Промышленная элита фашистского режима [Le élite industriali nel regime fascista]

The aim of this article is to analyze the relationship between the economic elite and Italian fascism during the years of dictatorship. This relation-ship was fundamental to fascism’s rise to power and in the subsequent effort to stabilize the regime. Fascism’s compromise with the economic elite originated not only in the need for political stabilization or social consensus, but also from the awareness that without it fascism couldn’t overcome the Italian economy’s structural constraints and, therefore, realize its political aims. The relationship between economic and political power was determined not only by negotiated exchanges of favours and self-interest but also by deeper and more lasting factors such as a common rejection of industrial disputes that made possible a social equilibrium guaranteed by fascism, based on low wage levels and the abrogation of strikes and freedom in union organization; the growing entwinement of leaders of the National Fascist Party (Partito nazionale fascista), union leaders, the public corporate bureaucracy and private company management, driven by decreasing market power and growing public expenditure; the development of a «corporatist» way of interaction between state and economic interest, based on the direct participation of unions and employers’ associations in public policy; and a common cultural and ideological outlook among fascist leaders and members of the economic elite (for example, nationalism, colonialism, protectionism and the belief in a strict hierarchy between social classes).