HOW SUCCESSFUL WERE MUSSOLINIS ECONOMIC POLICIES

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HOW SUCCESSFUL WERE MUSSOLINIS ECONOMIC POLICIES?
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AIMS

• To analyse Mussolinis economic policies by
  looking at the figures.
• To understand what successes and failures there
  were.

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STARTER TASK

• Look through pages 126-127.
• What areas of strength and weakness are there?

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EARLY SUCCESS

• General European recovery.
• Laissez-faire policies favouring industry.
• The ending of the threat of Socialist revolution
  increased the confidence of the economic elite.
• Weakening of the trade unions.

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ECONOMIC BATTLES

• The Battle for the Lira.
• The Battle for Grain.
• The Battle of the Marshes.

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BATTLE FOR THE LIRA

• AIM Fix value of lira and reduce inflation.
• EFFECTS 1. Showed regimes authority.2. Harmed
  economy expensive exports.3. Helped industries
  that needed imports.4. Caused deflation.5. 20
  wage cuts.6. 1936 Lira was devalued.

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BATTLE FOR GRAIN

• AIM Self-sufficiency in grain.
• EFFECTS1. Cereal production increased, imports
  fell.2. Self-sufficient in grain by 1940.3.
  Raised price of bread.4. Quality of Italian diet
  declined.5. Increased imports of meat and
  eggs.6. Reliance on foreign fertilisers.

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BATTLE OF THE MARSHES

• AIM Reclaim land jobs, grain, malaria.
• EFFECTS1. 80,000 hectares 5 of propaganda
  claim.2. 75 in North South neglected.3. New
  towns created as showpieces.4. Jobs provided,
  public health improved.5. Limited impact on
  farming.

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KEY ECONOMIC AREAS

• Agriculture.
• Industry.
• Transport.
• Trade.
• Taxation.
• Look at pages 130-131 and complete the focus
  route.

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AUTARKY

• Economic self-sufficiency.
• Why do you think this would be important?
• Read the following quotation by Morgan.
• What reasons does it say about Italian expansion?
• What similarities are there with Nazi Germany or
  Stalinist Russia?

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Autarky was certainly an unattainable goal for a
relatively poor and ill-resourced country like
Italy, which would always need to import coal,
oil and raw materials. But the fact that it was
unrealisable in present conditions was the very
reason pushing Fascist Italy towards war
alongside Germany. Within the Axis block of
Fascist powers, German resources were already
making up for some of Italys economic
shortfalls. Whatever the illusions about
Ethiopias economic potential, the Empire was an
attempt to make Italy economically independent
and powerful by war. Future expansion and
conquest would achieve that redistribution of
territory and resources which had always been
behind Fascist Revisionism. Talk of living space
(spazio vitale) was common in Fascist Italy
before and during the war.
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GREAT DEPRESSION

• Mussolini did not lose office.
• Italian unemployment below Germany UK.
• Italian GNP declined by 5.4. Western Europe
  average a was 7.1 decline.
• Government actions wage cuts, price fixing,
  extensions of welfare, public works projects,
  reductions in working day, IRI set up (like a
  hospital service for failing business).

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CORPORATIVISM

• Third way between socialism and capitalism.
• Designed to promote national unity above class
  conflict.
• Employers and employees would be represented
  together in self governing corporations.
• They would achieve the highest output, which is
  in the interests of all the producers but above
  all in the national interest. Rocco, Fascist
  Minister.

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THE REALITY?

• Ignored in Great Depression.
• More important as propaganda.
• Exploitation of workers.
• Vast bureaucracy.
• Burden on national economy.
• The Corporative State was a true child of
  Mussolini the great poseur brought forth an
  organism that was a travesty of what it purported
  to be. Cassels

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THE ROLE OF THE STATE

• By the late 1930s the state, via the IRI,
  controlled a higher proportion of industry than
  in any other country, except Stalins USSR. Hite
  Hinton
• BUT! Elites ownership of business not
  challenged.Employers increased control over
  workers.Limited effects of Corporative State.

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A CARING REGIME?

• Welfare some progress in pensions, sick pay,
  unemployment benefits, childcare.
• Overall limited progress.
• Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro subsidised leisure
  facilities.
• A popular organisation.
• Welfare OND designed to win support for the
  regime more than help people.

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LIVING STANDARDS

• Read through the handout.
• Complete the activity.

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Fascist SyndicatesCompulsory membershipInvolved
in pay discussions, but powerlessWorkers had to
pay subscriptions
ONDSubsidised holidays tripsSporting
facilities
Catholic ChurchSupported the regime
CinemaEntertainment and propaganda newsreels
How was a working- class family affected by the
fascist regime?
OthersInfant welfare Family AllowanceSense
of belonging to a great nationWinning the World
Cup
Communal RadioSpeeches by Mussolini
BUT!! Periodic wage cuts. Strikes banned. Hours
periodically cut. Expensive bread. No political
power.