Mussolini's social and economic policies
When Mussolini seized power in1922, Italians had high expectations of him in solving the numerous social and economic problems Italy had. As the new dynamic leader, Mussolini wanted to solve these problems because the success of his policies would lead to his increase of popularity as the Duce and contribute to his consolidation of power. Although his policies brought changes to Italy, they were also one of the causes of the downfall of fascist Italy. Hence, it is difficult to assess Mussolini's domestic policies in terms of the benefit it created to society as a whole.
One of the key aims in Mussolini's economic policies was to build Italy's economy to a level where it could rival the great industrial powers of the world like Britain, France and Germany. At that time, Italy's economy was backward and relied heavily on the inconsistent agriculture industry. Mussolini wanted to maintain capitalism while still enforcing state intervention to secure his power.
He knew that a massive program of industrialization would be needed in order to bring the economy up to the standards of neighboring countries.
In order to secure public support, Mussolini first appointed the economics professor Alberto de Stefani as Treasury Minister. He was very popular amongst the industrialists because he reduced government spending and privatized numerous big industries in order to stimulate the economy. Mussolini's choice of de Stefani was very successful as it secured his popularity as the Duce and really led the Italian economy into a period of boom with record export numbers especially in the cars and textile industry. However, after 1925, Mussolini gradually steered the economy towards his fascist ideals. With the dismissal of de Stefani and the launch of the Battle for Lira, the boom was slowly coming to an end.
History repeats itself
This is a greatly written essay and goes to show how history repeats itself. A lot of people do not care about American or World history. This is a great shame. There are so many lessons that can be learned from the mistakes that have already been made. There are many similarities from this essay of what is currently going on in the world today. Someone always believes that they can control things that they can not. Economic issues are just like nature. The more you try to control them, the more uncontrollable they become. I think that there is a very valuable lesson to this essay and recommend it to everyone to read.
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