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Here's a summary of Mussolini's Fascist Manifesto, lifted directly from Wikipedia: Politically, the Manifesto calls for: Universal suffrage with a lowered vot

Here's a summary of Mussolini's Fascist Manifesto, lifted directly from Wikipedia: Politically, the Manifesto calls for: Universal suffrage with a lowered voting age to 18 years, and voting and electoral office eligibility for all age 25 and up; Proportional representation on a regional basis; Voting for women (which was then opposed by most other European nations); Representation at government level of newly created national councils by economic sector; The abolition of the Italian Senate (at the time, the Senate, as the upper house of parliament, was by process elected by the wealthier citizens, but were in reality direct appointments by the king. It has been described as a sort of extended council of the crown); The formation of a national council of experts for labor, for industry, for transportation, for the public health, for communications, etc. Selections to be made of professionals or of tradesmen with legislative powers, and elected directly to a general commission with ministerial powers. In labor and social policy, the Manifesto calls for: The quick enactment of a law of the state that sanctions an eight-hour workday for all workers; A minimum wage; The participation of workers' representatives in the functions of industry commissions; To show the same confidence in the labor unions (that prove to be technically and morally worthy) as is given to industry executives or public servants; Reorganization of the railways and the transport sector; Revision of the draft law on invalidity insurance; Reduction of the retirement age from 65 to 55. In military affairs, the Manifesto advocates: Creation of a short-service national militia with specifically defensive responsibilities; Armaments factories are to be nationalized; A peaceful but competitive foreign policy. In finance, the Manifesto advocates: A strong progressive tax on capital (envisaging a “partial expropriation” of concentrated wealth); The seizure of all the possessions of the religious congregations and the abolition of all the bishoprics, which constitute an enormous liability on the Nation and on the privileges of the poor; Revision of all contracts for military provisions; The revision of all military contracts and the seizure of 85 percent of the profits therein.

Latteland 8y ago
Okay, but he came with a healthy dose of putting people in prison, murder, actions in Africa that were reprehensible. I'm not sure I get your point. Facism's official goals don't match what they did?
- jerkstate 8y ago
  My point is that "fascism" is used interchangably for "oppressive government" when it's not the same thing. There are many systems of government that put people in prison, murdered, and did bad things in Africa besides fascism. What's your point?
  - nkozyra 8y ago
    While this is a fair point for general systems of government, in this case you have to reconcile the creator's words with his actions. You have to take the whole story here. If I create a document that describes my system of governance as X but execute it as Y isn't it disingenuous to ignore Y?
    - Latteland 8y ago
      My point to the second poster above (jerkstate), supporting nkozyra says, is that what the jerkstate above says about italian facism, much like soviet communism was far away from it's goals and claims. Both govts, who fought against each other during ww2 of course, murdered and oppressed and killed thousands (or was it millions in italy?) and definitely millions in the ussr. There were very few people in those countries whose lives ended up being well treated and having freedom until the govts were destroyed. The vast majority had a negative experience. By only listing the top level goals of how italian fascism would work and listing none of the horrible negatives you are making at least a confusing and misleading point. Could it have meant to be irony? Those who rightly point out the problems of US society, like jim crow repression of blacks, genocide toward native americans should also talk about how we had ideals, yet we couldn't fix slavery without a civil war, we still struggle today to deal with oppression of minorities, but we also have high ideals about how people should be treated. But if you just gave the decl. of independence and compared it to those fascist ideals, well you'd be incredibly misleading in the reality of the countries and I found your comments incredibly misleading.
    - jerkstate 8y ago
      Really I was making a point about the definition of fascism and how it's mis-applied these days. But if you want to talk about how it has been executed, history shows us when people cede so many of their natural rights to the state, even for good causes or causes that sound good, it's just a matter of time before those powers granted to the state by its people are abused by agents of the state.

Latteland 8y ago

Okay, but he came with a healthy dose of putting people in prison, murder, actions in Africa that were reprehensible. I'm not sure I get your point. Facism's official goals don't match what they did?

jerkstate 8y ago
My point is that "fascism" is used interchangably for "oppressive government" when it's not the same thing. There are many systems of government that put people in prison, murdered, and did bad things in Africa besides fascism. What's your point?
- nkozyra 8y ago
  While this is a fair point for general systems of government, in this case you have to reconcile the creator's words with his actions. You have to take the whole story here. If I create a document that describes my system of governance as X but execute it as Y isn't it disingenuous to ignore Y?
  - Latteland 8y ago
    My point to the second poster above (jerkstate), supporting nkozyra says, is that what the jerkstate above says about italian facism, much like soviet communism was far away from it's goals and claims. Both govts, who fought against each other during ww2 of course, murdered and oppressed and killed thousands (or was it millions in italy?) and definitely millions in the ussr. There were very few people in those countries whose lives ended up being well treated and having freedom until the govts were destroyed. The vast majority had a negative experience. By only listing the top level goals of how italian fascism would work and listing none of the horrible negatives you are making at least a confusing and misleading point. Could it have meant to be irony? Those who rightly point out the problems of US society, like jim crow repression of blacks, genocide toward native americans should also talk about how we had ideals, yet we couldn't fix slavery without a civil war, we still struggle today to deal with oppression of minorities, but we also have high ideals about how people should be treated. But if you just gave the decl. of independence and compared it to those fascist ideals, well you'd be incredibly misleading in the reality of the countries and I found your comments incredibly misleading.
  - jerkstate 8y ago
    Really I was making a point about the definition of fascism and how it's mis-applied these days. But if you want to talk about how it has been executed, history shows us when people cede so many of their natural rights to the state, even for good causes or causes that sound good, it's just a matter of time before those powers granted to the state by its people are abused by agents of the state.