Bruno Rizzi (March 20, 1901 – January 13, 1977) was an Italian

political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Ancient * Aristotle * Chanakya * Cicero * Confucius * Mencius * ...

Early activities

Bruno Rizzi was born on March 20, 1901, in Porto Mantovano. In 1918, he joined the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Social democracy, social democratic and Democratic socialism, democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parti ...

but left in 1921 to be among the founders of the

Communist Party of Italy The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

(PCI) in 1921. He left the PCI in 1930. Due to persecution by the Fascist regime, Rizzi emigrated to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. During the later 1930s, he intervened in the debates involving

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

James Burnham James Burnham (November 22, 1905 – July 28, 1987) was an American philosopher and political theorist. He chaired the New York University Department of Philosophy. His first book was ''An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis'' (1931). Bur ...

and Yvan Craipeau concerning the nature of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Writings on bureaucratic states and later life

His most important work, ''La Bureaucratisation du Monde'' ("Bureaucratisation of the World"), was published in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1939, but most copies were seized by the French government. In it, he stated that

Fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

and

Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...

were developing similar political methods. Trotsky thoroughly criticized Rizzi's conflation of Fascism and Stalinism as part of his polemic "In Defence of Marxism" which was written to oppose the positions of the Burnham-Shachtman minority in the US Socialist Workers Party. It would be more than 30 years before an abridged version of Rizzi's work would be published in Italy. In the original text, he argued for common cause by the

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...

regimes of Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union: "The

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

struggles of

national socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...

and fascism, fundamentally, are nothing but an

anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism ...

campaign led by a new social synthesis, theoretically erroneous but practically just", omitted from later editions. Following the

fall of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Net ...

in 1940, he published the pamphlet ''Écoute Citoyen!'' ("Listen, Citizen!"), in which he repeated these claims. Rizzi returned to Italy in 1943, but withdrew to private life, working as a shoe salesman. He contributed irregularly to ''Critica Sociale'', ''Tempi Moderni'' and ''Rassegna di Sociologia''.

Death

Rizzi died on January 13, 1977, in Bussolengo.

References

External links

Bruno Rizzi Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno Rizzi, Bruno 20th-century Italian historians 20th-century Italian essayists Italian male non-fiction writers Politicians from the Province of Mantua

Early activities

Writings on bureaucratic states and later life

Death

See also

References

External links