Читать реферат по английскому: "Fascist Italy Style Over Substance Essay Research" Страница 2

(Назад) (Cкачать работу)

In education, Mussolini aimed to teach young people the subjects considered to be important in growing up to be a loyal fascist. Men taught Latin, history, and philosophy, which were considered to be the more important subjects. Women, however, were thought of by Mussolini to only be good for having children and looking after the home. They therefore taught the subjects considered to be not so important, such as science and mathematics.

The fascist policies on education were to increase emphasis on the important subjects while, at the same time, reducing emphasis on the unimportant subjects.

The results of this were that, although the number of university applicants doubled by 1930, the number entering to study science suffered a huge decrease, whilst more people began studying economics, politics, philosophy, and law. Another result of fascist education policy is that illiteracy declined, as a result of more and more people going to school.

Therefore, Mussolini s policy on education was, to an extent, revolutionary, although thousands of potential scientists were impeded.

Another aspect of social Italy that Mussolini had a policy on was the role of women. The style was that women should play a subordinate role, looking after the home and having children. Women were encouraged to undertake charitable activities, attend rallies, and help with propaganda, but they were not allowed to take any political initiatives.

The reality of this, however, was that the regime s efforts to exclude as many women as possible from paid employment failed.

The battle for births, Mussolini s demographic program, was the name given by fascists to the need to increase the population figure. It was Mussolini s style to call it a battle, to raise feelings of patriotism and pride, thus increasing the feeling among the populous to do what was good to make Italy great. An agency for maternity and infancy (OMNI) was set up, as was a tax on celibacy, a crackdown on prostitution, and the illegalisation of abortion. Measures that were not quite so negative were family allowances, marriage and birth loans, and welfare units. However, the reality was that these efforts to increase the birth rate failed.

Mussolini industrial policy started well and when the Fascists came to power Europe was booming and Mussolini claimed responsibility for the goo fortune. This was to change because in 1925 he fired his existing treasury minister de Stefani. He wanted to revaluate the currency and this was to prove terrible. In 1925 there were 150 lira to the pound, Mussolini felt this was unacceptable so he decided to set it at 90 lira to the pound. The effects were foreign buyers found Italy were expensive but for Italians foreign would have been cheap had Mussolini not also introduced tariffs on imported goods. Italy suffered badly. Mussolini had wanted to increase his prestige with foreign ministers. This worked but at the cost of the Italian economy. Also the years 1925 and 1926 trade unions were abolished and the right to strike was banned. Mussolini now set up his new corporate state. This was to be made up employers and employees who would form trade unions together in their independent areas and Mussolini hoped these corporations would eventually take over parliament and there would be a representative from each area of industry. In fact this policy that would supposedly break down the class difficulties failed and did the opposite. The employees were designated a Fascist representative for the unions. The fascist representatives mostly sided with the employer and as a result the standard of living for the workers dropped badly and between 1925-1938 real wages fell by 10%, unemployment rose and hunger set in certain parts of Italy. Mussolini had promised but hadn t delivered Class barriers dropping was a myth. But the Duce did not really care about the standard of living for ordinary Italians.

The Industry problems were paralleled in Agriculture. Mussolini s desire to make Italy self-sufficient in case of war dominated agricultural policies. His first major scheme was The Battle for Grain . Traditionally Italy had to import large amounts of grain to feed the people. This had to change because of Italy went to war and had its grain supply cut off there would starvation. So Mussolini encouraged farmers to grow grain by offering them machinery and promising that high prices would be paid for grain. The incentives worked and grain production grew to 5.5 million tonnes a year in the early 1920 s Mussolini claimed responsibility for the growth and claimed success. Yet this was wrong as exports dropped in other regions like fruit, wine and olive oil. It also wrecked the soil because it was the wrong type of land. Mussolini had glossed over this and again we see style over substance.

The cult of Mussolini was one of the things Mussolini himself regarded highly. He liked being seen as the new Messiah and having cult status amongst the people. He was the new Caesar a man of action and stature. This was what Mussolini exelled in . He was originally a newspaper editor and now in power created the Mussolini myth, That Mussolini is always right and never wrong an infallible invincible leader. This was the style on which this essay is based. Although he achieved minor victories in certain fields His Fascist State was basically built on this style and the way he got people to see him in the best possible light. The Statement Style over substance is invariably true and to great extent he was a man to self-conscious to really achieve anything in the league of Hitler or Stalin.

Похожие работы