Giovanni Gentile's philosophy of Actualism as a key to understanding business economics in the Fascist period

This paper aims to investigate under the Gentilian lens the studies of Business economics developed in the Fascist period. Business economics takes on different connotations depending on the existing organizational- social context. Giovannini (1935) identifies liberal Business economics, communist Business economics, and lastly corporate Business economics. In the considered period, a principle of subordination of every possible interest to the highest interest of the community developed in Business economics. The conditions of interdependence existing between the two disciplines start from the assumption deriving from Giovanni Gentile's topical theory (1916, 1946) according to which the individual, as part of the community, is subordinate to the interests of the latter. The philosophy of Actualism can be considered as a framework for interpreting corporate economics. Business economists attempted to substantiate the ideas found in Gentile's writings according to which the individual and the state are different expressions of the same reality in which individual interest is subordinate to the collective interest which, in conditions of absence of selfishness, would coincide (Gentile, 1925). To achieve these results, the boundaries of accounting history will be crossed, involving studies of a philosophical nature and studies of economic history.