a nutshell the idea of the unitary State, so often referred to by fascist writers. Hence the State must aim at becoming one organic whole, in which the individuals composing it, by organising their collective activities, are integrated with the State institutions, so that all may pull together towards a common goal.

Class warfare may, in certain circumstances, be a fact; but it is not a necessity. Those who would have class warfare are agents for dividing the country against itself, and a house divided against itself will not stand. Hence such persons must be classed with those who deserve to be deprived of political rights. But, in saying this, it is important to make a distinction. Class warfare must not be confounded with that individual competition, given the dynamic conditions of life, for the better posts and a higher social status, which makes it possible to classify broadly into categories those who

may be said to be pressing to rise and those who may be said to be resisting the pressure. This, which Fascists call the "struggle of capacities," and not class warfare, is, of course, an eternal social fact. In other words, the auto-defence of individuals, categories of workers and classes must give way to the State's justice.

1. The State, whose only interest and duty it is to promote the general good, is the only power capable of taking an impartial view in the interests of the whole between individuals or individual groups, whose interests come into conflict. Hence, if any such conflicts fail to be settled in the first instance by friendly discussion between the parties it is the duty of the State, by means of a constitutionally appointed Court, to settle the dispute and enforce the settlement (cf. Art. 5 of the Labour Charter, section VI).
Government of a country any more than it is a necessity in the management of a business. Constructive and effective criticism is necessary on the other hand for proper Government. But constructive and effective criticism may be provided by other means than by opposing Parties, just as it is provided (and in abundance) within the constitution of public companies.
- Government must in any case not be in a position

Means, too, must be devised, as we have seen, by which the central Government may be kept in touch with the needs of the indefinite number of parts which

1. The executive power should be strong and capable of acting swiftly. It is expedient, therefore, that, as in the American Constitution, it should be in many respects independent of the Legislature.
1. The complexity of modern life, the great interdependence in a modern State between the parts, the swiftness of communications, etc., require the modern State to shoulder an ever-increasing burden of responsibilities and to engage in evermore manifold activities.

This fact must be faced and the State adapt itself positively to the task, not lag behind it reluctantly until circumstances force it to take action in accordance with the old Liberal principle. The dogmas of Laissez-Faire and a minimum of Government control are dead.

SECTION II

HETEROGENEOUS LEGISLATION

The greater part of what is dealt with in this section

184 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

is scarcely controversial, unless we except the Local Government reforms. The remainder may be said to be what other previous Governments talked of doing and aspired to do, but only the fascist Government has been able to carry into effect.

We have already referred to Gentile's great Education Act, which stiffened the standard of examinations; made it more difficult for unnecessary numbers of boys and girls to obtain the required qualifications at the expense of the State in order to compete for "black-coated" employment; canalised those unable to pass examinations, entitling them to pursue their studies at the classical and literary higher schools, into technical schools; put the teachers themselves back to school during the whole of their career, thus forcing them to keep abreast with new knowledge and methods; encouraged private schools by the institution of the State examination; reduced the number of State-aided universities; restored religious teaching in the elementary schools and provided for it at all State schools, etc., etc., etc.

Altogether, for a country that is reckoned from 20 to 40 times poorer than Great Britain and is peculiarly deficient in raw materials, possesses insignificant colonies and a congested population which increases by 470,000 souls annually,* these results seem almost miraculous. They have been achieved solely by sound principles of finance, by a fearless economy (for example, the number of State employees has been reduced by 80,000; the number of railway employees per axlekilometre from 62 to 32), by a vigorous enforcement of taxation and a complete overhauling and readjustment of the incidence of taxation, which has brought with it at the same time greater justice for the poorer man.†

But the actual expenditure on the Army and Navy in comparison with the amounts spent before the War (after taking into account the fall in the value of the Lira and of the purchasing power of gold) has been reduced.

Again, the Judiciary has been reformed, procedure speeded up and the various High Courts of Appeal unified. The police has also been re-organised.

But it would be superfluous here to extend the list, although a somewhat more complete list would deserve to contain examples of many important Miscelminor measures passed into law, such as laneous. the unification of the Mining Laws, and the important and original Law protecting authors' rights, besides the many temporary measures adopted for the defence of the realm, the new Press Law* and

^* There is nothing that calls for special comment in the Press Law except the one clause that makes a newspaper liable to confiscation should anything be published considered likely to result in a disturbance

tions. So let us conclude our general survey tions. So let us conclude our general survey by mentioning the drastic reform and recodification of the Commercial, Civil and Penal Codes (not yet complete),* the creation of a number of new autonomous State institutions, such as the National Militia, the National "Balilla" (Boy New Auto-Scout) Institution, the National After-Work nomous State In. Institution (see below), the Royal Academy, the stitutions. Patronato Nazionale (see below), the A.G.I.P. (the National Petroleum Company), the Central Statistical Institute, and the National Institution for the Protection of and Assistance to Mothers and Children.

The latter, together with the National "Balilla" Institution, forms part of the magnificent work accomplished for promoting the physical and moral welfare of the race. These measures are supplemented by a of the public peace. This clause may be interpreted arbitrarily and so may result in restrictions of the liberty of the Press beyond what many

may result in restrictions of the liberty of the Press beyond what many may consider expedient. It is justified, however, in the circumstances, given the revolutionary conditions still existing in Italy, the inflammability of the Italian character and the previous licentiousness of the Italian Press. The remaining clauses merely extend the list of Press offences to include specific appeals to violence and the disruption of the State, contempt of the State's institutions, deliberate untruths and obscenities—offences which make the newspaper liable to prosecution.

* The draft of the new Penal Code has recently been published and has been given an especially warm welcome in Catholic circles, in that it is based on the theory of individual responsibility and not on the modern "positive" theory of Law. Its sanctions are particularly severe with regard to matters touching public morality.

The Mora and Physical Protection of the Race.

The Reform of the Administration has resulted, as we have seen, in a reduction of the swollen bureaucracy by no less than 80,000 persons, although at the same time the work of the State deform.

Administration has been largely increased.

This is accounted for by the independence of the Executive (see below), who have thus been given a free hand to reorganise, by better organisation, by large administrative decentralisation and by the concentration or unification of many of the Ministries. Thus the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury have been amalgamated, a Ministry of Communications and a Ministry of National Economy created, in which are now grouped governmental departments that were

formerly separate, often with a Minister of their own (such as the Ministry of Agriculture, which is now absorbed by the Ministry of National Economy). Steps have been taken, too, to prepare the way for the creation of a Ministry of National Defence, absorbing the three Ministries of War, Marine and Aeronautics. A Chief of the General Staff, with a department, has, for instance, already been organised to co-ordinate the three arms, while Mussolini himself has for some time been in charge of all three Ministries.

number of seats to be filled) prepared by the local industrial and professional corporations, and possessing wide powers of control. In Rome a Governor takes the place of the Podestà and in Naples, for the present, a High Commissioner, both with extended powers. This scheme has certainly resulted in higher efficiency and better co-ordination. The Podestàs are administratively responsible to the Prefect, whose approval is required for all local bye-laws; they are unpaid (save in very special circumstances) and they must possess certain educational qualifications for their appointment.

