hem differently, as, for example, the problem of liberty.

There is a Liberal theory of freedom, and there is a Fascist concept
of liberty. For we, too, maintain the necessity of safeguarding the
conditions that make for the free development of the individual; we,
too, believe that the oppression of individual personality can find no
place in the modern state. We do not, however, accept a bill of rights
which tends to make the individual superior to the state and to
empower him to act in opposition to society. Our concept of liberty is
that the individual must be allowed to develop his personality in
behalf of the state, for these ephemeral and infinitesimal elements of
the complex and permanent life of society determine by their normal
growth the development of the state. But this individual growth must
be normal. A huge and disproportionate development of the individual
of classes, would prove as fatal to society as abnormal growths are to
living organisms. Freedom therefore is due to the citizen and to
classes on condition that they exercise it in the interest of society
as a whole and within the limits set by social exigencies, liberty
being, like any other individual right, a concession of the state.
What I say concerning civil liberties applies to economic freedom as
well. Fascism does not look upon the doctrine of economic liberty as
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