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A comparative analysis of corporatism in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy

University of British Columbia

This study is a comparative analysis of corporatism as expressed by the National Socialist Party in Germany in its 1920 Program and of Italian corporatism as formulated by the Fascist government in the mid-1920's. The main question of the study is: Why did the National Socialist Party discard the corporatist proposals in its 1920 Program, while corporatism in Italy became an important facet of the Fascist state ideology? In the first chapter, the corporatist proposals of the NSDAP are examined, stressing the following problems: Why were corporatist proposals included in the 1920 Program? To what extent were they implemented? If they were not implemented, why not? In the second chapter, the same issues are examined, this time in the context of Italian corporatism. The last chapter is devoted to a comparative analysis of German and Italian corporatism. On the basis of the analysis and evidence provided, I suggest that Fascist corporatism served as a unifying myth to create the illusion that both class conflict and national economic poverty had been overcome. At the same time, this ideology integrated the working class into corporations which were designed and controlled by the state. In contrast, the corporatist proposals of the 1920 NSDAP Program contradicted the goals of the German state because the regressive, Utopian corporatist proposals of the early Party Program did not serve the goals of the Nazi state which were rearmament and external power.

Text

2010-03-17

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21987

Political Science

University of British Columbia

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