The Prefect of the Province, who is the supreme governmental magistrate in local affairs, is responsible for the maintenance of public order and for co-ordinating the administration of his Province. He also is assisted by a small council, and acts as President of the provincial Economic Council, composed of the representatives of the employers and employed of all the chief industries of the Province. This Council takes the place of the old Chamber of Commerce and, among other duties it concerns itself with the regulation of prices. The Prefect's powers are very wide and he is responsible directly to the Ministry of the Interior, which has instituted a permanent service of inspection to report on local conditions and on the efficiency of the administration with a special view to the economical expenditure of local public funds.

192 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

The whole administration of the country has thus come to be organised as a hierarchy of powers. Public servants are divided into three classes, namely, secretarial, accountancy and what in England corresponds to the second-division clerks and employees. The salaries paid are equalised according to rank throughout the administration, including the fighting forces and judiciary, the highest-paid officials at the summit of the hierarchy being the President of the High Court of Appeal and Field-Marshals.

State Institutions founded by the fascist Government is the After-Work Institution. Its object is to provide interesting, physically healthy, mentally and morally uplifting activities for the working classes after their hours of labour. It may be described as a central clearing-house and co-ordinator of institutions like the Y.M.C.A., the Men's and Women's Institutes, etc., the Playground Recreation Association, the Carnegie Trust, in England or America or, better, all these things and similar things rolled into one

The executive and central administration are assisted by two permanent Commissions, one known as the "Liaison" Commission, which keeps itself in touch with the various kinds of workers and their peculiar needs. This work of liaison has been made all the more effective since the organisation of the Corporations of Labour. The second Commission is technical and is subdivided into a number of Committees, each dealing with a particular activity, as follows:—

1. Cinematograph.
1. Radiotelegraphy.
1. The Theatre.
1. General culture
1. Professional technical instruction
Woman's work at home (needlework, lacemaking, embroidery, etc.).
1. Home nursing and medicine.
Folk-lore.
1. Domestic economy.
1. Hygiene.
1. Housing.
1. Furnishing
1. Excursions into the country, to the mountains, sea-side, etc.
Touring.

Each Province has a similar organisation, which allows for decentralisation and provides for peculiar local needs. The bulk of the money is found by the workers themselves through the Trade Union (Syndicate) rates. Strike funds no longer being required, large sums are now available for social work.

The work already accomplished by this Institution is

positively remarkable. Besides the money found by the workers themselves, voluntary subscriptions and assistance by private persons and firms have literally poured in, while the State itself contributes to maintain the purely administrative side. It is impossible, however, to give a full account here of the Institution's activities. Those readers who would care to pursue the subject further may be referred to one of the Institution's publications, I Primi Due Anni di Attività dell' Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro, 1927, obtainable from the Institution's headquarters in Rome (Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro, Via in Lucina 17).

I will accordingly confine myself to noting a few points that have struck me personally in the course of a short tour of inspection undertaken during 1927 in Central Italy.

I was particularly struck by the fine buildings placed at the disposal of the Institution in large and small towns alike, the excellence of some of the lending libraries and reading rooms (where the principal newspapers and reviews, besides those published by the Institution itself, are to be found), and the variety of opportunities for sport which the Institution provides, ranging from tennis and football to bowls and billiards, from ski-ing and roller-skating to dancing, athletics and cycling. Everywhere I found great enthusiasm among the organisers and the workers. In Florence I noticed there

196 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

SECTION III

THE LAW ON THE ATTRIBUTIONS AND PREROGATIVES OF THE PRIME MINISTER

integrity and liberty of the Prime Minister is liable to heavy punishment. Lastly, no motion in either house may be proposed without the consent of the Prime Minister; and if a bill be rejected by one house, it may be re-presented after a term of three months to be voted upon by secret ballot, after any proposed amendments have been discussed and adopted.

The law thus establishes the independence of the Executive of the Legislature. The Legislature nevertheless has ample opportunities of criticising the Administration on the occasions when the departmental Budgets are submitted; and these have to be submitted each year regularly.

For a Parliament, when Party Government is not in accordance with constitutional practice (refer Section VI), there is no earthly reason why the Executive should not thus be independent of the Legislature. It is for the Prime Minister to adapt himself to the general attitude of the two Houses of Parliament or, if he also fails to lead them, his Government will have all their legislation blocked and their supplies eventually cut off. So the power of the Prime Minister is by no means unlimited. So also, if there arose a conflict between the King and Parliament over the Government, the King, sooner rather than later, would have to give way and charge somebody else with the formation of the Government.

In the absence of Party Government, moreover, little greater burden of responsibility is placed on the King than there is where the usual form of parliamentary Government prevails. The King's choice cannot fall on the leader of a minority party, where no organised parties exist. He would call the man who seems to him best fitted to form and conduct his Government, just as he does at present within the majority Party in the form of Parliament to which we are accustomed. Thus, in the event of the sudden death of Mr. Baldwin, for instance, the King would summon one of the Cabinet to form the Government, but it cannot be foretold for certain whom he would summon. He exercises his own judgment in such cases, as he did when he summoned Mr. Asquith and not Mr. Morley (who was equally in the running for the appointment) on the death of Mr. Campbell Bannerman.

SECTION IV

THE LAW DEFINING THE POWERS OF THE EXECUTIVE

In the Italian, the law is described as the right of the Executive to issue rules having the binding force of Law.

These rules, which may be effected by Royal Decree, after having received Cabinet approval and after consultation with the Council of State (which corresponds roughly to His Majesty's Privy Council, one section of which is a purely legal body) are such as appertain to:—

(a) The execution of the laws of the land—that is, laws very frequently require detailed regulations to enable them to be explained (cf. King's Regulations with respect to Military Law).
(b) The interpretation of laws or of customs having virtually the force of Law; e.g., conditions may arise when the interpretation of a law becomes necessary or a custom may require definition and so be given definitely the force of Law.

trative machine. In other words, the Executive is solely responsible for the administration and its organisation, and for the Government officials which are, so to speak, the employees of the Government. Thus an amalgamation of Ministries, the creation of a new Ministry, the suppression of a Ministry, the conditions of employment of Government officials, etc., etc., are the sole concern of the Executive. Parliament accordingly ceases to have legislative rights in this respect; although, as we have seen, the presentation of the annual departmental Budget affords opportunities for criticism and control.

