Imperfect competition in the economic thought of italian corporatism and its influence in Spain

Abstract

In Mussolini’s Italy, the concept of Corporate Economics was developed for Economics. The new science was to be reborn within the corporatist-fascist machine, and to do so it was necessary to rework both principles and tools. This paper tries to explain that the result was heterogeneous and the forms of study of Corporate Economics ranged from the links with Political Science to the more rigorous Mathematical Economics. In terms of imperfect competition there was a frequent rejection of the situation of private monopoly, understanding a world of monopolies as the ultimate consequence of free competition, but there were also other positions that admited it. We will try to show the debate by taking a comparative tour and classifying these positions from the theoretical and from the social-moral spheres. We will also seek to view how, from both areas, the link with the Spanish tradition is perfectly appreciated. We can observe this in the ways of understanding imperfect competition within the Spanish corporativist essay. Apart from thought and ideology, the most rigorous theoretical framework for economic science of the time was also of Italian influence. Keywords: fascism, corporatism, economic science, imperfect competition, monopoly.