Orano began his political career as one of a number of leading syndicalist thinkers associated with the Italian Socialist Party at the turn of the century.

[2] Along with fellow syndicalists Arturo Labriola and Robert Michels, as well as nationalist Enrico Corradini, Orano became part of a group of intellectuals who followed the ideals of Georges Sorel.

[6] Orano became a strong critic of democracy, seeing it as the cause of Italy's ills and his rhetoric, along with that of fellow syndicalists such as Filippo Corridoni and Angelo Olivetti, was by 1914 very similar to that coming from the Italian Nationalist Association.

[9] Orano soon moved over to the Fascists and during the March on Rome he served as Mussolini's chief of staff, whilst also occupying a seat on the Grand Council of the party.

His 1897 book Cristo e Quirino criticised Christianity from a Nietzschean perspective, suggesting that it told people to accept their lot in life and thus solidified hierarchy in society.

[15] His 1902 book Psicologia Sociale sought to attack transpersonal psychology and instead argued in favour of materialism and inductive reasoning that took into account the works of Karl Marx and Charles Darwin.