The law also defines and limits the power of the Executive to promulgate Royal Decree Laws by Orders in Council. Such laws are declared to lapse if Parliament fails to approve of them within two years. On the other hand Parliament is bound to be given the opportunity of considering them not later than the third session from the date of their promulgation.

202 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

gress. Nor has the written Statute of the Kingdom of Italy been in any way altered by the changes in constitutional practice authorised by this law or by the law described in section III.

SECTION V

THE LAW OF THE CORPORATIONS

THE Law of the Corporations, passed on 3rd April, 1926, together with a number of explanatory regulations having the force of law, which have since been authorised, is a lengthy document occupying 36 closely-packed pages in the edition in my possession. Consequently a general description is all that I intend to attempt here.*

The general aim of the law is the organisation of the productive forces of the country within the orbit of the State, so that private interests may be more easily made to coincide with the interests of the community; to put an end to class warfare, to promote co-operation between the various factors of production; to substitute the justice of the State for wasteful strikes and lock-outs as the means by which industrial disputes may be settled, to make productive labour and a sense of responsibility to the Nation as a whole the basis of citizenship.

204 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

sites:

(1) Each professional association must represent one category and one category only of employers or workers (e.g., mixed unions would not be recognised). The idea here is that each professional association is a class organisation created to protect the interests of that class; and since, if two or more classes were represented in a single association, such an association might become divided in its interests, the unity of the association might be threatened with a collapse and its members thereby lose the advantage of collective bargaining.
(2) There must be only one association of members of a particular category in any one territorial circumscription (district). The main reason for this proviso is the same as for (1). Associations, however, may be organised by Commune, by Province, by Region or nationally; and associations of the same category in different Communes, Provinces or Regions are grouped to form federations of provincial or national extent, according to the peculiar circumstances of the particular trade. Such associations of the same category—single and federal—are classed, in accordance with

their territorial extent, as associations of the first and superior degree.

recognised. They even try to make out that by this proviso the mass of employers and workers are in fact controlled by a fascist oligarchy representing only one-tenth of the whole! The facts are quite the reverse. The fascist organisations are out of all proportion stronger throughout Italy than any of the other organisations.

(4) No association whatever may be juridically recognised unless, in accordance with their Articles of Association, they include among their objects, not only the general furthering of the economic and moral interests of their members, but also the taking of an active part in the technical instruction, religious, moral and national education of their members and the support of charitable foundations open to their members.

Here, of course, those anti-fascists, who reject the fascist doctrine to the effect that only those who have a national consciousness and a sense of responsibility to the community as a whole possess a right to have a hand in the Government of the community, may be allowed to complain. Here we are up against a

question of principle. It is not a question, as some would make out, of securing power indefinitely to the fascist party—it is a question of securing power indefinitely to those of high moral character, intelligence and patriotism. Indeed, through this proviso the fascist revolution realises one of its greatest ideas, namely, the reconciliation of Democracy in the sense of une carrière ouverte aux talents and of Aristocracy in the exact meaning of the term.

So only those professional associations that subscribe to the above requisites may be juridically recognised. Other associations may be freely formed, and may be recognised de facto, but not de jure.

The juridically recognised associations possess the monopoly of legal representation for the whole class of employers or workers of their particular category within their district, including those employers or workers belonging to the same category, who are not members. The collective labour contracts made under their auspices apply equally to members and non-members of the same category.

They have a right to levy (a maximum rate is fixed both for employers' and workers' associations) contributions not only from their own members but from the whole category of employers or workers whom they represent. But non-members equally share in the benefits secured through any action of the association.

208 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

Each association is bound to set aside a certain percentage of its revenue to form a guarantee fund; and after providing for the costs of its organisation and for the various forms of welfare work, which it is bound to undertake on behalf of its members, it must subscribe a definite percentage in support of the National After-Work Institution, the National Balilla (Boy Scouts) Institution, the National Institution for the Protection of and Assistance of Mothers and Children, the "Patronato Nazionale" (an Institution the object of which is to provide the worker with legal advice, assistance with regard to any claims he may have respecting insurance, assistance with regard to emigration and a host of similar services), and the corporation of which it forms part.*

Individuals who pursue more than one regular calling may belong to two or more associations. A juridically recognised association may have no members below the age of 18; but women have the same rights of membership as men.

Associations are juridically recognised by the Minister of Corporations after fulfilling certain formalities.

^* The corporations in turn pay over a proportion of their funds, thus provided by the professional associations, for defraying the cost of the Ministry of Corporations itself. The latter accordingly is not a charge upon the fruits of ordinary taxation.

and, beyond the representatives of the associations composing it, the State provides for the cost of its administration by means of the quota reserved to it from the associations' receipts.

Its duties include the supervision of its associations to the end that they answer to the requirements of the law and fulfil their duties according to the law and their Articles of Association; the establishment of labour exchanges and the keeping of statistics of the employed and unemployed; the co-ordination, encouragement and subsidising of the welfare work of the associations; and the conciliation by means of their good offices, when seized with the task by the parties concerned, of any labour dispute.

Professional associations of the liberal professions (doctors, engineers, artists, etc.) though in other respects they resemble the other associations, form part of the corporations in so far as they may be considered an essential part of a given industry. On the other hand, co-operative societies (including guilds) have their special status.

Employers of labour, whether they belong to juridically organised associations or otherwise, are bound to make a return to the government department concerned of the numbers of their employees or workers. The Minister of the Corporations, after fulfilling certain formalities, has, in circumstances of mismanagement, fraud or the violation of the law and regulations, the faculty of delegating plenary powers to the Secretary of the association, or, for a period, to a government commissioner, or even, according to the gravity of the case, of dissolving the association.

The associations of government and local government servants do not come within the scope of the Act, but are provided for otherwise.

The Magistrature of judge in such cases is aided by two assessors,
Labour. chosen by the judge, from a list of experts
on the particular matter under dispute. Lists of these\nexperts are compiled by the Courts and revised every
two years. They are chosen from among ordinary
citizens and are divided into groups and sub-groups
according to the subject of their expert knowledge.

The Court also decides the conditions of new collective contracts in accordance with principles

Strikes and lock-outs are severely forbidden and liable to very heavy penalties.

Strikes and Lock-outs.

