The Achievements of Fascism

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TO pass an impartial judgment on the results obtained by two years and a half of Fascist government in Italy is not an easy matter. The difficulties that beset an Italian in such an effort are quite apparent; but even the foreigner is hardly better off. Fascism has awakened great interest beyond the confines of Italy, winning popularity in certain circles, arousing animosity in others. Almost everywhere various political connotations are attached to the word "Fascism" which provoke now admiration and now hostility, now emulation and now mistrust, but which inevitably leave little room for cool appraisal. Perhaps we may best clear the ground of preconceptions, if we avoid regarding Fascism as a new dispensation, as the beginning of a new era in our modern civilization (so it is represented by its best accredited leaders), and take it simply for what it is, as the most recent phase of the struggle to achieve Italian unity -- as an Italian and not as an universal movement.

Fascism, as is well known, sprang from a reaction against the threat of Bolshevism, and from an uprising of national sentiment against the humiliation of prolonged policies of weakness in domestic as well as in foreign affairs. It was, in its beginnings, only the impulsive manifestation of a need for strengthening the power of the state in the face of social and political disintegration. The same need was felt in other countries after the war, but in Italy much more strongly than elsewhere. The realization of national unity is a very recent episode in Italian history: it was scarcely more than half a century ago that the House of Savoy gathered the dismembered provinces of Italy under one sceptre. Various forces tending toward disunion still remained strong in the country, all the more since the Italian war, which was declared without enthusiasm and proved fruitful of sacrifices, left many Italians with more reason for disappointment and bitterness than for satisfaction. The demand for "strong" policies, both domestic and foreign, was most articulate in the higher bourgeoisie (manufacturers, land owners, and civil servants) and especially among the more conservative portions of the middle classes...