Rassegna storica del Risorgimento

146
Vita dell'Istituto
the Axis pact ticd Italy to a Mouolithic and Rada] program which had no prcccdcnts in the history of liberal Italy.
II. Max Salvadori (Smith. Collega): Components of Fascisi Ideology.
Fascist idcology was developed on two levels: a) an omotional level of mass appeal, and 6) a rational level of intellcctual sophistication. The first was, bowevcr, by far the most important for the success of Fasci sui, since many Fascists pridcd themselves on their lack of idcology and the overriding goal of the movement was Power, not an intellectnally coherent point of view. Professor Salvador! argucs that the ways in which a program was developed to achieve this goal must he scen within the context of the other ideologies of the Urne, particularly pluralistic liberalism on the one hand, the moni­stica preFascist anti-libcral ideologies on the other. To that end, the author discusses the salient points of those positions. The wcakncss of liberalism in the country as a whole and antiliberal bent of the inteUigentsia in partienlar provide the background for the two major crisos whicb facilitated the victory of Fascism: the interventi on in world War I whicb split most of the tradftional politicai gxonps and the victory of Bol-shevism in Russia which frightened mucb of the declorate. À violently expressed nationalism was the Fascist answer to both. crises. Altough the Fascist ideologies indul-ged in mucb pseudo-philosophieal rationalizatioa, their intelleetual acbievements should not be minimized too mucb. Mussolini, Gentile, Volpe, and others, were ofteu eohesive and comprehensive . Yet many of the early Fascist ideologies with their mixture of syndicalism, futurism, and D'Annunzianesiino were vague and confused. With the absorption of the Nationalists in the Fascist Party in 1923, a more serious intelleetual group began to predominate in the regime men like Coppola, Federzoni, Rocco, Volpe, and others. For tbem, Nationalism was the antitbesis of Dcmocracy, Liberalism, and Soeialism, but they recognized Mussolini's bighly centralized party, whicb was pattemed after Lenin's work, as the best instrument to achieve their goals. That this NationalistFascist synthesis was a success is shown by the remarkable number of Liberale, Socialista, Catholics, and others wbo gradualiy carne to accept Fascism as the realization of their earlier idcals. But this pheunomenon is also indicative of the dogma tic and fanatical (i. e., " sophomoric,,) level at whicb many Italiau intellectuals functioned, bowever creative they may have been in their own fields.
HI. Jack Ruth (Roosevelt University): Sorel and " Soreltsmo,,.
The importance of Italy for Sorel was ncarly as great as the importance of Sorel for the early history of Italiau Fascism. In 1896, he first became seriously involvcd in Italian thougbt, particularly in the work of Lombroso, Croce, Pareto, and Vico. From the latter be derivcd the idea of a Ricorso or a return to a primitive and hcalthicr state of mind wbicb by 1903 he thougbt could be achievcd only by rcvolutionary syndicaHsm. The Italian gyndicalists including Labriola, Leone, Olivetti, Pananzio, Mocchi, and De Ambris were in dose contact with Sorel and ncarly ali bis work was made availa-ble in the peninsula. After the decime of syndicalism in 1910, Sorel repudiated the mo­vement and lurned toward ** integrai nationalism ,, wbicb be believed would be impelled in Italy by a " national mytb of the nnfulfuled Risorgimento. This phase of bis thougbt strongly influenced Corradini, Prezzolali, and Missirob'. About the samo Urne, a few Syndicalists (Corridoni for example) began to combine both the Syndicabat and Natio-ualist phases of the Frencb master's thzought. Toward the end of World War I, Sorel found iinother Ricorso the Bolshevik revolution. His admiration for the energy and rntbleasness of the Bolabcviks and of Lenin* charismaticleadership resultcd in a consiile-rable Sordina influence in Italian communist cixeles, espedally Gruinsri's Ordine Nuovo movement in Turni. Fiually, Sorci became attsacted by Fasdsm in wbicb be discerned the fusion of national and sodai dementa as wcll as another charismatic leader in the person of Mussolini. Mussolini in turn publicly aoknowledged bis debt to Sorci as did many other early Fascist leader of syndloilist origin sudi as RoBsoni, Laudilo, and Orano. But after 1922, the increasing economie conservatUm of the regime reduced the Frencb tbinkerV influence on Fascism to a puvdy marginai role.