The degree of penalties varies in severity with the nature of the strike or lock-out as classified. Each class of strike and lock-out is defined. I will give here the definitions of those that come under Class III:—

(a) Employers of labour, who, without justifiable motives and with the sole object of obtaining from their employees (or workers) a modification of the conditions of the actual collective contracts in force, suspend work in their factories, businesses or offices.
(b) Employees or workmen who, numbering three or more and by previously concerted action, abandon work or do their work in such a way as to disturb its continuity or regularity, with the object of obtaining different contracts of labour than those actually in force

212 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

1. Agriculture.
1. Industry.
1. Banking.
Commerce.
1. Transport by sea and air

In all, therefore, there are thirteen great national confederations, without counting the separate national organisation of the co-operative societies or guilds, who are grouped together in the Ente Nazionale Cooperativo (National Co-operative Institute). The whole are co-ordinated through the organisation of the Corporations, which, as I have stated, are organs of the State, under the supreme direction of the Ministry of Corporations, which keeps also in direct touch with the

individual needs and aspirations of the various categories of production by means of a Council, on which the various Confederations are represented.

Things, indeed, are now beginning to work fairly smoothly; and with this I think there is only one more point in connection with this vast and revolutionary ordering of society that need be mentioned here. The members of the professional associations have no need to belong to the fascist party, nor indeed to call them selves expressly fascists. Nobody is pressed to join the juridically recognised or, if one prefers to call them the fascist associations. At the same time nobody is refused who applies to join, provided he or she has nothing against him morally, and is not known as a public agitator in favour of class warfare and other ideologies expressly condemned by law. He or she is not required to sign any undertaking. As a member he or she may be regarded as at least acquiescing in the scheme, and that is all that is required. The guarantees

214 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

required with respect to the Secretary of the association, etc., and the very nature of the organisation itself are its own safeguard against the objects of the scheme being defeated. The benefits which the scheme is affording both employers and workers are daily turning doubters and the half-hearted into enthusiastic members and supporters. As Rossoni, one of the principal authors of the scheme has said: "We are in no hurry to get everybody within our ranks. We have abundant numbers to enable the scheme to be worked without the introduction of all the country's workers. It is better that these should come in gradually as they become convinced of its merits. Meantime those who remain outside are no great losers, for they participate equally in all the essential benefits."

SECTION VI

THE LABOUR CHARTER

Text

1. The Italian Nation is an organism having ends, a life and means superior in power and duration to the single individuals or groups of individuals that compose it. It is a moral, political and economic unity, which collectively realises itself in the fascist State.

The whole body of production must be considered as a united effort from the national point of view; it has a common object which may be summarised as the well-being of the single individuals or groups of individuals composing the Nation and the development of the national strength.

Trade Union (Syndical) or, in other words, professional organisation is free. But only the Trade Union which is juridically recognised and placed under the control of the State has the right legally to represent

1. The professional associations which have juridical recognition shall be the means by which the equality before the law of employers and employees (workers) is to be assured, by which discipline in the effort of production and labour is to be maintained, and by which production and labour may be improved.

The Corporations shall constitute the joint organisations of the forces of production and represent collectively the interests of production.

In view of this collective representation, the interests

of production being national interests, the Corporations are juridically recognised as organs of the State (referred to sometimes as the "corporative organs").

As representatives of the collective interests of production, the Corporations may dictate binding regulations with regard to conditions of labour and to the co-ordination of production, whenever they receive the required powers from the respective associations composing them.

The private organisation of production being a function, however, of national interest, the organiser of any economic undertaking shall be responsible to the State for the direction given to production. Collaboration between the factors of production, moreover, results in a reciprocity of rights and duties. The hired worker, whether intellectual, technical or manual, is an active collaborator in any economic undertaking, the management of which, however, belongs to the employer who is responsible for its proper working.

The professional associations of employers shall be obliged to promote in every way possible an increase of, and improvement in, the methods of production and a reduction in costs. The duty of the representatives

1. Intervention by the State in economic production should take place only when private initiative is lacking, or is insufficient, or when the political interests of the State are involved. Such intervention may assume the form of supervision, assistance or direct management.
1. In labour disputes, judicial action may not be undertaken until the corporative organ has failed to bring about a settlement by conciliatory means.

Competency in such controversies devolves in the last resort on the ordinary Magistrature with the addition of assessors nominated by the interested professional associations. (Thus is constituted the Magistrature of Labour.)

The professional associations shall be obliged to regulate, by means of collective contracts, the conditions of labour between the categories of employers and employees (workers) which they respectively represent.

These collective contracts shall be stipulated between associations of the first degree (e.g., the simple members of a given Corporation), under the control and guidance of the Corporation. In certain cases, however, in accordance with the provisions established by Law and the approved regulations contained in an association's Articles, the collective contracts may be stipulated between associations of a superior degree (e.g., the federation of associations representing a particular category).

Every collective labour contract, under penalty of nullification, must contain precise regulations on disciplinary matters, on the period of trial (before employees, that is, any kind of hired worker, are confirmed in their contract), on the amount and conditions of salaries and on the hours of labour.

The activity of the Trade Unions, the work of conciliation of the Corporations, and the decisions of the Magistrature of Labour shall guarantee the approximation of salaries to the normal conditions of life, to the possibilities of production and to the earning power of labour.

The actual determination of salaries shall not, however, be controlled by any general rule, but entrusted to agreements between the parties through collective contracts.

1. The statistics collected by the Departments of State, by the Central Statistical Institute and by the professional associations which are juridically recognised with respect to the conditions of production and of labour, the condition of the money market, the variations in the standard of living of those who hire out their labour, duly co-ordinated and elaborated by the Ministry of Corporations, shall provide a criterion for reconciling the interests of the various categories and classes, and the interests of the latter with the superior interests of production.
1. Salaries should take the form best suited to the requirements of the employee (worker) and of the undertaking.

When payment is made by piecework, and the piecework accounts are settled over periods longer than a fortnight, adequate accounts must be made up weekly or fortnightly.

Night-work is not included in the regular periodical periods of labour, and must be payable at higher rates than day-work.

When labour is paid by piecework, payment must be determined so that the industrious worker with a normal capacity for labour shall be able to attain small earnings above his basic pay.

Those who hire out their labour have the right to a weekly rest on Sundays.

1. After a year of uninterrupted service in an undertaking requiring continuous work an employee (worker) shall have the right to an annual paid holiday.
1. In undertakings requiring continuous work, an employee (worker) shall have the right, in the event of his being discharged through no fault of his own, to an indemnity proportionate to the number of years of his service. Such an indemnity shall likewise be due in the event of his death.
1. The passing of any undertaking requiring continuous work into new hands shall not affect the labour contract, and the employees (workers) shall preserve all their rights under the new management. Similarly, the illness of an employee (worker) not exceeding a determined period shall not terminate his labour contract. A call to arms or service in the national Militia shall not be a reason for the discharge of an employee (worker).

employees (workers), shall be punished according to their gravity by fine, suspension of work, or immediate discharge without indemnity. A description of the cases to which such penalties are applicable shall be specified (in the labour contracts).

