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Mussolin­i's Totalita­rian Italy: A Detailed Analysis

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Mussolini's Totalitarian Italy: A Detailed Analysis

Mussolini's fascist Italy was an absolute totalitarian state. Per definition, Totalitarianism is a government that controls all aspects of life, from the actions people to their thoughts. These regimes make use of propaganda, a secret police, terror and a strong political party.

Mussolini changed Italy by adopting a single ideology, which is a set of political beliefs that everyone must follow, climbing to power and becoming a dictator, controlling all means of communication by the use of propaganda, creating terror trough the use a secret police and the army and he also set up central control over Italy's economy.

Ultimately he created a nearly perfect Totalitarian State which he alone could rule over.


Italy post World War 1 had been going trough political divisions due to the incompetence of the Liberal State at the time. Mussolini, who hated the Liberals, seized the opportunity and started to impose his political views on Italy trough his own political party '' Fasci De Combattimento''.

As time went on Mussolini started to gain more power, e.g. gaining seats in the parliament, and in 1922 he announced his plans to ''march on Rome''. Ultimately the king, Victor Emmanuel III, asked Mussolini to become the Prime Minister of Italy. And so Mussolini began to seize power wherever he could, slowly bending to laws to his favor, e.g. the Acerbo law which stated that the party that had the most support in an election was guaranteed to have two thirds of the seats in parliament.

This meant that when Mussolini's party (PNF) got the most votes in the 1924 elections, the fascists alone held power. Mussolini had achieved his goal of imposing his political beliefs on the entirety of Italy, as stated in Document 2: ''Mussolini achieved his main aim of gaining power and retaining it for over 20 years'', and managed to gain complete power.

Document 2 also hints towards ''some valuable social reforms'', which hint to the very popular beliefs of Mussolini such as the abandonment of socialist rhetoric, the support of the monarchy and his disbelief in clericalism. His endorsement of conservative and nationalistic policies were now widespread over all of Italy, which demonstrates the first step to a successful totalitarian state.


Another characteristic of a totalitarian state is a strong single party led by a dictator. In Italy's case this was the PNF (National Fascist Party) led by Mussolini. After having gained the sympathy of the people after WWI, Mussolini set his political organization up for success.

In 1923 Mussolini, with the help of violence and rigging of votes, he was able to put the Acerbo law into place. This allowed for the complete domination of the parliament of the Fascists. Mussolini's coalition partners withdrew from government and the king did not dare to ask Mussolini to resign, which left Mussolini with complete power.

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From 1925 to 1926 there was a legal transition from democracy to a dictatorship. In December 1925 a law gave total power to Mussolini, meaning that he now had control over the Military. In 1926 Mussolini was given the right to rule by decree, allowing him to be an unconditional dictator.

Document 2 states that: ''He seemed to provide strong leadership'', which proves that the Italians were content with Mussolini. They believed that Mussolini could make Italy great again. The people did not mind the oppression of other parties, the ban of union trades, the widening of the police, the censoring of the press and further on since Mussolini had convinced his people that his party would lead them to glory.

By 1926 there was no doubt about Italy being a fascist country, since all other political party's were squashed by Mussolini. This show us that Mussolini managed to turn Italy from a democracy into a dictatorship, which is an important aspect of Totalitarianism.


Now that Mussolini had become a dictator, he needed to convince the people that he was fantastic. He started to promote his image as ''Il Duce'', the great leader, a man of the people, a sportsman and an action man trough the use of propaganda. He was shown in posters helping out the farmers, leading the country or flat out as a ''superman'' as referenced in Document 2. Propaganda was important to build up Mussolini's image, showing the people that he was their savior.

He strived in creating an immaculate image of himself, whilst in fact he was a rather lazy person. Document 2 even criticizes Mussolini for being ''more concerned with projecting himself as a superman than with administrative routine''. Nonetheless he had set up a cult of personality, which is the worship of leader trough the use of propaganda.

