How and why did Mussolini set up a dictatorship in Italy in 1922-1927?

In 1922 Mussolini was appointed as prime minister of Italy, only five years later he had gathered enough personal power in order to become dictator of the nation. The leap that Mussolini gave towards ultimate power in Italy was substantial as, when first in power, he only possessed the support of 7% of the population. How and why was he able to do this?

In Mussolini’s rise to power there was an obvious turning point, this being the Matteoti crisis of June 1924. Before the crisis Mussolini had assured he would defend the constitution and this way lulled opposition into a false sense of security. With the unclear theories of Fascism Mussolini attracted many different sectors of society, and finally after April 1924, with the creation of the Acerbo law and the combination of defections to the fascists, voter apathy and the fascist use of intimidation Mussolini held an amazing 64% of the parliamentary seats. Although an initial blow to Fascism on one hand, the Matteoti crisis was controlled and re-directed by Mussolini in order to turn it into a benefit for himself and the Fascist party on the other. How did Mussolini turn this crisis into his door towards total control?

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Due to the murder of Matteoti on the 30th of May 1924 Mussolini’s situation was severely damaged. This was seen by many as an attack to the constitution which he had promised to protect. Media turned against the Fascists and there was a noticeable revival of the opposition which caused an electoral support loss. As a consequence of this all the socialist deputies walked out of parliament, showing their protest for the murder. Mussolini however was able to turn this action into his scapegoat of the crisis. He claimed that by doing this the socialists were neglecting their parliamentary responsibility. He then proceeded to prevent them of re-entering the parliament and by this he was able to criticise them and have no response from them, he had now practically removed all of his opposition of the scene. Moreover, in order to restore his dignity and bring back support Mussolini admitted blame of everything that the fascists had ever done. With this however he gave the sense that he was taking blame for good, as if he took the blame of things he hadn’t personally done. He was admitting to everything, and therefore to nothing.

It was soon after this re-establishment of support that Mussolini made the translation from a liberal democratic system into a fascist dictatorship. Firstly Mussolini removed the little opposition left to him. This was done by not letting the secessionists return to parliament and then by telling all non-fascist parties that their electorate mandate was invalid. In order to make sure that there were no more revivals of opposition he also took care of exiling non-fascists leaders. Now that there was effectively no oposition at all left the country became a one party state and followed by removing democracy. The chamber of deputies was removed and the chamber of fasces and corporatives was created. Mussolini suddenly changed the seemingly disastrous situation into his party having complete control over Italy, basically by systematically removing opposition and gradually gaining complete power.

Following to this Mussolini took care of setting his own power within fascism. He had under his charge eight ministries and made himself responsible of the party. By 1926 he was governing by decree and once he achieved this he started to secure this position. He did this by purging party leaders lower in the party. He set up a secret police that would take care of looking for any possible opposition and removing it.

To conclude it is clear that Mussolini’s intention was no to become dictator from the first time. Mussolini was presented with a situation were he was about to loose it all and his quick reaction helped him out of it and left him an easy path towards more power. He effectively followed this path by ably removing opposition and finally created a dictatorship that was centralised towards himself, securing his position so power wouldn’t be taken away from him.

Rafa Ortega Salvador