1. New employees (workers newly taken on) shall be subject to a period of trial during which the right of terminating the contract is reciprocal, with payment only for the time of actual work.
1. The State shall ascertain and control the phenomenon of employment and unemployment of workers, the figures for which form an index of the conditions of production and of labour.
1. The labour exchanges shall accordingly be under the control of the Corporations (which are organs of the State) and so based on the various categories of employment. Employers shall be obliged to engage workers through the medium of these exchanges, with freedom of choice between the whole number of names inscribed on the rolls except that, other things being equal,

preference must be given to members of the fascist Party or of the juridically recognised Trade Unions in the order of seniority of their enrolment.

1. Professional associations of workers must carry out selective action among their members with the object of bringing about a continual increase in their technical capacity and moral worth.
1. The Corporations shall have the duty of seeing that the laws relating to accidents and the policing of labour conditions are observed by the individuals who are members of the associations composing them (and representing their category).
1. Insurance is an excellent example of the spirit of collaboration between classes. Both employer and employee must proportionately contribute to the costs. It shall be the duty of the State through the Corporations and professional associations to co-ordinate and unify, as far as this may be practicable, the systems of insurance and the insurance Institutes.
1. The fascist State proposes to bring about, first, the improvement of insurance against accidents; secondly, the improvement and extension of maternity insurance; thirdly, compulsory insurance against occupational illnesses and tuberculosis, as a first step towards compulsory insurance against all illness;* fourthly, the improvement of unemployment insurance;

^* Insurance against tuberculosis has since become obligatory (Oct., 1927).

and fifthly, the adoption of a special marriage endowment insurance for young workers.

1. It is the duty of the workers' associations to protect their members administratively and legally regarding accidents and social insurance. Wherever practicable, the creation of a Provident Fund for sick workers, shall be made part of the collective labour contracts, such fund to be fed by contributions from both the employers and employees, and to be administered by officers appointed by both parties under the control of the Corporation.
1. Welfare-work organisations must in all cases form part of the programme of the professional associations, on behalf of both members and non-members of the same category. The professional associations must carry out these duties directly through their own organs. They must not delegate them to other organisations or institutes except for general reasons arising out of the fact that a particular welfare-work organisation goes beyond the particular category of producers represented.
1. Education and instruction, especially professional instruction, shall constitute one of the principal duties of the professional associations towards both members and non-members. They shall support the work of the After-Work Institution and other national educative movements.

The above, I think, read in conjunction with the last section, needs no explanation. I have added in brackets here and there, some explanations of the use of a word or of a phrase, where otherwise a misunderstanding appeared to be possible. In trying to render, too, my translation into intelligible English, it has been necessary, in order to make certain of reproducing the sense, to do some slight violence to the text.

The text which I have taken as my model is the official one reproduced in a small volume by His Excellency Guiseppe Bottai, Under-Secretary of State for the Corporations (La Carta del Lavoro, published under the auspices of the Ministry of the Corporations, 1927). Those who can read Italian would do well to study this little volume, which contains a running commentary, clause by clause, of the Charter by one of its principal authors; for Messrs. Rossoni (Head of the Federation of Workers' Trade Unions), Benni (Head of the Federation of the Employers' Unions), Bottai and Mussolini himself may be regarded as the principal authors of this exceedingly important document.

It signifies the codification of the guarantees of the workers, conferring, as it does, on all workers the advantage of collective bargaining and providing the type for the collective contract.

The Labour Charter, however, is not a law. It is a manifesto prepared and issued by the central fascist revolutionary organisation (The Fascist Grand Council). Nevertheless, portions of it have already been translated into Law, others into regulations having the force of laws—and orders have been issued to the Prefects that its terms must be respected and form the base of all collective labour contracts. Similarly the Law Courts are to take it as the criterion on which to base their decisions with respect to any disputes with which they may be seized.

The sixteen ordinary provincial Courts of Appeal, which are bound to prove more impartial (given the high tradition of justice which Italian Courts enjoy) than specially constituted tribunals, are now working everywhere as the Magistrature of Labour. Such Courts are accustomed to assessing damages and settling cases on pleas of equity, so that, aided by the expert assessors provided by the Corporations Act, they may be regarded as eminently suited to try trade disputes. In Italy, where there is no caste distinction between the toff and the bloke, as there is in England,

there has never been any question of the working man not having complete confidence in the impartiality of the country's judges. For one thing, the legal profession is much more democratically recruited than in England, and the Italian, having a good deal more imagination than the average Englishman, is far more capable of seeing another man's or another class's point of view than we are. These facts, taken together with the more elaborate, albeit more fussy, rules of evidence in Italian Law, are the chief reasons accounting for this fortunate condition of affairs, which no doubt has largely contributed to the enthusiastic acceptance of the whole scheme by the working classes. It was among the employers rather than among the working classes that grave doubts were at first expressed and where a lack of enthusiasm is still evident.

Only one important case involving trade disputes has, up to the time of going to Press, been referred for legal decision. In this case the workers' association won their plea. The main work of the Corporations to date has consisted in arranging by agreement new collective bargains and revising the old ones. There were more than 1,000 such transactions in 1926, and in these the working man has in nearly every case bettered his position, sometimes to a marked extent. But several years must, indeed, elapse before we can pronounce judgment with any real

228 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

SECTION VII

THE NEW ITALIAN PARLIAMENT

To be exact, the Senate is composed of the Royal Princes closely related to the King and an unlimited number of life members eligible should they The qualify as persons of national eminence in Senate. any one of a series of categories—such as distinguished members of the fighting forces, civil servants, scientists, professors, lawyers, writers, politicians, etc., and those who pay a certain minimum sum in direct taxes. All members except the Royal Princes must have reached the age of forty and the Senate has the right to reject nominations effected under any of the categories save the last named.

(1) That the numbers should be limited—that is, each category limited—beyond certain ex-officio members, such as those who have held the appointment of Chief of the General Staff, President of the High Court of Appeal, Chief Secretary of the great Departments of State, besides ex-Prime Ministers Field-Marshals, etc., and possibly Presidents of the Royal Academy (which, by the way, is a new body created by the fascist Government and composed of the more eminent writers, artists, scientists, etc., of the land—rather like our own Royal Society, but extended to include men of letters and artists having special social functions to perform).

