The Italian Economists as Legislators and Policymakers During the Fascist Regime
Giovanni Pavanelli () and
Giulia Bianchi ()
Additional contact information
Giovanni Pavanelli: University of Turin
Giulia Bianchi: University of Genoa
A chapter in An Institutional History of Italian Economics in the Interwar Period — Volume II, 2020, pp 143-177 from Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:
Abstract This chapter examines the role played by Italian economists in Parliament and as members of the government during fascism, a period in which the relationship between the legislative and the executive changed substantially. On the one hand, the regime acted to shift the balance of power from the legislative to the executive, led by a charismatic duce. On the other hand, the elections were transformed into a plebiscite in which voters were called upon to approve a single list drawn up by the regime until, in 1939, the lower Chamber itself was transformed into a “Chamber of Fasces and Corporations”. Also, the Senate, which traditionally included members of the political, judiciary and academic élite appointed by royal decree, was increasingly “fascistised”. In this framework, a limited group of economists performed a significant and, until recently, largely neglected activity as builders of the “new” fascist state but also, in a few cases, as bearers of insightful and “dialectical” views, to the extent that these could be expressed. Anti-fascist economists in the Lower House (Antonio Graziadei; Arturo Labriola; Angelo Mauri) were stripped of office already in 1926, while Agostino Lanzillo, Gaetano Zingali, Gino Arias, Luigi Lojacono, Vincenzo Ricchioni, Attilio da Empoli and Zeno Vignati were to various degrees supporters of the regime. Some fascist economists became members of the cabinet during the “Ventennio”, among whom Alberto De’ Stefani, Giacomo Acerbo, Arrigo Serpieri and Giuseppe Tassinari are the leading figures. The majority of the legislators and policymakers selected by the regime were applied economists and acted primarily as field experts, providing a relevant contribution to the building of the fascist state. The presence of “pure” ideologists and/or theorists of corporatism is also significant but, nevertheless, circumscribed and of less practical impact. This does not mean that the economists analysed in this chapter limited themselves to provide “technical” advice. Most of them were strongly committed to fascist ideology, albeit often advocating different policies. Mussolini, in any case, did not hesitate to put them aside whenever his strategic priorities changed.
Keywords: Italian Parliament; Fascist Parliament; Economists and politics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:pshchp:978-3-030-38331-2_5
Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9783030383312
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-38331-2_5
Access Statistics for this chapter
More chapters in Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().