Mussolini's economic aims Flashcards
What does M have in common with Hitler economically?
Neither of them were economists. They had little knowledge of or interest in the workings of the economy
What did neither of them have upon coming to power as a result?
A coherent plan of economic reform
What did M’s determination to cling onto power mean for his economic policy?
In his early years of office, he adopted economic policies that would make his position secure
How did this change as the 1920s progressed?
He became more ambitious and increasingly attracted to the idea of an economic transformation of Italy
He did he proclaim?
The world’s first corporate state
What was a corporate state?
Supposedly a radically new way of organising and running a nation’s economy, different from and superior to both the capitalist economies of Britain and the USA and the communist economy of the USSR
What had happened for M by the mid 1930s?
His priorities had begun to change again
What did his war in Ethiopia and ever close relationship with Nazi Germany do to him?
Convinced him that a new type of economic transformation was vital
What did he think the fascist economy had to be capable of doing as a result of these two things?
Building and maintaining a modern war machine
What made M think that Italy must strive for autarky?
The fact that in a major war, foreign imports of raw materials or food might be cut off to cripple the war effort
Define autarky
Economic self sufficiently allowing a country to operate without importing food or other key materials from other countries
What was the negative side effect of M’s preoccupation with creating a corporate state and autarky?
It meant that of country’s old problems of industrial underdevelopment, rural poverty, the north-south divide and illiteracy - were largely ignored
What was the only way these issues would be tackled with any determination?
If they were obstacles to the achievement of M’s two principle aims
