Why was Mussolini able to come in to power as early as 1922?

The government of Italy proved to be a key factor in the rise of power for Mussolini. The Italian government was very weak at the time and became even weaker when proportional representation was introduced. The first issue that the government faced was the actual parties in the government. The government was divided between the two major groups which rarely agreed on anything so making decisions were very hard to be made. The socialist party would never agree with anything the popular party agreed on so coalitions were rarely made. Other parties such as the General Confederation of Labor, Italian Confederation of Workers and the Communist party were not able to gain too much power because the appealed only to certain group of people. Unlike Fascism, which was formed for a certain group of people. The government basically was very weak and Mussolini did not have to do much in making the people believe that the Fascists party would make the government stronger as the Italian government was too weak to understand the meaning of strong.

The popularity of Socialist was another factor that worried a lot of people in Italy; people were scared that the Socialist would cause a revolution like the Bolsheviks in Russia and cause chaos in Italy. People were afraid of the socialist parties as there occasionally strikes and ransacking made them feel that the government could not control them. But overall the Socialist party was a very weak party indeed, historian Mack Smith argues that Socialism lacked responsible leadership and had no clear aim of how to reach power and the fact that they never co-operated with other parties. If they had done so they would have achieved control of Italy easily but they did not and were taken apart. Mussolini again took advantage of this problem and announced to the people that he could resolve the socialist problems and his political army of Fascists would crush there strikes and ransacking. He was seen as a savior for the people of Italy and he gained popularity with the public after his outbursts of future intentions and Italy's bright future.

Even though that the ras were crucial for the success of fascism, Mussolini had a lot of characteristics which made him and made people see him as a good leader. Mussolini had many abilities such as in writing and as a leader he knew what the people demanded from him. He was a natural speaker, his ability to speak publicly was immaculate as he would grip his crowd and leave them roaring with excitement. Also he was the only person that was in control of the ras, who in turn was seen by the ras as vital because the movement needed a very strong a reliable figure that the people could support. His flexible policies also enabled more people to appeal to Fascism thus gaining a lot of support in a short amount of time.

Another key factor that led to the Fascists coming to power would be the March on Rome. This was when Mussolini was invited to become the Prime Minister of Italy by the King, as he did not want his cousin to gain power over Italy. As a result he gained a lot of support from the people and it was his first real large step that gave him power before 1922.

The fascists were able to gain power in such a short time mainly because Italy was overall an extremely weak country. In only three years fascism came into power with only several seats in parliament, it could have been stopped but a few lucky events proved lucky for Mussolini and handed him power in 1922. He was very lucky at times an example being the March on Rome, Mussolini himself did not expect himself to gain power so easily so worried and was prepared to flee, but still he conquered Rome and was given power easily. If the socialist party had been more organized and co-operative then they might have come to power, but fate played into Mussolini's hands. Although the movement could have been stopped very easily, the weakness of the government to take action against the Fascists gave then success and this was why Mussolini and the Fascist party was able to achieve dominance of Italy.