(3) That the various professional organisations, such as doctors and surgeons, engineers and architects, journalists, university professors, lawyers, etc., should have direct representation in the Upper House rather than in the Lower House, each representative serving for a specified number of years, but re-eligible.

Whether any of these reforms will be passed into Law is, however, at present doubtful. In any case, the question is not one of urgency and will no doubt be deferred until a later date.

sentation will be mainly based, with the idea that the House of Commons should become the corporation of the corporations through which the variously organised particularised interests in the country may be reconciled in the interests of the whole Nation. Meanwhile, the present law will provide Members of Parliament representative of the confederations of employers, employees, professional orders, co-operatives and associations performing work of national importance. The candidates shall be proposed by the above bodies in excess of the number of seats available in the new Parliament (four hundred), while the Grand Fascist Council, which has

Thus there will be no organised Parties represented at all in either House. Members of the Lower House will not be elected or selected on a political programme, but according to his ability to represent the various bodies' interests. And the Upper House, just as it is,

Government will be debated on its own merits. Members, as at present in the Senate, may vote for the Government one day, against it the next. Criticism will be no less severe and the fate of legislation will be not only entirely in the hands of the members, but to a considerably greater degree than under a system of Party Government, when a Government, having secured a majority at an election, possesses the practically unchecked power to pass any measure it pleases into Law. The only check in fact under a system of Party Government, to a Government's omnipotence, is the fear of unpopularity at the next election, unless, of course, the tables are reversed with regard to a Party organisation in the Upper House.*

234 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

ferring to be in, little harm is done. Under 18th-century conditions, when practically speaking only the landed interests were represented, heated as feeling sometimes ran, the heat was of the keenness of the game. Each side respected the other and gave it a sporting chance. Both sides obeyed the rules. Victory came to the side which excelled in clever debate, telling invective, cunning tactics (or even smartness, like the organising of a snap division) and, one might add, the art of gulling, if not of bribing, the electorate. Both sides knew that, whoever was in power, the safety of property and of England would not be imperilled.

With the Victorian era a change came about gradually. But it was a period of piping peace and growing prosperity, which postponed the day of reckoning. The gentleman-born still practically held the monopoly of the seats and each one knew that, in or out, neither his class nor his country would be let down. They were all public-school men, generally public-spirited, who knew what a game was and how to play it. Only gradually did the new man, who had not the same public-school, play-the-game traditions, begin to invade the sacred precincts of Westminster. Representatives of theories undermining to the traditions of the country, some of them dangerous for its safety, began to show formidable numbers. Representatives of oppressed and exploited classes, crying out bitterly and pro-

On the other hand, it matters very much to us that

this sporting attitude of the English gentleman towards politics exasperates the working man, who would give his life to improve the conditions of his class. For him politics is the only constitutional hope, and so to him is a deadly serious matter. No wonder, in the face of the persistence of the game-spirit, he nurtures dreams of revolution!

sents and an expert in his particular department. Italy, moreover, is setting up a Parliament that will be an expression of the true idea of national solidarity instead of the false individualistic conception of the State which has led to the adoption, all the world over, of a pernicious individualistically organised electoral system. It secures representation only to those persons, corporatively organised, with equal rights for men and women, who possess national consciousness, a social sense, a sense of duty to the community, as guaranteed by the juridically recognised associations that accept the postulate of class inter-dependence within the supreme interests of the Nation.

It is a great experiment, if you please (for all such things take after the nature of experiments), but it is also a great idea founded on a sound theory. It deserves, indeed, to be watched and studied with the very greatest sympathy and open-mindedness.

SECTION VIII

EPILOGUE

I am very conscious that what I have written might have been better written. My work has been done in my spare moments from other pressing occupations. If I could give myself the time to rewrite this book, I am aware that I could greatly improve it. Chapter No. III is too long. There are too many repetitions. These repetitions are the result of my striking, in the course of my work, new material, and of new ways of expressing much the same thing striking me as possibly illuminating to certain readers. I only trust that this excuse will prove their justification.

In any case, I believe I have succeeded in giving an accurate and, on the whole, a clear account of the doctrines and Weltanschauung of Fascism. Such an account is urgently required in England and, for all I know, in America too. Fascism to-day has been woefully misrepresented in England, is strangely misunderstood. And this, I think, is chiefly due to a conspiracy of circumstances. Conservatives have

The object of this book, however, is to give an

^* The above was written before I received Mussolini's Preface.

And it is on a point closely connected with this that I would like to conclude. Fascists in each country must make Fascism their own national movement, adopting symbols and tactics which conform to the traditions, psychology and tastes of their own land. Do not seize on the accidentals of the movement or you will be in danger of missing the essentials. Remember

INDEX AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

								PA	GES
Aguinas, St.	Thomas	5	•••	v.	(Autho	r's P	reface), 🤉	59. 65,	70
De Regim	ine Pri	ncipum	;				99, 110	, 133,	172
ALDINGTON, I Voltaire	Richard	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	79
ARISTOTLE	•••	•••		10,	59, 65,	124,	131, 132	, 133,	138
Asquith, Her	bert	•••	•••		•••				199
AUSTIN	•••	•••	• • •		•••	•••	•••	•••	IOI

BATDWIN Sta	nlev							27	100
BALLETTA	inicy	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••		105	167
DALILLA Davidar VI	7 Done	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	104	, 105,	107
DENEDICT A	,, Pope	;	• • •	• • •	•••	•••	•••	•••	30
BENNI	•••	•••	• • •	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	225
BOTTAI, Giuse	eppe	•••	•••	•••	•••	• • •	• • •	•••	225
_ La Carta	aei Lav	010					.
BRODRERO, E	milio		•••	•••	v. (Aut	hor's	Pretace	), 25,	91
Vittorie I	ottrinal	i del F	ascismo	)
Auspici d	l'Impero	)
BRYCE, Jame	s				•••		•••	48,	163
The Holv	Roman	Embis	re					-	_
BURKE	•••	•••		•••	•••		•••	114,	115

CALVIN									т = 8
CAMPBELL DA	···	. b.r	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	100
CAMPBELL-DA	NNEKMA	7 IA	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	• • • •	199
CHESTERTON,	G. K.	• • •	•••	•••	• • •	•••	•••	•••	G
CHRIST	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	• • •	171
Соввет		•••	•••	• • •	• • •	• • •	•••	•••	114
COMTE, Augu	ste	• • •	• • •	• • •	•••	• • •	•••	•••	I
CONSTANTINE	, Empe	ror	•••		•••		•••	•••	48
Corradini	•••		•••		•••		5	7, 58,	62
Discorsi .	Politici	(1902-	1923)
Il Nazion	alismo i	è la De	mocraz	ia
L'Unità e	la Pote	nza āe	la Naz	ione
CORRIDONI			•••	•••					39
COSTAMAGNA.	C.								203
Divitto C	ovbovati	uo Itali	ano	•••	•••
CROCK Benev	detto	oo i rari						4 02	0.5
Material	actio	wiaa a 3	Farmer	mia T	Manning	• •••	•••	T, 93	, 93
In Cilerian	Smo 310	rico ea	ELUMON	71114 II	ri ut xisii	ı
La Filoso	ojia ai G	nan B	uiisia	v 100
3agg10 S1	ullo Hea	P.L.

