Italian corporatism predated Fascism with Catholic, Socialist, and capitalist backers.

Evidence

Corporate here is more or less a synonym (or euphemism) for fascist, the Italian economy having been organised from 1926 in “Corporations”, including labour corporations which effectively took the place of the trade unions. Elsewhere in this text when Gramsci speaks about the “corporate trend” (indirizzo corporativo ) he is sometimes referring not to Fascism as such but to the organised ideology of corporatism which was already a major force in pre-fascist Italy, having supporters among progressive Catholics and reformist Socialists as well as among rationalising elements of Italian capitalism. Needless to say the form the corporate economy took under Mussolini, particularly after 1930, was not altogether that intended by the movement’s non-fascist originators. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2382

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the ambiguous term ‘corporate’ in Gramsci’s text, distinguishing Fascist corporatism from the pre-fascist corporatist ideology.