The Doctrine of Fascism
Ryan, John A.
42 THE COMMONWEAL November 17, 1926 THE DOCTRINE OF FASCISM By JOHN A. RYAN (This ts the first of two articles on aspects of Fascism, by Dr. John A. Ryan of the Catholic University of...
...Summarily expressed, the end of the state, according to Catholic doctrine, is the welfare of its members: as a whole, as forming families, as grouped in social classes, and even as individuals...
...It holds that ultimate political power cannot be entrusted to the masses "for the reason that the capacity to ignore individual private interests in favor of the higher demands of society and of history is a very rare gift and the privilege of the chosen few...
...Hence class organization, the syndicate, the trade-union, "must be controlled, disciplined, and subordinated by the state...
...we must not only take on a new culture, but create for ourselves a new soul...
...John A. Ryan of the Catholic University of America, the second of whtch ivill follow in an early issue—The Editors...
...The appearance of The Political Doctrine of Fascism* in an English translation should tend to remove this misapprehension...
...Apart from its constituent members, either of the present or of the future, civil society has no meaning...
...Is the process to be self-determination by the elite through the methods of the strong arm...
...Nor does this mean a return to the political conceptions of the middle-ages...
...For the doctrine of popular sovereignty, Fascism substitutes that of state sovereignty...
...There is only one possible solution of the industrial problem: "the realization of justice among the classes by and through the state...
...All three doctrines regard the state as having no other end than the furtherance of individual welfare...
...Here, then, we have civil society, the nation, the state, conceived as a quasi-eternal entity, reality, demi-god, leviathan, distinct from and superior to the individuals of any and every generation...
...For several years before the great war, however, Italian political thought had become "enslaved" to foreign theories...
...Its originality "is due in great part to the autonomy of its theoretical principles...
...viduals for whom the state exists and functions are only those "of the present generation...
...Individuals come into being, grow and die, followed by others, unceasingly...
...In origin it was narrowly empirical, even though every one of its elements may be found in previously constructed systems...
...Nevertheless, all its lawful ends are centered and realized in concrete human beings...
...Democracy likewise falls under the ban...
...What are these principles...
...It was explicit in the political theories of the ancient world, when, to quote Lord Acton, "the passengers existed for the sake of the ship...
...That doctrine does not, indeed, look upon society as merely the sum of its component members, nor hold that the state is concerned only with the present generation, nor conceive the functions and methods of the state in the same way as liberalism or socialism or Bolshevism...
...This document is an address delivered at Perugia, August 30, 1925, by Alfredo Rocco, Minister of Justice in the Italian government and dean of the faculty of law of the University of Padua...
...In evaluating the Fascist movement, however, we must guard against attributing undue influence to the theory...
...Individual rights are recognized only in so far as they are implied in the rights of the state...
...In his view, the common basis of them all is a mechanical or atomistic concept of society which regards the end of the state as merely the "welfare and happiness of individuals...
...Therefore, it is "foreign to the Latin mind...
...It is able, dignified, dispassionate and fundamental...
...But the creed took form as a set of generalizations from Fascist history and methods, rather than as a set of principles deriving their authority from political speculation...
...If Fascism can be said to look back at all, it is rather in the direction of ancient Rome, whose social and political traditions, at the distance of fifteen centuries, are being revived by Fascist Italy...
...Even in the middle-ages, Italian political doctrine "linked itself with the great political writers of antiquity, Plato and Aristotle, who, in a different manner but with an equal firmness, advocated a strong state and the subordination of individuals to it...
...According to this view, the movement and its work are entirely pragmatic, entirely motived by expediency, without any underlying theory or doctrine or philosophy or principles...
...Fascism rejects any "bill of rights which tends to make the individual superior to the state and to empower him to act in opposition to society...
...Indeed, the liberal-democratic political theory, which is to be supplanted by the Fascist theory, is closely connected, says Signor Rocco, with mediaeval doctrine...
...There must be class organization and class defense, but not class self-defense...
...Of these Fascism is "a complete negation...
...The thought and the doctrine, he maintains, are indigenous to Italy, in harmony with Italian traditions, and united by "the mighty common current of Italian history" with the Franciscan movement...
...social unity remains always identical to itself...
...Modern nationalism, as recent events have made us only too painfully aware, has some of its strongest roots in national history...
...It is an eclectic compilation that has been adapted to the needs of Fascism in action...
...The social group, i.e., civil society, is "the recapitulating unity of the indefinite series of generations...
...The famous, or notorious, Florentine "is not only the greatest of modern political writers...
...Just as the natural rights doctrine of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries gave rise to principles which dominated political theory and practice for the last century and a half, so the Fascist doctrine "will determine the course of a new culture and a new conception of civil life...
...No small part of the practical strength of Fascism has arisen from its appeal to the sentiment of Italian nationalism...
...Signor Rocco next turns to "the problems of liberty, of government, and of social justice...
...While the people are not to be deprived of all political influence, "it is judicious to entrust the normal control of the commonwealth to a selected elite...
...The deliverance of the individual from the state, carried out in the eighteenth century, will be followed in the twentieth century by the rescue of the state from the individual...
...Because of its "coherent and organic doctrine," Fascism acquires "a universal validity...
...Let us return to his exposition...
...In other words, the Fascist theory is a pragmatic combination of absolutism, Machiavellianism, Toryism, and Chauvinism...
...According to Catholic teaching, civil society is some sort of organism, having some kind of life of its own and purposes which are not restricted to the interests of its present members...
...It is a great task and a great deed and it demands great efforts...
...Before answering this question, Signor Rocco examines and evaluates modern political doctrines from liberalism to socialism and Bolshevism...