244 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

	_							PA	GES
D'ANNUNZIO,	G.	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	62
DARWIN		•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	114
DAUDET, Alp.	honse	•••	• • •	•••	•••	•••	• • •	•••	91
DUDLEY, Eus	tace	•:•	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	116
National	Resurre	ction
Duguit, L.	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	102
DURKHEIM	•••	•••	•••	• • •	•••			•••	3, 9

Eccelino da	Roman	00	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	27
Federigo di	Monte	FELTRO	o, Dul	ke of U	rbino				171
FICHTE	•••	•••			•••				10
									-
C
GALAHAD, SII	r	•••	•••	•••	•••			•••	171
GENTILE, GIO	vannı	•••	• • •	•••	v. (A	uthor	s Preta	ce), 4,	58,
				ς	3, 94,	110, 1	23, 147	, 171,	184
Che Cosa	è il Fa	scismo:	,
Il Fascis	mo al G	overno	della S	Scuola
Discorsi	di Relig	ione
Saggi Cri	itici
GOAD, Harole	d	•••	•••		•••	• • •	•••	• •	62
Godwin	•••	•••	• • •		•••	•••			114

HECET						-8 -	NT 02	04.05	06
Pachtchh	ilocobki	e /Fran	ch adi	tion)	•••	)°, 9	91, 92,	94 93	, 90
Цина	wosopni	e (Fiell	ch cui	uon					1.1.
Hyerrycov	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	,		• • •	114
HUSKINSON	••	•••	• • •	•••	•••		•••	•••	114

JAMES, Willia	am	•••	• • •	• • •	•••	• • •	125	, 126,	128
Pragmati	ısm
JOHN, Henry	•••	•••	•••			v. (	Author	's Pref	ace
•						•
Marries I	Marraa	1
KEYNES, J.	Waynan	Daraci		•••	•••	•••	2	7, 113-	-117
A Short	view oj	nussu	i :
I ne Ena	of Lais	sez-Fa	ire
KIPLING	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	• • •	•••	• • •	104

LE BON									3
La Psych	hologie d	les Fou	les		•••	•••	•••	•••	J
I FIRNIT?									72
LEO XIII	Pone	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••			127
Emericles	ale	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	O.	), 142,	13/
In Dr. AV	urs								-
LE PLAY	···	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••		3
LION, MISS F	мине Банк Т	1 1	···		•••	•••	•••	123,	124
(CJ. Hib	pert joi	urnai, J	an. I	) 27)
LOJOLA, St.	ignatiu	S	•••	•••	•••	• • •	• • •	• • •	30
LORENZO, the	e Magn	ıncent	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	171
LUCIFER		• • • •			• • •				92

