From the beginning, Mussolini’s seizure of power resonated considerably around the world. Further attention was drawn towards the Italian regime with the inauguration of corporatist policy in April 1926, when the parliament approved the new legal order for collective labor relations. Written by the Justice Minister Alfredo Rocco, this law must be considered a cornerstone of the Fascist State, in that its provisions defined a new authoritarian model of corporatist policy. In 1927, the Labor Charter provided this model with ideological legitimacy, and immediately this almost constitutional text reached great popularity across Europe and beyond, influencing deeply the debate on the corporatist solution. For its part, Mussolini’s regime began to use corporatism as a keyword for its propaganda abroad, as this issue brought to light the social and modern face of Italian fascism. However, the transnational spread of the Labor Charter has received insufficient attention in scholarship. In my chapter, I will focus on the influence of the Labor Charter in the corporatist projects or in the legislations of other states, in order to highlight its importance in the political culture of the 1930s, not only for fascist supporters, but also for certain dictatorial experiments hallmarked by an hybridization between authoritarianism and fascism.
The Fascist Labour Charter and its Transnational Spread
PASETTI, MATTEO
2017
Abstract
From the beginning, Mussolini’s seizure of power resonated considerably around the world. Further attention was drawn towards the Italian regime with the inauguration of corporatist policy in April 1926, when the parliament approved the new legal order for collective labor relations. Written by the Justice Minister Alfredo Rocco, this law must be considered a cornerstone of the Fascist State, in that its provisions defined a new authoritarian model of corporatist policy. In 1927, the Labor Charter provided this model with ideological legitimacy, and immediately this almost constitutional text reached great popularity across Europe and beyond, influencing deeply the debate on the corporatist solution. For its part, Mussolini’s regime began to use corporatism as a keyword for its propaganda abroad, as this issue brought to light the social and modern face of Italian fascism. However, the transnational spread of the Labor Charter has received insufficient attention in scholarship. In my chapter, I will focus on the influence of the Labor Charter in the corporatist projects or in the legislations of other states, in order to highlight its importance in the political culture of the 1930s, not only for fascist supporters, but also for certain dictatorial experiments hallmarked by an hybridization between authoritarianism and fascism.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
