The Fascist Form of Planning
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1934.tb02377.x |
| Author | Fausto Pitigliani,Paul Einzig. |
| Date | 01 January 1934 |
| Published date | 01 January 1934 |
Public Administration
The
Fascist
Form
of
Planning
The
Economic Foundations
of
Fascism.
By
PAUL
EINZIG.
(Macmillan.)
The
Italian
Corporative
State.
By
FAUSTO
YITIGLIANI.
(P.
St
King
&
Son
DR.
EINZIG’S
book
is
both
interesting and disappointing. The pub-
lisher’s jacket says that it gives
“
a
detailed analysis of the economic
policy of Fascism as applied
in
Italy.” But in fact the author
has
attempted nothing
of
the
sort.
Not only is there no detailed analysis,
in the sense in which that term is used by economists, but there are
no statistics of any kind; the author’s statements about the economic
position of Italy are left unsupported by any authority but their own.
This,
of course, is merely to say that Dr. Einzig’s
book
belongs
to the useful class of descriptive, non-technical studies of the urgent
practical economic questions of our times;
a
class of work which
fortunately commands
a
wide circle of readers, and which even more
fortunately includes books
of
the standing of Sir Arthur Salter’s
Recovery
and Mr. Hodson’s
Economics
of
a
Changing
World.
But
a
great part of the value of works such as those named lies in
the authors’ balance of judgment and freedom from dogmatism on
the controversial and complex subjects with which they have to deal.
Dr. Einzig is nothing if not dogmatic; and
his
book appears
to
present
the economic case
for
the Corporative State, as seen by one who,
after visiting Italy to study it, has been strongly impressed with its
attainments and possibilities. Indeed, the author practically says
as
much
in
his preface. This makes it all the more regrettable that
he has not seen fit to provide the reader with the statistical data
on
which, no doubt,
his
conclusions were founded. In the absence
of
such data it is impossible to form an independent judgment, and the
book must be read with reserve,
as
though it were an
ex
fiarte
statement.
Nevertheless, Dr. Einzig’s work can by
no
means be dismissed as
polemics. On the contrary, those readers-probably the majority--
who are unfamiliar with the point of view and economic aims of the
Italian Government will find the book not only very interesting but
also provocative
of
useful thought, bearing directly, as the author
emphasises, on both the political and economic problems of the trend,
in this country and elsewhere, towards some form or other of
“
planned economy.”
The character of the book can be illustrated by some quotations,
from the chapters on
“
Monetary Policy
”
and on
“
Banking in the
Fascist
State.”
‘‘
The monetary policy pursued by Signor Mussolini’s r6gime has
been strictly orthodox. In fact it may be said that it has been too
7s.
6d.
net.
Ltd.)
15s.
net.
98
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