irresponsibilities of assemblies; 2) in the economic sphere, by the functions of trade unions which are becoming constantly more numerous and powerful, whether in the labour or industrial fields, in their conflicts and combinations, and 3) in the moral sphere by the necessity of order, discipline, obedience to those who are the moral dictators of the country.  Fascism wants the State to be strong, organic and at the same time supported on a wide popular basis.  As part of its task the Fascist State has penetrated the economic field:  through the corporative, social and educational institutions which it has created.  The presence of the State is felt in the remotest ramifications of the country.  And in the State also, all the political, economic and spiritual forces of the nation circulate, mustered in their respective organisations.

A State which stands on the support of millions of individuals who recognise it, who believe in it, who are ready to serve it, is not the tyrannical State of the mediaeval lord.  It has nothing in common with the absolutist States before or after ’89.  The individual in the Fascist State is not annulled but rather multiplied, just as in a regiment a soldier is not diminished, but multiplied by the number of his comrades.

The Fascist State organises the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin afterward to the individual; it has limited the useless or harmful liberties and has preserved the essential ones.  The one to judge in this respect is not the individual but the State.

12.  The Fascist State and Religion.

The Fascist State is not indifferent to the presence or the fact of religion in general nor to the presence of that particular established religion, which is Italian Catholicism.  The State has no theology, but it has morality.  In the Fascist State religion is considered as one of the most profound manifestations of the spirit; it is therefore not only respected, but defended and protected.  The Fascist State does not create its own “God,” as Robespierre wanted to do at a certain moment in the frenzies of the Convention; nor does it vainly endeavour to cancel the idea of God from the mind as Bolschevism tries to do.  Fascism respects the God of the ascetics, of the saints and of the heroes.  It also respects God as he is conceived and prayed to in the ingenuous and primitive heart of the people.

13.  Empire and Discipline.

The Fascist State is a will expressing power and empire.  The Roman tradition here becomes an idea of force.  In the Fascist doctrine, empire is not only a territorial or a military, or a commercial expression:  it is a moral and a spiritual one.  An empire can be thought of, for instance, as a nation which directly or indirectly guides other nations—­without the need of conquering a single mile of territory.  For Fascism, the tendency to empire, that is to say the expansion of nations, is a manifestation of vitality, its contrary (the stay-at-home attitude) is a sign of decadence.  Peoples who rise, or who suddenly flourish again, are imperialistic; peoples who die are peoples who abdicate.  Fascism is a doctrine which most adequately represents the tendencies, the state of mind of a people like the Italian people, which is rising again after many centuries of abandonment and of foreign servitude.