Valuing "the third element". Middle classes and corporate organization in Fascist Italy|VALORIZZARE «IL TERZO ELEMENTO». CLASSI MEDIE E ORGANIZZAZIONE CORPORATIVA NELLTTALIA FASCISTA

The ideology of Fascist Corporatism outlined an image of society organized around two main focal points: capital and labour. Both the labour laws drafted by Alfredo Rocco by the mid-1920s and the National Council of Corporations (est. 1930) involved joint delegations of employers and employees. However, the theoretical framework of Corporatism (i.e. the system of laws, regulations, procedures, and informal norms as well), recognized the existence and included in its implementation the middle-classes also. The article analyses, on the one hand, how Fascism framed and classified the vast range of existing middle-classes and, on the other, how it channelled each group into its Corporatist system. In doing so, the article focuses on three main groups: civil servants, professionals, and small retailers.