Document – Mussolini on Fascism (1932)

Abstract and Keywords

Through a series of small demonstrations and gatherings in 1919, Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) created, at least in his own estimation, a completely new political ideology. He named this philosophy for a symbol used in the ancient Roman empire: the fasces, which was a bundle of rods together with an ax and carried by lictors as a representation of power. Mussolini was installed as Italy’s leader, or “Duce,” in October 1922. He published an explanation of what he had achieved as well as a statement of his political beliefs in the Enciclopedia Italiana in June 1932. Reflecting on a decade of a ruthless grab for and maintenance of “totalitarian” power (the word itself was coined by this regime, and specifically with the collaboration of Mussolini’s court philosopher, Giovanni Gentile), Mussolini justified the violence inflicted by his regime and emphasized its fundamentally “moral” basis.

Jeffrey T. Schnapp, ed., A Primer of Italian Fascism, trans. Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Olivia E. Sears, and Maria G. Stampino (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 48–50.

Document

Anti-individualistic, the fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the state. It affirms the value of the individual only insofar as his interests coincide with those of the state, which stands for the conscience and the universal will of man in history. It opposes classical liberalism, which arose as a revolt against absolutism and exhausted its historical function when the state became the expression of the conscience and will of the people. Liberalism denied the state in the name of the individual; fascism reasserts the state as the true reality of the individual. And if liberty is to be the attribute of living men and not of the sort of abstract dummies invented by individualistic liberalism, then fascism stands for liberty. Fascism stands for the only liberty worth possessing: the liberty of the state and of the individual within the state. The fascist conception of the state is all-embracing. Outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, fascism is totalitarian, and the fascist state—in which all values are synthesized and united—interprets, develops, and heightens the life of the people.

No individuals outside the state; no groups (political parties, associations, trade unions, social classes) outside the state. This is why fascism is opposed to socialism, which sees in history nothing but class struggle and neglects the possibility of achieving unity within the state (which effects the fusion of classes into a single economic and moral reality). This is also why fascism is opposed to trade unionism as a class weapon. But when brought within the orbit of the state, fascism recognizes the real needs that gave rise to socialism and trade unionism, giving them due weight in the corporative system in which divergent interests are harmonized within the unity that is the state.

Grouped according to their interests, individuals make up classes. They make up trade unions when organized according to their economic activities. But, first and foremost, they make up the state, which is no mere matter of numbers, or simply the sum of the individuals forming the majority. Accordingly, fascism is opposed to that form of democracy that equates a nation with the majority, reducing it to the lowest common denominator. But fascism represents the purest form of democracy if the nation is considered—as it should be—from the standpoint of quality rather than quantity. This means considering the nation as an idea, the mightiest because the most ethical, the most coherent, the truest; an idea actualizing itself in a people as the conscience and will of the few, if not of One; an idea tending to actualize itself in the conscience and the will of the mass, of the collective ethnically molded by natural and historical conditions into a single nation that moves with a single conscience and will along a uniform line of development and spiritual formation. Not a race or a geographically delimited region but a people, perpetuating itself in history, a multitude unified by an idea and imbued with the will to live, with the will to power, with a self-consciousness and a personality.

To the degree that it is embodied in a state, this higher personality becomes a nation. It is not the nation that generates the state (an antiquated naturalistic concept that afforded the basis for nineteenth-century propaganda in favor of national governments); rather, it is the state that creates the nation, granting volition and therefore real existence to a people that has become aware of its moral unity.

…

A higher, more powerful expression of personality, the fascist state embodies a spiritual force encompassing all manifestations of the moral and intellectual life of man. Its functions cannot be limited to those of maintaining order and keeping the peace, as liberal doctrine would have it. The fascist state is no mere mechanical device for delimiting the sphere within which individuals may exercise their supposed rights. It represents an inwardly accepted standard and rule of conduct. A discipline of the whole person, it permeates the will no less than the intellect. It is the very principle, the soul of souls [anima dell’anima], that inspires every man who is a member of a civilized society, penetrating deep into his personality and dwelling within the heart of the man of action and the thinker, the artist, and the man of science.

Fascism, in short, is not only a law giver and a founder of institutions but also an educator and a promoter of spiritual life. It aims to refashion not only the forms of life but also their content: man, his character, his faith. To this end it champions discipline and authority; authority that infuses the soul and rules with undisputed sway. Accordingly, its chosen emblem is the lictor’s fasces: symbol of unity, strength, and justice.

Review

  1. 1. How does Mussolini contrast fascism with “liberalism”? Is his contrast merely empty rhetoric?

  2. 2. Why does Mussolini pay so much attention to the “spiritual” elements that animate fascism? Why does he avoid attributing historical development to materialist causes?

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