The whole idea of fascism seemed new and exciting and the propaganda that was used to try to gain votes seemed also new and impressive. Many young people were attracted to the party with its radicalist nature and many groups who disliked the current system supported them because they thought it would dislodge this system if it came to power.
Overall the party gained much support thanks to the wide-ranging appeal of the movement and the things that the party stood for. This, in general was a short-term factor for the reasons why they came to power.
The weaknesses of the current liberal Italy also added to the discontent of the masses and helped the fascists to come to power in 1922. The original government seemed to many, to be corrupt and weak, with managed elections being held to help them to stay in control and the sheer amounts of governments in their recent time. This helped people to be attracted to Mussolini’s party because of the opposition to this state that the government was in and the promise of a strong and powerful Italy.
Post war conditions promoted further unrest and this showed the liberal state to be weak once again as high inflation and unemployment ravaged the population.
As I have already said the industrialists and landowners were pleased with the fascists and obviously not so pleased with the government because of the anti socialist violence in regards to the strikes etc. The government were seen to be weak as they did nothing about the violence and also because they failed to handle the strikes in the first place.
Also the other parties (i.e. the alternatives to fascism) seemed also to be weak and divided into many separate groups who could not agree, for example the division of the catholic party and the three-way division of the left wing. This provided a contrast to the seemingly strong and unified fascists. The same could also be said about the trade unions, which were running at the time as these were divided into three. This limited their power, as their membership was less.
Also the question over the pope’s involvement and backing of the government and politics in itself hindered the government. The pope had only lifted a ban on politics in 1918 and the Vatican had disagreements with the catholic party (the PPI). This had a bad effect on the liberal state as they seemed not to be backed by the pope, which would put many people off voting them because of their strong catholic faith.
The weaknesses of the liberal state was more of a long-term problem an in the end the government were too weak to do anything about the fascist success in 1922.
Another factor that helped Mussolini and the fascists to gain success in this period were the multiple mistakes that the opponents to fascism made.
The government again were made to look weak when Gabriel D’Annunzio challenged them at Fiume. They failed to respond quickly and they let him have control of the city for nearly a year. This showed the people that the government were weak and it must have seemed like they could not do anything to stop the fascists at this point.
There was also chaos in the two red years where the socialists nearly got into power through a revolution. The government were shown to be weak there also because they could do nothing to stop the revolt and it was only the socialists who eventually stopped the revolution thanks to their mistakes.
The same can be said about the ‘March on Rome’, which the fascists tried where the government looked weak to try to stop the march using force.
There were also huge mistakes made by the liberal government as they thought that Mussolini and his fascist radical ideals could be tamed and could be persuaded to join the original liberal government. This was obviously not going to be so and did the liberals make a grave mistake. Also key figures in Italy at the time failed to oppose what Mussolini was doing and so, because of their silence they were seen to be for the fascist movement. This will have promoted some people to vote and support the fascists because they seemed to have the support of the king and pope.
The left wing also made dyer mistakes in the run up to Mussolini’s power in 1922. They failed to organise themselves in the two red years where a revolution may have been possible. They also played into the lefts hands in 1922 where they made a general strike, which the fascists crushed. This made them look weak and so brought more voters to the seemingly strong and powerful fascism.
A lot of these factors are long-term but some provided a major bit of luck for the fascists, like the socialists general strike, which gained them much support with the elite etc and was short-term.
Mussolini's skill and opportunism as a man and a politician also played a major part in the fascist victory. He was a great craftsman of propaganda with the newspaper, which he owned, and the strong image, which he created for fascism. This provided a strong building block on which to gain support from the masses using this tool.
He also had good timing in the concessions, which he made to the establishment like abandoning his left wing policies in 1920, and his decision to enter parliament in 1921. This will have gained support, as he seemed both revolutionary but also not extremist.
He kept the fascist party followers happy by conceding to them on numerous occasions and he pressured the government with the threat of violence to try to gain power. Overall I see this man as being influential to the fascists gaining power. If it hadn’t been for any one of these four main factors I think that the fascists would not have come to power. All of these factors played a part in the success of the fascist party and Mussolini.
