Word: duces
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Dictator Benito Mussolini has long fancied himself a student of government. Convinced that parliamentary democracy is an anachronism, Il Duce has pondered the ideal political setup for the economic state of today. Possessed of a keen sense of history and conscious of posterity's verdict, Signor Mussolini has many times predicted that the system of government he was inaugurating in Italy would revolutionize political science and in time be a model for future political organizations. In matters of government, the Italian Dictator is much more of a thinker than his intuitive and more successful colleague, Adolf Hitler. What...
First important Mussolini innovation was the creation of the Fascist Grand Council, a body of Fascist bigwigs. Permanent members now are Il Duce and the three surviving Quadrumvirs of the March on Rome-Italo Balbo, Marshal Emilio De Bono, Count Cesare Maria de Vecchi. (Michele Bianchi, the fourth, died in 1930.) Other members are the President of the Senate and 22 more, from Cabinet members to the commander-in-chief of the Fascist Militia...
...Council's sessions are secret and it meets only when called by Signor Mussolini. It hears Il Duce's most important pronouncements and is called upon to give its advice on international treaties, political and economic questions, the succession to the throne and prerogatives of the crown. Most important of all, with the Dictator's approval, it "draws up and keeps posted up to date a list of names to be submitted to the crown, in case of vacancy, for the position of Head of the Government [i.e., it elects Il Duce's successor...
While the Senate is a revered Roman institution, the Chamber of Deputies-conceived in the 19th Century's surge of parliamentarianism-was not. Since 1925 (when Il Duce squelched all opposition) its chief activities have been to applaud Dictator Mussolini when he rose to speak, cheer him when he sat down and pass hastily and without debate any and all bills he wanted passed. Although 100% Fascist and a complete rubber stamp, the Chamber nevertheless remained a relic of the recent parliamentary past...
Five years ago Dictator Mussolini began his economic state building by setting up a system of "corporations" to regiment practically all phases of Italian life. There are 22 separate corporations, the members appointed by Il Duce, and consisting of an equal number of representatives from syndicates of capital and labor, three members designated by the Secretary of the Fascist Party, and a number of technicians. The corporations are classified in three general sections: 1) Agricultural-Industrial-Commercial Productive Cycle (including cereals, oils, livestock, textiles); 2) Industrial-Commercial Productive Cycle (chemicals, printing, utilities, metallurgy); 3) Service-producing Activities (credit and insurance...