In February 1923, Mussolini and the Fascist Grand Council introduced the Acerbo Law. This law changed election results. Now if one party got just 25% (or more) of the votes cast in an election, they would get 66% of the seats in parliament. When it came for Parliament to vote on the Acerbo Law, many politicians agreed to a law that would almost certainly end their political careers if they were not fascists.
The gallery in the hall in which the politicians voted was filled with armed fascist thugs who had a good view of anybody who spoke out against the law. The threat was clear and real. If you voted for the law, you would be fine. If you did not, then you were certainly in danger from fascist thugs.
In the March election that followed the Acerbo Law, the Fascist Party got 65% of the votes cast and, therefore, easily got the 2/3rds of parliamentary seats – a clear majority. People were intimidated into voting for the Fascists or that the Fascists took ballot papers from those who might have voted against Mussolini were brushed aside. The Fascists who were elected were bound to support Mussolini. In this sense, the Acerbo Law was an important move to dictatorship in Italy.
I feel this makes Mussolini a Fascist dictator due to the fact that it allowed Mussolini and the Fascist Party to become the largest party in Italy and therefore it is not a personal method.
On the 30th May 1924, the leader of the Socialist Unity Party, Giacomo Matteotti, made a speech in the Chamber of Deputies, criticising the violence and intimidation that had took place during the voting day and general election campaign from Fascist Blackshirts. After his outrage Matteotti and non-fascist political members left the Chamber of Deputies. Mussolini had to do something about this and on the 10th June 1924, Matteotti disappeared. He was spotted being bundled into a car. After the police began enquires, the car was found and the interior was full of blood. The car was traced back to a friend of Cesari Rossi. Cesari Rossi was then traced back to member in the PNF and Ministry of Interior, the two men were known as Giovanni Marinelli and Aldo Finzi. Mussolini was questioned about this and he decided to evade the topic. Mussolini cracked under the pressure and evaded the Chamber for several days. Mussolini decided to fire some of his staff, Finzi and General De Bono and Rossi and Marinelli were arrested. The Aventine protestors – appealed to the king, Victor Emmanuel, to dismiss Mussolini but the king disliked the protestors more than Mussolini because they lent towards republicanism and he refused to take action. With this royal support, Mussolini felt strong enough to take on his opponents. Any critics of Mussolini were beaten up and newspapers that were not supportive of the Fascists were shut down. In January 1925, Mussolini said the following:
"I declare….in front of the Italian people……that I alone assume the political, moral and historic responsibility for everything that has happened. Italy wants peace and quiet, work and calm. I will give these things with love if possible and with force if necessary."
After surviving this crisis, Mussolini slowed introduced Fascism into Italy and established the classic features of a dictatorship.
I feel this makes Mussolini a personal dictatorship due to the fact that since Matteotti took a stand against him, Mussolini felt embarrassed, he took action and ensured that it would not happen again.
In 1925, Mussolini introduced a law which changed his title from, ‘president of the council of ministers’ to ‘head of the government.’ This allowed him to be no longer responsible to Parliament and only King Emmanuel Victor could remove him. This law became known as the Christmas Eve law.
Mussolini furthered strengthened his control by using the police state and this became apparent in 1928 when he introduced the law to outlaw all other parties in 1928. However this principle had been in effect since 1925 due to the fact that Mussolini established an electoral law which abolished parliamentary elections.
I feel this makes Mussolini a personal dictator due to the fact that he wanted to be total ruler of Italy, he named himself head of the government and ensured that Fascism would not be overruled or destroyed due to the fact he abolished all other parties.
Mussolini would of course have to have a fantastic relationship with the PNF due to the fact that it was his own party. The PNF popularized Mussolini and they built a strong faction with the Blackshirts to destroy socialism in the early days before the march on Rome. The PNF clearly won the highly controversial elections of April 1924. In early 1925, Mussolini dropped all ideas of democracy and set up a total dictatorship. From that point onward, the PNF was effectively the only legally permitted party in the country.
I feel that this makes Mussolini a Fascist and a personal dictator due to the fact that he needed his party to take over the government but at the same time, used them to gain a stronghold over Italy.
