Word: il
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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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...
...soon as the corporations were going strong, Il Duce appointed a special commission to study the problem of using them as a basis for a new legislative body to replace the Chamber of Deputies. Last July he approved plans under which both the National Council of Corporations and the National Council of the Fascist Party (not to be confused with the Fascist Grand Council) would combine in a Chamber of Fasces and Corporations. Last October the Fascist Grand Council decreed the abolition of the old Chamber. Last December the Chamber obediently held its last session, sang Giovinezza, passed unanimously Signor...