Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T16:41:36.644Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2009

Carl Ipsen
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Get access

Summary

As Fascism fell, so too did its demographic policy. Certain aspects disappeared entirely – the bachelor tax, pronatalist prizes and celebrations, colonization in Africa, and racist measures – while others survived into the post-war period: ONMI, the new cities, and anti-urban legislation. These holdovers, however, no longer constituted part of a larger demographic plan, and subsequently both ONMI and the anti-urban legislation were dismantled. Indeed in the area of population policy, postwar Italy distinguishes itself in Europe for a relative lack of either family or migration measures. And reluctance on the part of politicians in Republican Italy to deal with these problems is in large part a legacy of Fascism.

Demographic policy reveals the complexity of Italian Fascism. It was part of a larger plan to control Italian industry, labor, culture, society, and politics, a corporativist totalitarian program which has characterized both Fascist and Communist regimes in the twentieth century. And while Fascism in Italy was relatively benign on this score – at times absurd – compared to Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union under Stalin, this question of degree does not exempt it from the general category. The example of demographic policy confirms that Mussolini did aspire to create a totalitarian regime.

Population policy responded to Fascist aspirations in several ways. Increased (or at least stable) fertility and lower mortality would guarantee the future growth of Italy's labor, military, and colonizing potential. In contrast to the Liberal laissez-faire approach, the Fascists sought to manipulate these demographic variables and, in particular, the reproductive behavior of couples, bringing the state, as it were, into the bedroom. Internal and external migration policies represented a parallel attempt to manage the spatial movements of individuals and families.

Type
Chapter
Information
Dictating Demography
The Problem of Population in Fascist Italy
, pp. 253 - 255
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Conclusion
  • Carl Ipsen, Indiana University
  • Book: Dictating Demography
  • Online publication: 09 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511581953.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Conclusion
  • Carl Ipsen, Indiana University
  • Book: Dictating Demography
  • Online publication: 09 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511581953.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Carl Ipsen, Indiana University
  • Book: Dictating Demography
  • Online publication: 09 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511581953.008
Available formats
×