MACOULANTELL							PA	GES
The Prince	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	2, 3, 9	, 10
MAEZTU, Ramiro de Authority, Liber	i ty and	Functi	on	•••	101, 10	2, 125	, 159,	177
Malthus	·		•••		•••			114
MARCET, Mrs	•••	•••		•••	• • •			114
Marinetti, F. T.	• • •	•••		•••	•••			62
Futurismo e Fa	scismo
MARITAIN, Jacques Une Opinion su Trois Réformate	r Char	v les Ma	. (Auth urras e	or's F	Preface), Devoir P	2, 9, 5 olitique	9, 137, ?	138
MADTINEAU Miss	W/3. I	,	Descar	103, 11	ousseau			T T 4
MARY Karl	•••	•••	•••	• • •	•••	•••	20	128
MAUDRAS Charles	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	0 58	0.1
Romanticisme et	Rénali	ution	•••	•••	•••	3,	9, 30,	91
Enquête sur la N	Innarc	hio
Lihévalisme et I	ihovibe	1000
MAZZINI Giusappa	1001103							20
I Dogwi dogli I	Tománá	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	39
Montry John	Omini							100
Moore C E	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••		199
MOORE, G. E.		•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	95,	120
Maragar viv	uares	(	hom'o	Destas	۰۱ ۲۰۰			0-
MIUSSOLINI		v. (Au	mors.	Freiac	ej, 14, 1	19, 21,	24-31	, o 5 ,
Discorsi Pariam	eniari		97,	121, .	125-120	, 150,	109,	190,
Discorsi agli Ita	iiani	_	22	5, 333	, 239
Il mio Diario di	Guerr	a
Discorsi 1022-1
2 1000,01, 1922	920 (4	vois.)
Diuturna	.920 (4
Diuturna Mussolini as r	evealed	in hi	s polit	ical s	peeches	(edite	d by
Diuturna Mussolini as ro Quaranta di S	evealed San Se	in hi verino)	s polit	ical s	peeches	(edite	d by
Diuturna Mussolini as r Quaranta di S	evealed San Se	in hi verino)	s polii	ical s	peeches	(edited	d by
Diuturna Mussolini as r Quaranta di S	evealed San Se	in hi verino)	s polit	ical s	peeches	(edited	d by
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Empe	evealed San Se	in hi verino)	s polii	ical s	peeches	(edited	d by 28-30	, 55
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Empe	evealed San Ser eror	in hi verino)	s polii	ical s	peeches	(edited	d by 28-30	, 5 5 36
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S NAPOLEON I., Empe NAPOLEON III., Em NIETZSCHE	evealed San Ser	in hi verino)	s polii	ical s	peeches		28-30	, 5 5 36 128
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S NAPOLEON I., Empe NAPOLEON III., Em NIETZSCHE	evealed San Sereror	in hi verino)	s polit		peeches	(edited	28-30	, 55 36 128
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S NAPOLEON I., Empe NAPOLEON III., Em NIETZSCHE	evealed San Sereror	in hi verino)	s polit		peeches	(edited	28-30	, 5 5 36 128
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Empe Napoleon III., Em Nietzsche Oriani, Alfredo	evealed San Ser	in hi verino)		ical s	peeches	(edited	28-30	, 55 36 128
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Emp Napoleon III., Em Nietzsche Oriani, Alfredo La Lotta Politica	evealed San Sereror	in hi verino)			peeches	(edited	28-30	, 55 36 128 51
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S NAPOLEON I., Empe NAPOLEON III., Em NIETZSCHE ORIANI, Alfredo La Lotta Politica La Rivolta Ideal	evealed San Sereror	in hi verino)			peeches	(edited	28-30	, 55 36 128 51
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S NAPOLEON I., Empe NAPOLEON III., Em NIETZSCHE ORIANI, Alfredo La Lotta Politica La Rivolta Ideal	evealed San Sereror	in hi verino)		cal s	peeches	(edited	28-30	, 55 36 128 51
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Empe Napoleon III., Em Nietzsche Oriani, Alfredo La Lotta Politice La Rivolta Ideal	evealed San Seror	in hi verino)			peeches		28-30	, 55 36 128 51
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Empi Napoleon III., Em Nietzsche Oriani, Alfredo La Lotta Politica La Rivolta Ideal	evealed San Seror	in hi verino)\nulia					28-30	, 55 36 128 51
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Empe Napoleon III., Em NIETZSCHE ORIANI, Alfredo La Lotta Politica La Rivolta Ideal Paley Pareto, Vilfredo	evealed San Seror	in hi verino)\nulia				(edited	28-30 3, 4,	55 36 128 51
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S NAPOLEON I., Empe NAPOLEON III., Em NIETZSCHE ORIANI, Alfredo La Lotta Politica La Rivolta Ideal PALEY PARETO, Vilfredo Trattato di Socio	evealed San Server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the serv	in hi verino)\nulia				(edited	28-30	55 36 128 51
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S NAPOLEON I., Empe NAPOLEON III., Em NIETZSCHE ORIANI, Alfredo La Lotta Politica La Rivolta Ideal PALEY PARETO, Vilfredo Trattato di Socio Trasformazione	evealed San Seeror peror\nin Itale	in hi verino)\nulia	s politi			(edited	28-30 3, 4,	51 36 128 51
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Empe Napoleon III., Em Nietzsche Oriani, Alfredo La Lotta Politica La Rivolta Ideal Paley Pareto, Vilfredo Trattato di Socio Trasformazione e Parsifal	evealed San Se eror peror\nin Itae cologia della D	in hi verino)\nulia oemocra	politi			(edited	28-30 3, 4.	51 114 10
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Empenapoleon III., Em Nietzsche Oriani, Alfredo La Lotta Politica La Rivolta Ideal Paley Pareto, Vilfredo Trattato di Socio Trasformazione de Parsifal Pierce, Charles	evealed San Server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the serv	in hi verino)\nulia Democra		ical s		(edited	28-30 3, 4,	51 114 10 171 125
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Empenapoleon III., Em Nietzsche Oriani, Alfredo La Lotta Politica La Rivolta Ideal Paley Pareto, Vilfredo Trattato di Socio Trasformazione de Parsifal Pierce, Charles Pius X., Pope	evealed San Server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the server of the serv	in hi verino)\nulia Democra		ical s	peeches	(edited	28-30 3, 4.	51 114 51 114 10 171 125 38
Diuturna Mussolini as re Quaranta di S Napoleon I., Empe Napoleon III., Em Nietzsche Oriani, Alfredo La Lotta Politica La Rivolta Ideale Paley Pareto, Vilfredo Tratsformazione e Parsifal Pierce, Charles Pius X., Pope Por, Odon	eror\neror\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin Itale\nin	in hi verino)\nulia				(edited	28-30 3. 4.	51 114 10 171 171 125 38 62

246 THE UNIVERSAL ASPECTS OF FASCISM

								P.A	GES
Ricardo		•••	•••	•••		•••			114
Rocco, Alfred	do				•••			44	, 61
La Trasfe	ormazio	ne del	lo Stato	)
La Crise d	d'Etat:	LaS	olution	Fascis	te (La I	Revue d	les Viv	ants,
July, 1	(927)				•
The Polit	ical Do	ctrine o	of Fasci	sm (In	ternati	onal Co	nciliati	ion
bulletir	of the	Carne	gie End	lowne	nt for I	nterna	tional I	Peace
Octo	ber, 10	926)	•
Romulus		• • • •	•••				•••		48
Rossoni								214.	225
Le Idee d	ella Ri	costruz	ione (D	iscorsi	)			•	_
Rousseau			`		76-8	1, 114,	120, 13	7, 142,	158
Le Contra	it Socia	ıl			•
									_
Sanderson, Statecraft	W.	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	83
SCHELLING				• • •		•••		•••	91
Shaw, Bernai	rd			•••			• • •	•••	27
SIEYEZ				•••		•••	•••	•••	79
Smith, Adam			•••	•••		•••	•••	4,	114
The Weal	th of N	ations
Sorel, George	es				•••	•••	I	5, 39,	128
La Révoli	tion D	reyfus	ienne
Réflexion.	s sur la	i Viole	nce
SPAVENTA	•••			•••		•••		•••	93
SPENCER, Her	bert							1, 69	, 70
The Princ	iples o	f Socio	logy						•
SUAREZ	•	•••	•••	•••	•••	• • •	•••		133
SUCKERT, C	Malapa	ırte		•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	35
L'Europa	Viven	te
L'Italia I	3arbara	ţ
_
TAPPARELLI	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	100
Trotsky	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	• • •	•••	27
TURATI, Augu	ıste	. •••		•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	169
Ragioni I	deali d	i Vita	Fascis	ta (Dis	corsi)
\$7 A1	L t			. / A41	' - D	f\	44 6 -	=0 =0	. 0.
Tugiti de	Duria		v	. (Auti	ior s P	ierace),	00, 07	, 72, 73	,, 00
Vanue ae	Droit I	vaiure	ı			//	···+ho=	c Drof	100
VERMEERSH,	PIOI. F	۷.	•••	•••	•••	v. (2	ruthor	5 1101	acci
Vico, Gian B	attista .:		•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	4	, 93
The American	1			•••	•••	•••	•••	17	, 02
The Awak	cening (	oj ital	y t
Ine rasci	isi Exp	erime1	16						70
VOLTAIRE	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	•••	79
Warran Cool									•
WALLAS, GIAI	Ialli Tatura i	m Doli	ticc	•••	•••	•••	• • •	•••	3

						PAGES
Wells, H. G.		• • •	•••	• • •	•••	27, 77
WHITEHEAD, A. N		•••	v.	(Autho	r's Pref	face), 87
Street Described	acrn worm					0
wilson, President .	••	•••	•••	• • •	•••	150

I should also cite the "Foglio d'Ordine" of the National Fascist Party and the Complete Collection of the Deliberations of the Fascist Grand Council (1922-1927).

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