II.a.3 – The common matrix of Social Democracy and Fascism (the “special powers” of Social Democracy)

To understand the current problems of Western Democracy it is crucial to consider how Social Democracy (which is its essence) was born.

Perhaps the most important points (detailed in subsequent chapters):

1) the founders of Social Democracy in its current form (the Welfare State of the “new Deal”), US President F.D. Roosevelt, and Maynard Keynes who developed the theory, explicitly stated that their model was Italian Fascism.

2) Mussolini’s Fascism (and Hitler’s) have openly praised the new form of “Democracy” created by F.D. Roosevelt, and Keynes.

3) the authoritarianism of Mussolini and that of F.D. Roosevelt were very similar to Mussolini’s (in some cases Roosevelt’s was more vailent).

1) F.D. Roosevelt and M. Keynes adopted Mussolini’s model of fascism

[source] The slogan into which the Nazis condensed their economic philosophy, Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz (i.e., the commonweal ranks above private profit) is likewise the idea underlying the American New Deal,” wrote Ludwig von Mises.[6]

Roosevelt was also a secret admirer of Mussolini, writing to his friend John Lawrence, “I don’t mind telling you in confidence, that I am keeping in fairly close touch with that admirable Italian gentleman.”[42] FDR also wrote to U.S. Ambassador to Italy Breckinridge Long about Mussolini, “I am much interested and deeply impressed by what he has accomplished and by his evidenced honest purpose of restoring Italy and seeking to prevent general European trouble.”[43] According to ex-Marxist[44]

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Keynes in the preface of the German edition of the book of his Theory (“General Theory”) states that his theory is more easily applicable in a dictatorship “(totalitarian state”) than in a Democracy.

«”The theory of aggregated production, which is the point of the following book, nevertheless can be much easier adapted to the conditions of a totalitarian state than the theory of production and distribution of a given production put forth under conditions of free competition and a large degree of laissez-faire. [Democracy] …

Although I have, after all, worked it out with a view to the conditions prevailing in the Anglo-Saxon countries where a large degree of laissez-faire still prevails, nevertheless it remains applicable to situations in which state management is more pronounced. ” »

2) Mussolini’s Fascism (and Hitler’s) openly praised the new form of “Democracy”

«  The Nazi Party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, “stressed ‘Roosevelt’s adoption of National Socialist strains of thought in his economic and social policies,’ praising the president’s style of leadership as being compatible with Hitler’s own dictatorial Führerprinzip” (p. 190).  …

Mussolini, who did not allow his work as dictator to interrupt his prolific journalism, wrote a glowing review of Roosevelt’s Looking Forward. He found “reminiscent of fascism … the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices”; and, in another review, this time of Henry Wallace’s New Frontiers, Il Duce found the Secretary of Agriculture’s program similar to his own corporativism (pp. 23-24). …

Roosevelt never had much use for Hitler, but Mussolini was another matter. “‘I don’t mind telling you in confidence,’ FDR remarked to a White House correspondent, ‘that I am keeping in fairly close touch with that admirable Italian gentleman'” (p. 31). Rexford Tugwell, a leading adviser to the president, had difficulty containing his enthusiasm for Mussolini’s program to modernize Italy: “It’s the cleanest … most efficiently operating piece of social machinery I’ve ever seen. It makes me envious” (p. 32, quoting Tugwell). .» <see Source>

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« Interestingly, Mussolini found much of John Maynard Keynes’s economic theories consistent with fascism, writing: “Fascism entirely agrees with Mr. Maynard Keynes, despite the latter’s prominent position as a Liberal. In fact, Mr. Keynes’ excellent little book, The End of Laissez-Faire (l926) might, so far as it goes, serve as a useful introduction to fascist economics. There is scarcely anything to object to in it and there is much to applaud.”  <see Source>

3) the authoritarianism of Mussolini and that of F.D. Roosevelt were very similar

F.D. Roosevelt, who has repeatedly said that the model to follow was Fascism, assumed special powers justifying them with the “emergency” of Poverty of the 1929 crisis which according to the Conservatives would have resolved itself in a few months, and which, done, with the interventions of FD it lasted for a decade.

The same justification was used by Hitler to turn German Democracy into a Dictatorship.

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The creation by F.D. Roosevelt of the National Emergencies Act: «Starting with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, presidents asserted the power to declare emergencies without limiting their scope or duration, without citing the relevant statutes, and without congressional oversight. »[Wikipedia”]

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An example of how much the regime of F.D. Roosevelt was more repressive than Mussolini’s Fascism: Roosevelt sent the police to seize the gold of the Americans, while Mussolini asked the Italians to offer their gold to the state.