Structural Deficit, Public Works and Social Welfare[edit]
Referring to the economics of
John Maynard Keynes as “useful introduction to fascist economics,” Mussolini spent Italy into a structural deficit that grew exponentially.
[12] In Mussolini’s first year as Prime Minister in 1922, Italy’s national debt stood at 93 billion lire. By 1934, Italian historian
Gaetano Salvemini, estimated Italy’s national debt had risen to 148,646,000,000 lire.
[13] In 1943 the
New York Times put Italy’s national debt as 405,823,000,000 lire.
[14]
A former school teacher, Mussolini’s spending on the public sector, schools and infrastructure was considered extravagant. Mussolini “instituted a programme of public works hitherto unrivalled in modern Europe. Bridges, canals and roads were built, hospitals and schools, railway stations and orphanages; swamps were drained and land reclaimed, forests were planted and universities were endowed.”
[15] As for the scope and spending on social welfare programs,
Italian fascism “compared favorably with the more advanced European nations and in some respect was more progressive.”[16] When New York city politician Grover Aloysius Whalen asked Mussolini about the meaning behind Italian Fascism in 1939, the reply was: “It is like your New Deal!”
[17]
By 1925 the Fascist government had “embarked upon an elaborate program” that included food supplementary assistance, infant care, maternity assistance, general healthcare, wage supplements, paid vacations, unemployment benefits, illness insurance, occupational disease insurance, general family assistance, public housing, and old age and disability insurance.
[18] As for public works, “the Mussolini’s administration “devoted 400 million lire of public monies” for school construction between 1922 and 1942, compared to only 60 million lire between 1862 and 1922.
[19]
