Questions about corporatism, fascism, and other things

Economics Economics Questions
1

We’ve all heard the quote by Mussolini that “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”

So, are fascism and corporatism the same thing because I was told that fascism is heavy governmental regulation of private property to the point of indirect full control and that corporatism is when the government colludes with and acts favorably towards certain corporations.

Other questions:

  1. Can an economy considered be considered socialist only if it socializes all the means of productions and resources and not have only partial socialization of the means of productions and resources?

  2. Is the main difference between communism & socialism that in a communist country the resources are managed and distributed according to need BUT, in a socialist country the resources are managed and distributed according to effort?

2
  1. Can an economy considered be considered socialist only if it socializes all the means of productions and resources and not partial socialization?

In Misesian terms, yes. Of course, the word ‘socialism’ can be used with other connotations, but only the socialization of the means of production has the consequences that render socialism impossible as a social system.

Is the main difference between communism & socialism that in a communist country the resources are managed and distributed according to need BUT in a socialist country, the resources are managed and distributed according to effort?

No, Communism is just a branch of state-socialism. Think of it as the difference between Anabaptist and Pentacostal; ideologically variant but substantively identical.

Fascism in the Italian sense is a very hazy political theory, though it inherits its theoretical structure from Syndicalism and British Guild Socialism; on the other hand its actual practice of economic intervention were very similar to those practiced by the Italian democratic government. Mussolini, in fact, did very little except leverage against a communist takeover; in terms of his management of the state he did nothing new or exceptional.