From Nationalism to Fascism: Protagonists and Journals

Abstract

The chapter brings the history of Italian economic thought linked to fascism back to the political parable of Italian nationalism, which had two schools of thought. The first was closely linked to the birth and affirmation of pure economics and could boast authors such as Enrico Barone, Maffeo Pantaleoni and Vilfredo Pareto. The second school, on the other hand, wanted to propose a theoretical overcoming of pure economics and saw the involvement of economists such as Corrado Gini, Gino Arias and Filippo Carli. Despite the theoretical differences, there were numerous points of programmatic convergence, that is, of economic policy and politics, between these two souls of nationalism. The analysis of journals organically linked to fascism such as Gerarchia, Lo Stato and Dottrina fascista shows the evolution of what defines itself as “the fascist right”, which in Pantaleoni had a fundamental theoretical and political point of reference and which was opposed for the entire Ventennio to the social aspirations of sectors of fascist culture (the so-called left-wing fascism).