ITALY: Theorist

Dictator Benito Mussolini has long fancied himself a student of government. Convinced that parliamentary democracy is an anachronism, Il Duce has pondered the ideal political setup for the economic state of today. Possessed of a keen sense of history and conscious of posterity’s verdict, Signor Mussolini has many times predicted that the system of government he was inaugurating in Italy would revolutionize political science and in time be a model for future political organizations. In matters of government, the Italian Dictator is much more of a thinker than his intuitive and more successful colleague, Adolf Hitler. What he has been trying to do is to set up “The Corporative State.”

Last week his thoughts materialized in the form of his most impressive material invention. In pre-Mussolini days the Italian Government was a constitutional monarchy modeled largely on the British system. The Italian Senate resembled the British House of Lords. Senators were (and still are) appointed for life by the King on the nomination of the Premier. The Chamber of Deputies, elected by universal suffrage, was like the House of Commons. It initiated legislation, formed and overthrew governments, held the actual reins of power. Now this system of government no longer exists even in form.

First important Mussolini innovation was the creation of the Fascist Grand Council, a body of Fascist bigwigs. Permanent members now are Il Duce and the three surviving Quadrumvirs of the March on Rome—Italo Balbo, Marshal Emilio De Bono, Count Cesare Maria de Vecchi. (Michele Bianchi, the fourth, died in 1930.) Other members are the President of the Senate and 22 more, from Cabinet members to the commander-in-chief of the Fascist Militia.

The Council’s sessions are secret and it meets only when called by Signor Mussolini. It hears Il Duce’s most important pronouncements and is called upon to give its advice on international treaties, political and economic questions, the succession to the throne and prerogatives of the crown. Most important of all, with the Dictator’s approval, it “draws up and keeps posted up to date a list of names to be submitted to the crown, in case of vacancy, for the position of Head of the Government [i.e., it elects Il Duce’s successor].”*

Premier Mussolini has allowed the aristocratic Senate to continue its obedient, decorative existence, even though some of its functions have been assumed by the Council. About 95% of the Senators are now Fascists. The 5% who are antiFascists (like Benedetto Croce, the philosopher) know enough to stay away.

While the Senate is a revered Roman institution, the Chamber of Deputies—conceived in the 19th Century’s surge of parliamentarianism—was not. Since 1925 (when Il Duce squelched all opposition) its chief activities have been to applaud Dictator Mussolini when he rose to speak, cheer him when he sat down and pass hastily and without debate any and all bills he wanted passed. Although 100% Fascist and a complete rubber stamp, the Chamber nevertheless remained a relic of the recent parliamentary past.

Five years ago Dictator Mussolini began his economic state building by setting up a system of “corporations” to regiment practically all phases of Italian life. There are 22 separate corporations, the members appointed by Il Duce, and consisting of an equal number of representatives from syndicates of capital and labor, three members designated by the Secretary of the Fascist Party, and a number of technicians. The corporations are classified in three general sections: 1) Agricultural-Industrial-Commercial Productive Cycle (including cereals, oils, livestock, textiles); 2) Industrial-Commercial Productive Cycle (chemicals, printing, utilities, metallurgy); 3) Service-producing Activities (credit and insurance, banking, professions, the arts, sea and air transport, communication). All the corporations compose a National Council of Corporations which, acting through its central committee has in the past legislated on questions of labor and production. Its decisions—subject to the Dictator’s veto—become law.

As soon as the corporations were going strong, Il Duce appointed a special commission to study the problem of using them as a basis for a new legislative body to replace the Chamber of Deputies. Last July he approved plans under which both the National Council of Corporations and the National Council of the Fascist Party (not to be confused with the Fascist Grand Council) would combine in a Chamber of Fasces and Corporations. Last October the Fascist Grand Council decreed the abolition of the old Chamber. Last December the Chamber obediently held its last session, sang Giovinezza, passed unanimously Signor Mussolini’s anti-Semitic laws and cheerfully voted its own death.

Last week King Vittorio Emmanuele III inaugurated the new creation in the famed Palazzo Montecitorio, seat of the old Parliament. Accompanied by Crown Prince Umberto, six dukes and one count, and preceded by four masters of ceremonies, with tall Queen Elena and accredited diplomats looking on from balcony boxes, His tiny Majesty ascended three steps to the dais and sat on his throne. The 682 new Councilors then took their oaths collectively, after which His Majesty, producing typewritten sheets of paper from the pocket of his military tunic, read a restrained, conciliatory speech probably written for him by Il Duce. If there were fiery words to be spoken, Dictator Mussolini was reserving them for his own speech later in the week (see below).

In describing the new Chamber, Virginio Gayda, the Dictator’s journalistic alter ego, called it a “new great revolutionary creation which has neither precedent nor equal in the political regime of any other country.” Although in theory the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations will be able to initiate political and economic legislation, it is doubtful whether Il Duce will allow it to do much debating. Why the Dictator took all this trouble to organize a legislative body which will probably be just as much a rubber stamp as the Deputies were will probably remain a dark Fascist mystery. Perhaps Premier Mussolini was thinking of a successor who might be somewhat less a Dictator than he is.

* No curious reporter has ever had a peek at the Grand Council’s list but best Rome gossip says Mussolini’s successor is likely to be Signor Balbo, Governor of Libya.