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and labor leaders and their union members wanted. The point I makeis that at the bottom of it was the central idea that these groupsheld in one degree or another, and that while it certainly excitedthe opposition of many, it corresponded sufficiently with a generaldrift of opinion to paralyze any effective opposition to it. It wasmoving in the direction of a current of opinion—of several, in fact—and not wholly against such a current.Out of all this came the Fascist Corporative System and then theCorporative State. Briefly, it is built on the old syndicalist principlethat there is a difference between the political and the economicstate. The political state is organized by geographic divisions and hasas its function the maintenance of order and the direction of thedefense and progress of the nation. The economic state is organizedin economic divisions, that is according to craft or industrial groups,and has as its function the planning and direction of the economicsociety.Employers are organized into local trade associations called syndicates.The local syndicates are formed into regional federations,and all these regional federations into a National Confederation. Thesame holds true of the workers. In each locality the local labor syndicateor union and the local employers' syndicate or trade associationare brought together in a corporative. The regional federationsare brought together in a regional corporative. And the NationalConfederations of Employers and of "Workers are united in a greatNational Corporative. I refrain from going into any details aboutthe functions and techniques of these bodies. It is conceivable thatin different countries they might differ widely—as indeed they have.But the central principle will be the same—that through thesefederations and corporatives employers and workers will plan andcontrol the economic system under the supervision of the state.Mussolini himself called this "self-regulation of production underthe aegis of the producers."In time Mussolini went further and made this the basis of reorganizingthe state. Instead of abolishing the Senate as he hadpromised in his original platform, he abolished the Chamber ofDeputies and substituted for it the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations,the members of which are supposed to represent the great54