ABSTRACT
The Fascist war economy was marked by four features that distinguished it to some degree from the simultaneous Nazi mobilization. First, the regime entrusted management of the state sector and the system of exchange control to the hands of competent but non-party bureaucrats. The result further reinforced the power of the state, not that of the PNF and its affiliates. Second, the new economic system continued to reward already extremely powerful firms who controlled the cartel structure. These cartels were able to secure sufficient foreign exchange for the purchase of raw materials and to take advantage of the opportunities in areas of Fascist military activity. A revolving door for the military-industrial-civil service elite ensured that those who were profiting from the
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and exchange controls. Finally, the basic decisions regarding the uses to which this war economy was to be put were to be removed from the control of the industrialists, the state managers and the military. The war economy accentuated the administrative confusion that plagued the Fascist style of rule. The breakdown of cabinet responsibility over the economy and over most other aspects of the public administration, coupled with the fragmentation of power in newly created agencies, resulted in what Jane Caplan called ‘a pluralism of centralized administrative systems’.2
