Catholic Cultural Traditions in the Formation and Construction of the Value System of Italian Fascism

Abstract

It has been customary to define fascist ideology as a revolutionary change of a preexisting value system. However, the results of the analysis of the value dynamics of Italian society provoke a consideration of an alternative interpretation. The supposition is that the efforts of the fascist ideologues were directed not towards changing the traditional value matrix of Italian citizens but towards reengineering the specific dominant values of the national culture. The question is whether it is pos- sible to construct values deliberately, as the constructivist paradigm claims, and whether these values will thrive in such circumstances. Or, as the primordial paradigm implies, these values can be sustained only organically? The purpose of this article, therefore, is to study the phenomenon of incorporation of fascist values into the traditional preexisting catholic value matrix. The first aim of the article is to highlight which aspects of Catholicism were chosen by the fascist regime as the most effective ones for the achievement of its goals. The second aim is to identify the functional value of the catholic religion for the regime and the objectives it attempted to realize. The third aim is to analyze the processes that took place inside a value while it was changing its modality.

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