Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 12:14, 17 December 2005

Template:TotallyDisputed This template must be substituted. Replace {{Template for discussion ...}} with {{subst:Template for discussion ...}}.

This page was recently proposed for deletion. During the discussion, no consensus was reached on whether the article should be deleted or kept. You may wish to take this into consideration when deciding whether or not to read this article. To view a deleted page notice, click here. To read the article, scroll down.

Economic fascism (aka fascist political economy) is the set of economic characteristics, found in fascist regimes in the 1920's and 1930's, with the most commonly cited characteristic being the presence of private or quasi-private ownership of the means of production that was heavily coordinated by government. In Italy and Germany, the State instituted a planned economy that was held to be in the best interest of the nation rather than allowing an economy to self-organize without centralized coordination. The system included government-mandated business and government partnerships (see corporatism) and mercantilist practices. The term "economic fascism" has been popularized, thought not coined, by some economic libertarians. Economic fascism has also been called fascist political economy, fascist economy, political economy of fascism, planned capitalism, and autarchic capitalism.

Economic fascism constrasts with capitalism where the means of production are privately owned and privately controlled. It also contrasts with socialism where the means of production are owned collectively by communities or, in some definitions, the state. The common view on private property in economic fascism is, as Thomas R. Eddlem puts it, " simply heavy government regulation and control of what is only nominally private property." However, some dispute the extent of this regulation. Christoph Buchheim and Jonas Scherner argue that the common view that private property in the Nazi economy existed in name only is not correct. He says while there was substantial central planning of private industry, their severity of the restrictions did not arise to the level of rendering private property a mere formality. Buchhheim and Scherner describe the system as a "state-directed private ownership economy." Michael Coren, in writing of distributivism, an economic theory which underlied the support by some for fascist political economy in the 1930's, said that "economic fascism both capitalism and socialism." Thus, economic fascism is often referred to as a 'third way" whose proponents advocated as a solution to avoid the percieved inegalitarian dangers of too strong of an enforcement of private property rights while at the same time avoiding the total abolition of private ownership of the means of production or outright communism.

However, while a signifant amount of control over private property is a characteristic is essential to economic fascism, some others note additional aspects they believe to be essential to fascist economies. For example, author and journalist John T. Flynn, notes 3 elements: "1) The institution of planned consumption of the spending-borrowing government. 2) The planned economy 3) Militarism as an economic institution" . However, some believe militarism is not necessary for a fascist economy. Lawrence Dennis, in his 1936 book The Coming American Fascism promotes what he called a non-militaristic "fascist" economic system for the U.S.; he argues that in the absence of war that laissez-faire cannot satisfy the needs of the masses.

While some see the populace as the beneficieries of a fascist political economy, others see the corporativist aspect of economic fascism as being a source of exploitation of the citizenry, where policies are not made in the best interest in the nation as a whole but in the profit interests of privileged elites in the business-government complex. Geatano Salvemini said in 1936: "In actual fact, it is the State, i.e., the taxpayer who has become responsible to private enterprise. In Fascist Italy the State pays for the blunders of private enterprise... Profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social." Likewise, Jutta Schmitt, a lecturer in Political Science at the University de Los Andes in Venezuela says "the main objective of economic fascism is the elevation of the profit rate in times of economic recession to the detriment of the working class." Anthony Gregory, says that economic fascism is designed for government and business's "mutual benefit: profits for the corporate interests, expanded tax revenue, and augmented central planning powers for the state."

Economic fascism was originally practiced in Italy under Mussolini and Germany under Hitler.

References

1. Eddlem, Thomas R. Introduction. And Not a Shot is Fired by Jan Kozak, Appleton, WI: Robert Welch University Press, 1999.
2. Buchheim, Christoph and Scherner, Jonas. The Role of Private Property in the Nazi Economy: The Case of Industry University of Mannheim, Germany
3. Coren, Michael Gilbert: The Man Who Was G.K. Chesterton Reed Business Information, Inc, 1990.
4. Richman, Sheldon Fascism Concise Encyclopedia of Economics 1993, 2002.
5. Flynn, John T. As We Go Marching 1944.
6. Slavemini, Geatano. Under the Axe of Fascism 1936.
7. Anthony, Gregory Why the Supreme Court Should Have Just Shut Up 2005.

Footnotes

1. Capitalism is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (unabridged) as "an economic system characterized by private or corporation ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision rather than by state control, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly in a free market."

2. Socialism is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (unabridged) as "any of various theories or social and political movements advocating or aiming at collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and control of the distribution of goods."

External links

• The Role of Private Property in the Nazi Economy: The Case of Industry (pdf) by Christoph Buchheim and Jonas Scherner
• Economic Fascism by Thomas DiLorenzo
• When the Supreme Court Stopped Economic Fascism in America by Richard M. Ebeling
• Fascism by Sheldon Richman - discusses economic fascism
• The Coming American Fascism by Lawrence Dennis - advocates a non-militaristic economic fascism for the U.S. for the benefit of the working class
• The ‘Political Economy of Fascism’: Myth or Reality: or Myth and Reality? by David Baker