Furthermore education promoted Mussolini's cult of personality. In school the curriculum was revised to highlight Italy's glorious past and pupils were taught that ''Il Duce'' would make Italy great again. Ultimately Mussolini was brainwashing the Children to ensure that they would learn the values of obedience and patriotism to ensure that the upcoming generations would remain loyal to him.

Like a true dictator Mussolini had created the perfect image of himself trough the use of propaganda, a man that people should strive to be alike. The Control of propaganda was essential to ensure that Italy would remain a totalitarian state.


Unlike the USSR or Germany, Mussolini did not have the most efficient Secret Police. In 1926 he set up the OVRA, but they weren't that effective, and also Special courts which dealt exclusively with crimes against the state. Opponents of the regime where sent to penal colonies, but they weren't as harsh as those of Germany or the USSR.

He even mocked Hitler ''delirium of race'', and enjoyed the company of a Jewish mistress. The real terror began in 1938, once Mussolini had become Hitler's puppet. The Persecution of Jews, as once again stated in Document 2, only led to confusion as the Jews seemed perfectly well assimilated.

But beforehand Mussolini had made other use of his central power, mainly within the army. He wanted to rebuild the roman empire and make Italy ''great again'', but for that to happen he needed to expand it's territory. In specific, he had his eyes on the Mediterranean.

His foreign policy's would unite the Italians and enlarge Italy's borders. It was a way to raise Italy to a world power. In 1936 he managed to seize power in Ethiopia, which would mean a huge deal to the Italians as they had been previously humiliated in 1896 after the Ethiopians managed to prevent the Italians from colonizing the country.

This meant that they we're going to form a military alliance with Germany, as stated in Document 1 (even though John Merriman takes the joint participation in support of the Spanish nationalists move as a primary symptom for their friendship). The Central Control of the Army in whatever way Mussolini seemed plausible, even if the league of nations disagreed, showed that Italy had become an absolute totalitarian state at this point in time, despite it's weaker secret police.


In Document 2 it is written that ''Italy had a degree of economic success'', but also that these ''economic policies proved to be without real substance''. Richard Forgaty is hereby criticizing the central control of the economy by Mussolini, as it did play out to be a failure.

In addition he also revalued the currency, which consequently meant that exports would be more expensive and ultimately hurt the Italian economy. In response to these economic issues, he imposed a policy of self-sufficiency in food and raw materials, called autarky.

This meant that Italy would not be dependent on others, but much rather supply it's own needs. This started multiple battles such as the battle for grain in 1925, in which Mussolini aimed to free Italy from the need to import of grain. It was somewhat successful as grain production increased and less efficient farmers to survive.

On the other hand the production of fruit crops and olive oil declined. There was also a ''battle for land'', which aimed to check migration from rural to urban areas. The battle drained the Pontine marshes, the land was reclaimed and it also resulted in a drop in malaria.

At last Mussolini introduced the corporate system. The state and economy would be run by a group of experts in their own fields. Every single specific profession and industry would have their own corporation. Employers and workers would work together to develop plans, with the goal to promote the cooperation between classes.

An amicable and coordinated state would help the economic situation and allow the government to get rid of trade unions as everybody would be content with how things were run. Strikes and lockouts were forbidden and Mussolini had managed to dominate the Italian economy.

Mussolini did not manage to stabilize Italy's economy and this ultimately lead to them being unprepared when WWII arrived, which is explicitly shown in Document 2: ''His pretensions were brutally exposed in 1939 when Italy was not prepared for War. WWII, which brought him down, was final proof of Mussolini's failure''.


There is no doubt that Italy, under Mussolini, was an absolute totalitarian state. His success in creating a single ideology, his finesse in seizing power to become a dictator, his usage of propaganda alongside the military and OVRA as well as his complete and central control over the economy defines Mussolini's fascist Italy as an absolute totalitarian state.



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