Plausibility Check: Economic Life Span of Fascism

There is not a single "Fascist" economical model: corporatism (which prevailed in Italy) was not so different from any other state-supervised economy; matter of fact, the Italian model in coping with the 1929 crisis worked reasonably well, and was copied by a lot of countries.

In the end, the issue is always the same: butter vs. guns. If one can provide both, fine. If one has to choose, guns can be fine for a period, but not forever. Generally, butter works fine on the long run; trouble is that from time to time you also need guns :D

Agreed on the first point. What are we thinking the "fascist" economic model is. The Nazi model is very specific and all about war.

Considering the Italy had declined relative to the other great powers between the first and second wars should I think make us wary of the corporatist model.

The economic history of the Depression is still a see of contradiction and contraversy about the relative success of "keynesian" or Orthodox style approach. I read so much contradictory material that I have given up on getting an answer. I think hindsight suggests that we should be dubious of making fascist Italy a model.

I think that over the long-term butter vs guns is a less important question than growth rates- over a couple of decades marginal difference of 0.25-0.5 percentage points in growth rates can reduce a country to marked inferiority vis a vis its competitors. Assuming that a victorious Greater German Reich reduced its defence spending to more sustainable levels this I think is the fate that awaits it vis a vis the US.
 
The guns or butter question is particularly relevant.

If WW3 had erupted, there is a good chance the Soviets would have won in Europe or forced NATO to nuke much of Europe due to their opting for guns instead of butter and outnumbering the Americans and their allies in vast numbers.

Then everybody would be claiming capitalism and consumer driven economics were a dead end and communist state driven economics with the focus on large standing armies were the only way a state could both survive and thrive.

Same with the Nazis. They lost the war due to poor strategic choices and the inability to understand modern, industrialized warfare as wielded by America and Russia.

However, France was defeated and England was bankrupt by 1941 and only kept alive by American loans. Not quite a ringing endorsement for the power of Western democratic economies......
 
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