How far did fascism improve the Italian economy?

Question 1

What were many foreign journalists impressed by in the 1920s and 30s?

Answer 1

The battle for grain, the land reclamation schemes and the claim that the Italian economy was being modernised

Question 2

What phrase sums up this foreign admiration?

Answer 2

‘M made the trains run on time’

Question 3

Explain this phrase

Answer 3

Coined by foreign journalists to suggest that the fascist regime had somehow improved the efficiency of Italian industries

Question 4

Give an example of a foreign newspaper that was intrigued by the idea of a corporate state?

Answer 4

Britain’s financial times

Question 5

What do a number of modern historians still argue?

Answer 5

That fascism did much to improve the economy

Question 6

What does Farrell describe the 1928 public works programme as?

Answer 6

A significant achievement of fascism

Question 7

What does he think the crowning glory of this public works programme was?

Answer 7

The draining of the malaria infested Pontine marshes, which made millions of hectares of unsuitable farmland arable

Question 8

How much of the railway system does he say the fascist electrified?

Answer 8

2100 km

Question 9

Why does he think the phrase ‘M made the trains run on time’ does not go far enough?

Answer 9

Because he also made them run faster - halving the journey time between Rome and Sicily

Question 10

What does he say they constructed thousands of kms of?

Answer 10

Roads

Question 11

What does he say Italy was the first state in Europe to construct?

Answer 11

A motorway

Question 12

What did he say the fascists would boast about their public works programmes?

Answer 12

That in ten years they spent more on public works than the liberal regime had in 60

Question 13

What statistics does he sight to show Italy’s healthy GDP at this time?

Answer 13

By 1938, Italian production had increased by 154% since 1913, compared with 150% in Germany and 109% in France

Question 14

What is the best way we can guage living conditions of Italians at this time?

Answer 14

By looking at the real wage index

Question 15

Give these statistics

Answer 15

100 in 1913, 123 in 1922, 121 in 1928, 125 in 1938

Question 16

How does Farrell describe these statistics

Answer 16

Though not good, they are not bad either

Question 17

Give a quote from Spencer DiScalia emphasising the positive effects of fascist economic policy?

Answer 17

He argues that they ‘stimulated modern industries such as electricity, steel, engineering and chemicals. Italy’s profile began to resemble that of modern European countries to a greater degree than in the past’

Question 18

What do most modern historian concede in agreement with DiScalia?

Answer 18

That some major industries like vehicles and shipbuilding did expand

Question 19

How do these historians differ from DiScalia?

Answer 19

They are much more critical about fascist economic policy

Question 20

What does Tannenbaum think fascist economic policy was?

Answer 20

A failure

Question 21

What did he think the corporate state had done nothing for?

Answer 21

The reduction of class antagonisms or the improvement of economic conditions

Question 22

Why does he think that the self sufficiency in wheat production came at a cost?

Answer 22

Because it happened at the expense of the rest of Italian agriculture

Question 23

What does he say about Italy’s economic performance in the 1930s?

Answer 23

That it was worse than any other major country

Question 24

What does he think the regime did to economic growth and modernisation?

Answer 24

Hindered it more than helped it

Question 25

What does he think had retarded national income even before the great losses sustained in WWII?

Answer 25

Restrictive cartels, discouragement of urban growth, the battle for grain, the spread of autarky and the promotion of the war industry

Question 26

What does John Whittam emphasise?

Answer 26

The negative impact of fascist economic policies in the 1930s

Question 27

Why does he say that businessmen became uneasy with the policies for autarky?

Answer 27

Because the new taxes, price controls and restrictions on imports made them uneasy

Question 28

Why does he not accept the arguement that workers benefitted because they enjoyed pay rises?

Answer 28

Because they were still worse off than they were in the late 1920s, and their consumption of a whole range of foodstuffs had declined

Question 29

What did the middle classes become increasing dependent on according to Whittam?

Answer 29

Post in the bureaucracy and in the dozens of party organisations that proliferated after 1925

Question 30

What does he think was the main reason for there being 2.5 million PNF members by 1939?

Answer 30

Because the party card was a passport to employment

Question 31

What fascist claims are historians united in dismissing?

Answer 31

That the corporate state transformed the economy and industrial relations

Question 32

What did Alexander De Grand say in 2000 to support this idea?

Answer 32

‘Fascism did not create its own unique economic system but rather grafted further statist and bureaucratic tissue on the existing body of Italian capitalism’

Question 33

What did Martin Blinkhorn say about the corporate state in 1984?

Answer 33

‘Corporativism in practise involved the thinly disguised exploitation and oppression of labour’

Question 34

Which two historians were particularly supportive of fascist economic policy?

Answer 34

Farrell and DiScalia

Question 35

Which two historians were particularly critical of fascist economic policy?

Answer 35

Tannenbaum and Whittam