Mussolini Wrote that Fascism Is Opposed to Classical Liberalism (the Philosophy that Underpins Capitalism) because It Denies the State in the Name of the Individual

As with all forms of socialism, fascist ideology was first and foremost an attack on classical liberalism, the philosophy that underpins capitalism, and that was perhaps stated clearest in Ludwig von Mises’ 1927 book Liberalism. The key features of classical liberalism, as defined by Mises, are property rights, freedom, peace, equality under the law, acceptance of the inequality of income and wealth based on the reality of human uniqueness, limited constitutional government, and tolerance.

Socialism in all its varieties is nothing if it is not an attack on every one of these principles, especially private property. Indeed, “THE ABOLITION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY” is the hallmark idea of The Communist Manifesto. Socialist ideologues and propagandists like Benito Mussolini spent years crusading against the principles of classical liberalism and capitalism to lay the ideological groundwork for their brand of socialism. In his book, Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions, Mussolini wrote that “The Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with the State. . . . It is opposed to classical liberalism . . . [which] denied the State in the name of the individual” (emphasis added).

--Thomas J. DiLorenzo, The Problem with Socialism (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2016), e-book.