The French debate of the 1930s in face of the Italian corporative model

The article aims at reconstructing the various channels through which fascist Italy attempted to promote the ideology, debate and 'achievements' of its corporatist construction in France. Publications, conferences, courses and congresses devoted to the subject will therefore be analysed, with particular attention paid to events such as the Italo-French conference held in Rome in 1935. A central aspect, less addressed by historiography, is the reception of the fascist project and the different positions taken in the French political and intellectual world, between expressions of interest and demands for an autonomous tradition as an alternative to the authoritarian centralism of the Mussolini regime. Finally, it is important to place the French reflection on the Italian model within the broader framework of the transnational debate that developed in the 1930s around the revision of liberal principles and the role of public intervention in the economic order.