FASCISM REVISED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 717, 18 December 1933, Page 4

FASCISM REVISED

The changes in the Italian constitution outlined in the cable newsi last week seem to be the i fihal stages in the transition \ from parliamentary clemocracy i and private capitalism to the cor- j porative state. It is too often as- j sumed that the Fascist revolu- j tion was swift and final and that I there has been little development, either of institutions or ideas, in Italy • since the rise of i Signor Mussolini. But, as Signor Mussplini himself has pointed ont, Fascism was not in the few years before 1921, and has never been since, a cut-and-dried set of doctrines. Beginning as an almost instinctive attempt to counteract the forces threatening the dissolution of the Italian nation, i it was driven by necessity to formulate a political and economic programme of its own. It is because this programme has been developed gradually, without unnecessary disturbances to existing institutions, that Italy is at present somewhat over- j weighted with constitutional 1 machinery. The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies remain, a parody of the old parliamentary system and empowered merely to register assent to the will of the Fascist party. On the political side their powers have been taken over by the Fascist Grand Council, which is, in effect, the supreme authority in the State. On the economic side they have been supplanted by the National Council of Corporations. Now, it appears, some of this redundant growth is to be pruned away and the Fascist Grand Council and the National Coun- j cil of Corporations will rule the j country without restraint. The Italian citizen, as a citizen, will ; have no part in the government j of the country. He is important 1 only as a produeer ; and- it is as j a - produeer that he shares, j through the corporative organisation, in the regulation of in- j dustry. At the moment, how- ; ever, the economic aspects of Fascism are more interesting than its political theory. Its first apologists apparently regarded Fascism as an attempt to resolve the economic conflict inherent in the capitalist state by a method less objectionable than that ad- j vocated by Marx. Fascism was not socialism; but on the other hand it was very far from laissez faire. All those engaged in production were encouraged to regard themselves -as servants of the State ; but the Government was to intervene in production "only where private initiative is lacking or insufficient, or where the political interests of the State are involved." At first, State intervention was confined almost exelusively to the sphere of distribution. Early this year, however, the economic crisis led to the promulgation of a law empowering the Government to limit and regulate the construction of new factory plant; and it 'is generally supposed that the remodelling of the corporative system referred to in the cable hews is the prelude to closer control of the nation's productive fesources.