GIOVANI E VECCHI NEL FASCISMO ITALIANO

• Published in: Politico (Pavia, Italy) Italy), 1983-01, Vol.48 (3), p.485-503
• Main Author: Wanrooij, Bruno
• Format: Article
• Language: Italian
• ISSN: 0032-325X; 2239-611X

The conflict of generations acquired a political meaning in Italy on the eve of the intervention in the first World War. In the interventionist actions University students allied themselves with a new bourgeoisie which opposed the 'old' political leaders. The results of the war invigorated the student's demands to take over political leadership. They constituted the 'generation of the war' the rights of which were threatened by the rise of the new mass parties. Fascism based it's claim to express the political will of youth on it's link with these unsatisfied students offering them a possibility to exercise power. The need to create a new political elite thus became a permanent theme in fascist ideology. Towards the end of the twenties young people no longer found in the war and the fascist revolution an experience that they had in common with their elders and felt an increasing need to express their own particular demands. There were virtually no possibilities for them to obtain positions of power and the regime was forced to allow the expression of their ideas. The second half of the thirties is therefore characterised by a growing ideological tension. The stress the student put on the revolutionary aspects of fascism did not allow them to break away from their isolated position and the continued influence of the war myth determined in part of them a desperate attempt to prove their right to demand changes by participating in the wars of the regime. At the same time the war experience diminished their feeling of inferiority towards the elder and allowed them to recognise the reality behind fascist ideology. The myth of youth was useful for the fascist regime in order to maintain it's relative independence from the pre-existing ruling class and allowed it to stress the revolutionary character of fascist rule.