This brief topic focuses on the aspects of the fascist/conservative economic system in the name of Corporatism. To gain a basic understanding, we will summarise corporatism before moving into depth. Many of you may think that Corporatism favours the idea of having monopolies control the entire state as one, but that is not the case in fact. Corporatism, as said by Mussolini, was a binding of sticks in which merges both corporate and state power to benefit both the people as well as the government. The theory is that Corporatism favours a group of labour unions whilst it is controlled by a private syndicate, in other words the government. There were many variants to corporatism but the main focus here is implementing a corporatist state with cores of fascism. By all means, this economic system does not vow to destroy or corrupt the free market of what used to be capitalism, but rather corporatism vows to take parts of capitalism and socialism merging them together instead of having extreme sides of both. This is when managed by the authoritarian government establishing laws and regulations. Now in many parts of history, there were underrated fascist leaders that gave true meaning to Corporatism than what Mussolini was doing: most notably Oswald Mosley.
Meaning
Corporatism, as stated by Benito Mussolini is a merger of both state and corporate power. What this means is that the businesses of the nation are collaborating with the government in order to grow its economic and reputation of small businesses. The idea is that unlike capitalism, Corporatism favours the abolishing of monopolies where a nation is solely controlled by the works of money and greed. At the same time, it is unlike socialism where private property and liberty is infringed upon. That is where a new system within Corporatism is introduced, and that is the idea of syndicates or corporations that control the activities of small businesses so that it can benefit the nation as a whole before the individual is rewarded (Author prefers Mosley over Mussolini as he made some dumb mistakes, but both were good charismatic leaders nonetheless). Oswald Mosley, a well known fascist once stated that there must be a “collective action of individuals coming together”. What this quote suggests is that the economic system is aimed at centrist economics taking parts of both socialism and capitalism merging them to create a balanced system rather than just simply having extreme sides of both. During World War II, the pragmatic system within fascism comes from the orders of authority and then the works of the people. It worked for a certain amount of time, but it dissolved after the Axis had lost the war. Capitalism is innovative, but it brings potential degeneracy and unstable markets depending on every individual. Communism works on paper, but never in practice as seen in history. I acknowledge the fact that Corporatism was ruined by some leaders in the past, but I see a chance in it becoming a balanced economic system system if it were to be managed by a humble leader than a dictator such as Mosley in particular. In order for this to happen, let us look into the specific policies made.
Policies
Taxes
The first policy regards taxes. Corporatism is mainly a centrist economic system, the tax margins can vary at certain times. From author’s understanding, if the type of fascism politically leans centre to left wing, there would be higher taxes. If it was center to right wing, there would be lower taxes. It all comes down to what your nation vows to accomplish as a whole. In addition, Mussolini implemented a policy where if a young man was single, he would be taxed heavily. However, if a young man starts a family and raises children, he would be slightly taxed. The fertility rate for Mussolini was extremely important that it would be called “The battle for births”. This would be a policy that would differentiate the types of fascism for every nation. My next example comes from Oswald Mosley as he believed in the abolishing of Income Tax. According to a website dedicated directly towards British Fascism, it is believed Oswald Mosley advocated for tax on someone spending their money, not on what they earn. Keep in mind that only taxes will not make you a centre-left or center-right wing corporatist, there are many more policies that account for that.
Resource Management
Next, Corporatism aims to conserve its resources as much as possible depending on the authority of the government. The biggest weakness of Capitalism is that environmental resources (for the most part at least), are poorly conserved. The extreme individualism allows people to be untrustworthy and could lead to horrid environmental conditions. There, a new way must be implemented. Corporatism does not impulsively use all of its environmental resources, rather it sticks to a nation’s game plan and follow orders for mass preservation. Many political followers to this day mention about the protection of the environment on a constant basis, yet they themselves do not take action to help by ignoring what must be done and how it must be accomplished. If corporatism were to be implemented, not a single person would dare to harm an animal for sporting, carelessly throw their litter in green areas, and create wastelands filled with garbage. When it comes to the environment, corporatism seeks to take advantage of the resources, but at the same time allow for it to replenish itself as quick as it can.
Interventionism
The third policy discusses interventionist matters. Now, you may assume that what Mussolini did to invade other territories was a work of corporatism for its own market, but the topic is debatable. Instead, corporatism in Mosley’s perspective was a way to protect and manage your own markets rather than intervene in other nations’ economy. That does not mean that Corporatism opposes international trade, but it opposes relocating businesses that want to lower their costs for workers and pay them dirt cheap. As many of you know, this would exploit the workers and pose a threat to the origin of the worker. Corporatism for the most part opposes imperialism and advocates for isolationist policies in order to focus on its own nation.
Verdict
Corporatism is a good economic system that should be at least recognised by the world today. There are minor mistakes to the economic system that can be fixed, but those cannot be compared to the countless amounts of mistakes both capitalism and communism has made in the past.
“Fascism should be more appropriately called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” -Benito Mussolini.
Sources
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/corporatism
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism/Conservative-economic-programs#ref742138
- https://www.oswaldmosley.com/mosley-policies/
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781405177245.ch23
- https://www.fff(dot)org/explore-freedom/article/corporatism-as-theory-and-practice/
- http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/corporatism.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_fascism