I often see the following quote attributed to Benito Mussoline, but a
quick search fails to bring it up in any Quotations compendium.

Can you either :
 - Find a reference to this quote in a reliable source
or (harder option, I know)
 - put together a reasonably comprehensive explanation that refutes
the claim that Mussolini ever said the following, or at least an
explanation as to the fact of the 'non existence' of this quote in
scholarly work and why it is poor practice to repeat the quote etc.

In either case this explanation can then be something that a person
links to when they wish to argue the authenticity of this quote.

OK. Heres the quote:

"
Benito Mussolini: 

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism 
because it is a merger of State and corporate power. 
"

---

Clarification of Question by utunga-ga on 08 Dec 2003 07:07 PST

politicalguru-ga,

Sure I will accept what you propose as a way to answer this question.
Especially if you can include some comments about why its poor
practice to quote something without a good source.

Realising the difficulties of trying to prove a negative... i did not
in fact mean to ask for "conclusive evidence that he *did not* say
it".

What I asked for was " a reasonably comprehensive explanation that refutes
the claim that Mussolini ever said the following, or at least an
explanation as to the fact of the 'non existence' of this quote in
scholarly work and why it is poor practice to repeat the quote etc."

Where I believe the "reasonably" is an operative word.

if you can provide an explanation of how this quote came to be quoted
that would certainly be helpful, and I believe help to answer the
original question.

This appears to be part of a definition of fascism written by
Mussolini for the Italian Encyclopedia (1932) edited by Giovanni
Gentile. Unfortunately I cannot find a reliable online source for you.

Dear Utunga, 

I am responding to manticore1234-ga's comment, and in a way, also to
the fact that your question was not answered to this point.

I conducted an extensive Research on the question. I too, like
manticore1234, found sources that claim that the source is the article
"La Dottrina del Fascismo", written actually by the Fascist
philosopher/thinker Giovanni Gentile, and published under Mussolini's
name in the Enciclopedia Italiana. However, when you go to that
article (http://www.piralli.it/dottrina.htm and a full translation in
http://cosmo.slique.net/~vikrum/mirrored/texts/mussolini/fascism/) you
find that the only reference to corporatism is in section VIII, and
not in these words. Of course, one would need a hard-copy of this
encyclopaedia, to be sure that it is not in other articles. I also
found no source that originally refers to this quotation in Italian.

My colleague, Juggler-ga, found one source in Italian (See:
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:ZTsuo2t9sYkJ:https://www.inventati.org/mailman/public/forumbergamo/2003-April/000985.html+%22chiamato+corporativismo%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
 ) - however, this source translates an American source.

In other words, the reason I (or other Researchers) haven't answered
your question, is that you asked for a conclusive evidence that he
*did not* say it. Despite all of the abovementioned evidences, one
cannot be certain in 100%. However, if you'll agree that I would post
my findings as an answer (and will add some speculation as to why it
is quoted), I will be more than pleased to do so, and to be paid for
my efforts.

Dear Utunga, 

Juggler-ga's link in Italian is 
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:ZTsuo2t9sYkJ:https://www.inventati.org/mailman/public/forumbergamo/2003-April/000985.html+%22chiamato+corporativismo%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

(A Google cache of <https://www.inventati.org/mailman/public/forumbergamo/2003-April/000985.html>)