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Summary Mussolini and the Fascist Political System
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Mussolini and the Fascist Political SystemMussolini’s aim: personal dictatorship
By 1926, Mussolini had achieved his ambition of becoming dictator of Italy.
Parliament was under his full control.
With Liberals and Popolari divided and leaderless, and the Socialists under constant physical
attack, organised political opposition did not exist.
Furthermore, provided the King remained in fear and awe of the Fascist leader, Mussolini
need not worry about the armed forces, as they were unlikely to break their pledge of
loyalty to the monarch.
With his position now secure, Mussolini set out to create his Fascist state.
This state was to be a personal dictatorship, for his prime minister’s central goal was to
maintain and increase his own personal power.
He encouraged a cult of personality that stressed his genius, his power and his
indispensability as leader of the nation.
He attempted to consolidate his position by seeking a constructive working relationship with
powerful interest groups, notably the Church, industrialists and the armed forces.
Propaganda and the cult of personality
In 1926, opposition newspapers were suppressed, and journalists and their editors made
aware that they could be arrested if they published anything derogatory towards the
regime.
Mussolini’s own press office issued ‘official’ versions of events which newspapers were
expected to publish without question.
Radio and cinema were also to be tools for Fascist propaganda. There were perhaps only
40,000 radio sets in the whole of Italy in the mid-1920s, but from 1924 the radio network
was run by the state. News bulletins continually praised Mussolini and broadcasted his
speeches in full.
The regime was slow to make propagandist feature films, and US Hollywood films always
dominated Italian cinema screens, but each of these films would be preceded by a short
newsreel which gave a Fascist version of current events.
Cult of personality
The cult was intended to build popular support for the dictator and to overawe potential
opponents by stressing his supposed superhuman talents.
He was portrayed as the new Caesar: a man of genius, a man of action, a man of culture, a
statesman of world renown dedicated only to the revival of Italy.
By 1926, the regime was using all the methods of propaganda at its disposal to convey its
message. Government-controlled newspapers stressed Mussolini’s benevolence and took
particular pride in quoting the opinions of foreign admirers.
Mussolini and the government
Role of the King
King Victor Emmanuel was easily dealt with.
, The monarchy had traditionally distanced itself from domestic policy and concerned itself
principally with foreign affairs.
The dictator still followed protocol by visiting the King twice a week, but Victor Emmanuel
was never asked for his advice and was only told what Mussolini wanted him to hear.
Role of government ministers
Mussolini was not prepared to share power with his ministers.
Instead, the role of the ministers was simply to follow Mussolini’s instructions
unquestioningly.
Mussolini himself held the most important ministries- foreign affairs, interior and the three
armed services- for the greater part of his dictatorship.
Role of parliament
By 1926, it had lost its ability to discuss policy, to debate and amend proposed legislation,
and to criticize the government.
Free elections ceased to exist. The electorate was reduced to exclude most of the working
classes, who had previously supported the Socialists.
Eventually, in January 1939, parliament abolished itself altogether, to be placed by the
equally meaningless Chamber of Fasces and Corporations.
Gaining the support of the civil service
A wholescale sacking of personnel in the civil service, judiciary and the army officer corps
and their replacement by Fascist Party appointees would almost certainly have caused a
crisis of which Mussolini was desperate to avoid.
He instead set out to use his powers of patronage to reward loyalty and by introducing
policies that conservatives could support.
Mussolini’s approach meant that there was no Fascist revolution in government.
In 1927, it was estimated that only about 15 % of the civil service were Fascist.
During the 1930s, Fascist Party membership did increase among civil servants, but this
seems to have been largely the result of a recognition that promotion depended on being a
card-carrying supporter of the regime.
Gaining support from the armed forces
Mussolini emphasised that the military shared a common interest in expanding the armed
forces and in pursuing an aggressive foreign policy.
Further support was gained by promoting senior generals to the prestigious post of field
marshal.
The army did, admittedly, resent the pretensions of the Fascist militia to be a significant
military force, but it was willing to give its loyalty to the Duce.
Controlling the judges
Only with the judiciary did Mussolini conduct a purge of what he considered to be
undesirable elements.
Dozens of judges were sacked for being insufficiently sympathetic towards fascism or for
being too independent of the government.
The Italian legal system lost all claim to impartiality.
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