Conclusion

Summary

As Fascism fell, so too did its demographic policy. Certain aspects disappeared entirely – the bachelor tax, pronatalist prizes and celebrations, colonization in Africa, and racist measures – while others survived into the post-war period: ONMI, the new cities, and anti-urban legislation. These holdovers, however, no longer constituted part of a larger demographic plan, and subsequently both ONMI and the anti-urban legislation were dismantled. Indeed in the area of population policy, postwar Italy distinguishes itself in Europe for a relative lack of either family or migration measures. And reluctance on the part of politicians in Republican Italy to deal with these problems is in large part a legacy of Fascism.

Demographic policy reveals the complexity of Italian Fascism. It was part of a larger plan to control Italian industry, labor, culture, society, and politics, a corporativist totalitarian program which has characterized both Fascist and Communist regimes in the twentieth century. And while Fascism in Italy was relatively benign on this score – at times absurd – compared to Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union under Stalin, this question of degree does not exempt it from the general category. The example of demographic policy confirms that Mussolini did aspire to create a totalitarian regime.

Population policy responded to Fascist aspirations in several ways. Increased (or at least stable) fertility and lower mortality would guarantee the future growth of Italy's labor, military, and colonizing potential. In contrast to the Liberal laissez-faire approach, the Fascists sought to manipulate these demographic variables and, in particular, the reproductive behavior of couples, bringing the state, as it were, into the bedroom. Internal and external migration policies represented a parallel attempt to manage the spatial movements of individuals and families.