an absolute dogma. It does not refer economic problems to individual
needs, to individual interest, to individual solutions. On the
contrary it considers the economic development, and especially the
production of wealth, as an eminently social concern, wealth being for
society an essential element of power and prosperity. But Fascism
maintains that in the ordinary run of events economic liberty serves
the social purposes best; that it is profitable to entrust to
individual initiative the task of economic development both as to
production and as to distribution; that in the economic world
individual ambition is the most effective means for obtaining the best
social results with the least effort. Therefore, on the question also
of economic liberty the Fascists differ fundamentally from the
Liberals; the latter see in liberty a principle, the the Fascists
accept it as a method. By the Liberals, freedom is recognized in the
interest of the citizens; the Fascists grant it in the interest of
society. In other terms, Fascists make of the individual an economic
instrument for the advancement of society, an instrument which they
use so long as it functions and which they subordinate when no longer
serviceable. In this guise Fascism solves the eternal problem of
economic freedom and of state interference, considering both as mere
methods which may or may not be employed in accordance with the social
needs of the moment.

What I have said concerning political and economic Liberalism applies
also to Democracy. The latter envisages fundamentally the problem of
sovereignty; Fascism does also, but in an entirely different manner.
Democracy vests sovereignty in the people, that is to say, in the mass
of human beings. Fascism discovers sovereignty to be inherent in
society when it is juridically organized as a state. Democracy
therefore turns over the government of the state to the multitude of