...To this doctrine the principles of Fascism are as fundamentally opposed as they are to liberalism and socialism...
...The practical effect of this policy upon individual liberty and the right of economic association will be seen presently, when we take up Fascism in practice...
...They look upon it as an organization and a movement through which certain powerful and rather unscrupulous persons have got control of the government of Italy by violence, and have ruled the country with a certain degree of efficiency, but with considerable disregard of constitutional forms and of human rights and liberties...
...It was particularly needed in order to provide a systematic political creed which would give authoritative guidance for present and future action...
...In the nineteenth century, it was widely held by political writers and came to be known as the theory of "the omnipotent state," sometimes as the theory of the "kultur-staat...
...Signor Rocco then passes in review the theories of Vico, Cuoco and Mazzini, all of whom carried on more or less faithfully the "Roman tradition...
...The theory then became necessary, or at least very useful, to give the acts and the aims of the movement some degree of rational coherence, some semblance of theoretical authority...
...In his brief discussion of social reform, Signor Rocco declares that the problem of capital and labor is "perhaps the central one in modern life," but he rejects the solution offered by socialism, mainly on grounds of social utility...
...Like any other individual right, liberty is a concession of the state...
...The doctrine with which the name of Machiavelli is most notably associated, that in political affairs the end justifies the means, Signor Rocco condones if he does not accept...
...The method by which political liberalism expects the state to promote this end is the preservation of equal liberty and freedom of contract for all, and a general policy of non-intervention, or laissez-faire in economic affairs...
...Moreover, the present generation has greater claims upon the state than the generations yet unborn...
...In the words of Pope Leo XIII, "civil society should not only safeguard the well-being of the community, but have also at heart the interests of the individual members...
...The address, we must remember, was delivered in Perugia...
...At the outset, Signor Rocco announces his intention of exploring Fascism's "inner essence...
...Thanks to Fascism, the task of intellectual liberation is now being slowly accomplished, the intellectual dependence of Italy is coming to an end, and "Italy again speaks to the world and the world listens to Italy...
...Fascism is not merely "action and sentiment," although these are and must remain its supreme characters...
...The theory which Signor Rocco sets forth and Premier Mussolini confirms as authoritative, was compiled after the movement had reached its main objectives...
...it is thought, it is doctrine...
...For this reason, not for reasons of social welfare, Fascism recognizes the right of private property...
...In pursuing these ends, the state may use any morally good means that are effective and necessary...
...Hence the discourse may confidently be regarded as authentic and authoritative...
...and it promotes a spirit of excessive nationalism which is not conducive to international peace...
...Fascism "rejects entirely the theories of natural law November 17, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 43 developed in the course of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries...
...From the temporary obscuration which it suffered in consequence of the world war, it is now rescued by Fascism and paraded as an original discovery—or invention...
...It is from Machiavelli, he says, that 44 THE COMMONWEAL November 17, 1926 Fascism "learns not only its doctrines, but its action as well...
...Exactly so...
...The middle-ages stressed the sacredness of the individual and his rights...
...it rejects the principles of political democracy...
...Its life outlasts that of any given generation...
...To carry it through we must, each one of us, free ourselves of the dross of ideas and mental habits which two centuries of foreign in-tellectualistic traditions have heaped upon us...
...The mediaeval theory resulted from "the triumph of German individualism over the political mentality of the Romans...
...Signor Rocco does not discuss the Catholic teaching at all, but his description of Fascism makes abundantly clear the antagonism between the two systems...
...To our work, then, fellow-countrymen, for the glory of Italy 1" From Signor Rocco's exposition, we are justified in drawing the following summary conclusions: Fascism contradicts the Catholic doctrine on the authority, functions, and purpose of the state, on the natural rights of the individual, and on the means which the state may rightfully use...
...ancient Rome submerged him in the omnipotent state...
...When Mussolini and his cohorts began the task of organizing the movement and formulating their plans for overturning the existing political regime and seizing the government themselves, they probably were not much moved by any formal set of principles...
...New York: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace...
...And the indi* International Conciliation, October, IQ26...
...All the foregoing propositions are substantiated in the two encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII entitled, The Christian Constitution of States, and The Condition of Labor...
...According to Signor Rocco, the Roman political tradition finds expression in the teachings of Niccolo Machiavelli...
...As soon as he had read the address, Premier Mussolini wrote to Signor Rocco, congratulating him and declaring that he had "presented in a masterful way the doctrine of Fascism...
...Under each of these heads his conclusions are exactly what we should expect in view of the fundamental propositions already set forth...
...It regards civil society "as a succession of generations and not as a collection of individuals...
...he is also the greatest of our countrymen in full possession of a national Italian consciousness...
...Under "welfare" is comprised goods and interests of the religious, moral, intellectual, physical, and economic orders...
...They were thinking only of certain practical ends which they sought to attain by certain practical means...
...It is as old as Hegel, and far older...
...For Fascism," continues Signor Rocco, "society is an end, individuals the means, and its whole life consists in using individuals as instruments for its social ends...
...PROBABLY the majority of Americans who think about the subject at all, regard Italian Fascism as merely political action, not political theory...
...Unfortunately, Signor Rocco neglects to give us the formula according to which the elite are to be identified and established...
...it is a mere abstraction, without reality or authority or functions...
...Hence we are not surprised to find more than one-third of Signor Rocco's discourse falling under the head, Historical Value of the Doctrine of Fascism...
...While the methods of socialism and Bolshevism differ from that of liberalism and from each other, their end is the same...
...Let us turn for a moment from Signor Rocco's exposition to observe that the welfare of individuals is likewise the end of the state according to Catholic doctrine...
...Of a certainty, there is nothing new in this...
Vol. 5 • November 1926 • No. 2
