Manuals of Economics During the Ventennio: Forging the Homo Corporativus?

Abstract

The paper surveys forty manuals of economics and related disciplines published in Italy during Fascism. We try to understand to what extent those textbooks contributed to the regime’s goal of creating the ideal fascist citizen, the so-called homo corporativus. It is argued that, at least in their manuals, a majority of Italian economists were rather unsupportive of that goal and endorsed corporatist ideas only superficially.