In a totalitarian state all powers are vested in an infallible leader. In Fascist Italy Mussolini was the Duce, while in Nazi Germany Hitler was the Führer. The regimes were organized in a hierarchy and headed by these all-powerful leaders. Both Mussolini and Hitler were the personification of the State. By comparison, however, Hitler was more powerful as he was the supreme head of the State. After the death of President Hindenburg in 1934, Hitler merged Presidency and Chancellorship, and inherited the position of Commander-in-Chief. Above Mussolini, on the contrary, there was King Victor Emmanuel III. He could dismiss Mussolini; he did so in 1943.
Totalitarian regimes usually employ terror as a means of mass control. The secret police searches and eliminates “enemies of the State”. The elastic criminal code enables the police to arrest and interrogate people at will. There are no judicial independence and the right of appeal. People live under psychological and physical pressure. Dissidents are usually exiled, killed, imprisoned or sent to concentration camps. It is the Reign of Terror. This happened in both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. “Ballyhoo and brutality were made the foundations of the state”, says David Thomson.
Every totalitarian state emphasizes its ideology. It serves as the official and unique doctrine that everybody has to believe and obey, and claims to explain and integrate all aspects of human existence. Both Mussolini and Hitler were the authors and final interpreters of their respective doctrines. Both Fascism and Nazism showed distrust of liberalism, Christianity, socialism and, above all, communism. Yet Nazism differed from Fascism in such a way that it evolved a complete doctrine of racism regarding Germans as the master race destined to rule the world, while contamination of the Jews had to be liquidated. In 1933-45 about two-third of European Jews were killed. Nazism was supreme in Germany. There was no religious tolerance. All kinds of religions and churches were suppressed. Priests and pastors were exiled or sent to concentration camps. There was only Hitler’s Reich Church. Pope Pius XI named him the “enemy of Christ and his Church”. By contrast, Mussolini kept a peaceful and amicable relation with the Roman Catholic Church though he disliked Christianity. By the Lateran Treaty of 1929 Mussolini recognized Catholicism as the state religion and made the Vatican City independent. Again this showed that Mussolini was not the supreme in Italy.
In a totalitarian state all the means of communication such as radio and newspapers are controlled by the government to glorify the State, attack the enemies and call on people to work for a noble future. Mass rallies are used to uplift people’s spirit. Frequent meetings for the masses on-the-job or in local organizations let party members exhort the people. Education is also manipulated in the form of indoctrination. In both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany substantial examples included revision of school curricula, inclusion of nationalism and official doctrines in textbooks, and forced allegiance to the State on teachers. In short, the State shaped people’s thoughts and minds. In Germany, for example, Goebbel, Minister of Propaganda, was very good at tasks of Nazi indoctrination. In both countries such virtues as conformity, belief, loyalty, obedience and merging oneself with the system were emphasized, whereas the ability to think independently was denied. Nobody could query the government policies and ideology. Freedoms of speech, press, assembly and religion were absent. The secret police like the German Gestapo kept a close eye on people’s daily life and activities and searched for any sign of opposition. In Italy Mussolini exiled many well-known intellectuals critical of his Fascist regime.
Purges are usual in a totalitarian state. In Nazi Germany, to consolidate his own dictatorial power Hitler launched the “Night of the Long Knives” in June 1934. At least 100 SA men like Rohm whom the German army disgusted were slaughtered. He also promised conscription and full-scale rearmament. Then the Reichswehr pledged absolute obedience to the Führer. Though Mussolini purged leading liberals, socialists, communists and intellectuals as Hitler did, he seldom targeted at his own party colleagues. Purges within the ruling party never happened in Fascist Italy. By comparison, the Nazis were efficient and loyal while many Italian officials remained corrupt and inefficient. Moreover, the Italian army paid supreme loyalty not to Mussolini, but to the King.
Totalitarianism always contains ideas of planned economy aimed at autarky. For this purpose, Mussolini set up the Corporate State while Hitler adopted the Four-Year Plans. Both embraced State Capitalism. Private property was allowed but industrialists and farmers were told what, how and how many to produce. In Fascist Italy the “Battle of Wheat” encouraged farmers to focus their effort on wheat production as part of the quest for self-sufficiency. A land reclamation programme was launched to improve and increase the agricultural yield. An impressive public works programme started so as to reduce unemployment, which included constructions of highways, bridges, schools and new towns on reclaimed land, etc. Under the Corporate State the whole country was divided into 22 corporations. Yet Norman Lowe says, “The attempt of self-sufficiency was a dismal failure”. The “Battle of Wheat” won at the expense of diary and animal farming. Officials remained corrupt and inefficient. By 1939, for instance, only one-tenth of the land reclamation programme was fulfilled. Large amounts of government funding were embezzled by officials. During the Great Depression unemployment rose to 1.1 million. By contrast, Hitler’s economic policies were not so systematic but far more efficient. In Nazi Germany control of all economic life was transferred to the State. There was rigid control of foreign exchange, allocation of raw materials, guided investment and disciplined regulations of labour, wages, farming, prices and profit. Nazis even ran some enterprises. Production was at Nazi disposal. Industries and agriculture were subsidized. Farmers’ holdings were protected. Full employment was achieved by 1936 with such a planned economy, in addition to the massive rearmament and public works programmes. Workers even enjoyed such fringe benefits as subsidized holidays, cheap theatre and rent control, etc. Yet Alan Bullock argues that full employment and prosperity could not last unless Germany expanded.
A totalitarian state often adopts an expansionist foreign policy to seek national glory. Both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany built up formidable armaments. Before 1935 Mussolini posed to be a pacifist and anti-Nazi. Seeing the fragility of the Stresa Front, Mussolini joined Hitler subsequently in territorial expansion. There saw Italian invasion of Abyssinia and Albania. Mussolini’s foreign policy was inconsistent and opportunistic. Hitler never hid his territorial ambitions. He aimed at complete reversal of the Treaty of Versailles, seeking “living space” for Germany and satisfying the popular nostalgic hankering of the return of German greatness. Hitler carried out conscription and full-scale rearmament, annexed Austria, Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland. They even formed the Axis and withdrew from the League of Nations. Both were accountable for the outbreak of World War Two.
In a nutshell, we may say that both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany were totalitarian states though there were some differences.
