“All within the state, nothing outside the

state, nothing against the state”

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) and Fascism in Italy

The seizure of power. 

In the early 19th Italy - liberal state with civil rights and constitutional

monarchyOn the eve of First World War- the universal male suffrage were given and Italy

appeared to be moving toward democracyProblems:- Much of the population poor- peasants were attached to their villages and local

interests- relation between the state and church were often tense- Class differences were extreme

The war worsened the political situation. 

   Italy modest gains at Versailles

   didn’t deliver social and land reform

Government disappointed ….

Workers and peasantsItalian nationalists 

-The Russian revolution inspired Italy’s revolutionary social movement                workers and peasant began occupying factories and seizing land in 1920-pope lifted his ban on participation by Catholics in Italian politics                a strong Catholic party quickly emerged

thus by 1921…

Benito Musssolini- born on 29th July 1883 Predappio in northern central Italy- the son of a village schoolteacher and a poor blacksmith- 1902 Mussolini moved to Switzerlan, where he became

involved in socialist politics- 1904 returned to Italy and worked as a radical journalist in

the socialist press- 1915 broke with the pacifism of the socialists (editorialized

for Italy's involvement in the war on the side of the Allies, claiming that France's defeat would end liberty in Europe)

- The Socialist Party responded by expelling him- started his own newspaper, The People of Italy- September 1915 he was drafted into the Italian army , sent

to front- February 1917 - wounded during hand grenade practice. - Returning home, he began organizing bitter war veterans

into a band of fascists – from the Italian word for “a union of forces”. He organized them into armed squads known as Black Shirts

- Mussolini advanced himself by publishing his Diary of the War

- February 1918, Mussolini joined those who spoke with disgust about parliamentary squabbling. described parliamentary democracy as "effete."  Italy, he claimed, should set things right by making a clean sweep. Italy, he said, needed a dictator.

- In addition, he proclaimed his opposition to the monarchy; to the Catholic Church and his favor of a minimum wage, an eight-hour day, worker participation in management, confiscation of excessive war profits, and giving the vote to women.

 Mussolini presented himself as a progressive nationalist or as a national socialist.

The regime in action. Mussolini's coalition government lasted through the

whole of 1923 and beyond. 1) He was committed to an ambitious modernization

program: draining swamps, developing hydroelectricity and improving the railways.

2) The Fascists continued to be a minority in Parliament, holding only forty seats. Then, in the elections in April 1924, with the Fascists employing terror and illegalities, they won a parliamentary majority: 374 seats.

3) had a secret police force led by a clique of high-ranking fascist officials, a force he affectionately called the Cheka, a force that was in the habit of attacking anyone who made themselves obnoxious to Mussolini's interests.

4) Mussolini then strengthened his regime by signing an agreement with the industrialists, assuring them control over their own industries. He made a similar agreement with the large employers in agriculture & commerce.

5) Mussolini found it opportune to make an agreement with the Catholic Church.

Mussolini's Italy was described as a corporate state, and the declared objective of the corporate state was

both social revolution and national cohesion -- as opposed to the class warfare of Marxism and the

Bolshevik Revolution.

the monarchy, the army, government bureaucracy,

the Church the middle class

were supposed to play a role in strengthening state power. And it was everyone's duty to contribute to the strength and glorification of the state.

Mussolini, however, didn’t complete the establishment of a modern totalitarian 

state. Why?• Fascist party never became all-

powerful. It never destroyed the old power structure, or succeeded in dominated it.

• There was no land reform. • Mussolini’s government didn’t pass

radical laws until 1938 and didn’t persuade Jews savagery until late in the 2 World War when Italy were under Nazi control.

• Didn’t established a truly ruthless police state.

Although Mussolini began as a revolutionary socialist, like Stalin, he turned against the working class and successfully sought the support of conservatives. At the same time Mussolini and his supporters were the first to call themselves “fascists” - revolutionaries determined to create a certain kind of totalitarian state. Yet few scholars today would argue that Mussolini succeeded. His dictatorship was brutal and theatrical, but it remained a halfway house between conservative authoritarianism and dynamic totalitarianism.

Many in Italy were inclined to the old habit of devotion to figures of authority, and Mussolini was becoming an object of adulation. Many admired Mussolini for having saved Italy from Bolshevism. In many households across Italy, people pasted his picture, cut out of newspapers, on their wall. His birthplace became a place of pilgrimage. Given their belief in miracles, it became rumored that the blind could see again after Mussolini embraced them. And it was believed that those who kissed his hands would die in peace.

• On 24 July 1943 Mussolini was defeated in the vote at the Grand Council of Fascism, and the day after the King let him arrest.

• On 12 September 1943, Mussolini was rescued from prison. Following his rescue, Mussolini headed the Italian Social Republic in parts of Italy that were not occupied by Allied forces.

• In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape north, only to be quickly captured and summarily executed. His body

was then taken to Milan where it was hung upside down at a petrol station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.