the corporate state

7/29/2019 The corporate state

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Economic Management: the establishment and structure of ‘The Corporate

State’

Aims of the Corporate State:

There were two main aims of the corporate state:

To solve the problems of class conflict and industrial unrest.

To increase the extent if state intervention in the economy.

These aims caused tension within fascist movement because key groups and individuals had rival

ambitions and wanted to pursue different policies.

Key Chronology

The structure of the corporate

state

1925 Oct- Palazzo Vidoni Pact

1926 April- The Syndical Aw

(Rocco Law)

1927 July- Ministry of

Corporations set up

1927 April- Charter of Labour

1928 Nov- Break-up of the

fascist syndicates

1929 March- Giuseppe Bottai,

Ministry of Corporations

1930 March- Council of NationalCorporations set up

1931 Dec- IMI established

1933 Jan- IRI established

1934 Feb- Launch of 22

reformed corporations

The Corporate State

Every industry would be part of a fascist led corporation that would sort out

disputes between workers and management and help to organise

production, pay and conditions. Mussolini argued that the Corporate State

was the ‘Third Way’ standing between communism and capitalism. The

corporate state existed more in theory than in practice. Establishment of

the Corporate State was not carried according to a clear-cut plan. The

structures and even the ideology of the corporate state emerged only

slowly during the late 1920’s and 1930’s and were dominated by the state-

appointed officials.

They played no part in defining economic policy or, indeed in

developing the economy

Most industrialists were suspicious of them and Mussolini failed togive them any backing.

It took until 1934 before the system was fully established, with

corporations formally set up in 22 areas of the economy.

Rocco law/Syndical Law 1926:

April 1926 Mussolini’s Justice Minister, Alfredo Rocco introduced the Syndical

Law (Rocco Law) banning strikes and providing for cooperation between

workers’ syndicates and employers. This was the real beginning of the corporate

state. He set up in each major area of the economy, separate corporations of workers and employers each of which would also have state-appointed officials

on its committee. The Syndical Law was actually designed to weaken the union

rights, primarily through banning the right to strike.

Edmondo Rossoni

This man was the driving force behind the corporatist ideas. He was the leader of the

fascist syndicates and helped their unions to greatly increase their membership. On

the other hand Mussolini didn’t want to offend large business or to allow thesyndicates to become too powerful. Rossini in 1928 he lost his power along with the

old leaders of the syndicates. In the Palazzo Vidoni Pact, the fascist syndicates gained

a monopoly of the right to negotiate with employers.



There were three very different views as to how the Corporate State was to work:

1. The view of the fascist unions, who had nearly 3 million members and expected to be able

to dominate the employers - the fascist unions’ power was a threat to the big employers.

This was due to the large amount of members (nearly 3 million) that Edmondo Rossoni

helped to gain.

2. The view of the big employers, who were very nervous of the power of the unions and

wanted Mussolini to get them under control.

3. The view of the fascist politicians who really believed in the ideology of corporativism andwanted to make the system of corporations work.

National Council of Corporations (CNC)

Supervised by Bottai in April 1930, the CNC was like a pyramid

1. At the top it was run by Mussolini and government ministers

2. Second level were civil servants and Fascist Party Officials 3. On the bottom were representatives of corporations from sector of the economy.

Bottai hoped that this system could be made to work efficiently and that it would bring about

economic modernisation and social unity.

There were three main reasons why this did not happen-

The system of power in fascist Italy was very complicated

and implementing coherent policies was always difficult.

The ideology of the Corporate state was not fully workedout until 1932 and the structure of the corporations was

only finalised in 1934

The unions had been weakened so much and the employers

had gained such a strong position that the CNC could not

impose policies the employers did not like

Mussolini was not willing to have a confrontation with the

big industrialists, so Bottai could not rely on baking from Il

Duce. In 1932, Bottai moved from the Ministry of

Corporations and the momentum behind the policy

slackened off

Ministry of Corporations

This was set up in July 1926 – put industrial relations even more firmly under state control.

The new Minister of Corporations was Giuseppe Bottai, an ambitious and ideologically

committed fascist.

Quote from Alexander De Grand: ‘the only serious attempt to realise a corporative policy in

Italy occurred between 1929 and 1932 under Giuseppe Bottai.’

Key points - 1926 high tariff on imported grain introduced

Lira valued at 150 to the £

OND has membership of 281,000



Evaluation

Complete failure-

It never had real power over the economy and was easily passed by big businesses

It was not an economy policy at all, only a confidence trick to take away power of the unions

and allow the bosses and state to exploit the workers. Wages and living standards were kept

down deliberately

The Corporate State was based on sound policies, but these were never implemented

properly because of the inefficiency of the system and the internal divisions within the

fascist regime

Partly successful

It was admired and imitated abroad. British and American trade unions leaders, for example,

genuinely believed Italy was coping better with the great depression than their own

countries. Hitler in Germany and Oswald Mosley in Britain copied many of Mussolini's ideason bringing people together in one united ‘national community’

The original aim, to prevent strikes and industrial unrest, was achieved. Industrialists had

virtually complete control over their workers. Italian workers were at least partially satisfied

by the benefits provided by fascist social policies

Politically, Mussolini won the backing of big business and strengthened his regime

Exam Question

How far did the corporate state transform the Italian economy?

Revision Questions

1. Explain why the Corporate State was introduced?

2. What’s the CNC?

3. When was the Syndical Law introduced?

4. Briefly explain what were the three different views?

5. Briefly explain why the corporate state didn’t work?

the corporate state

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