Why did Fascism gain such widespread support 1919- 1922?

The external circumstances played a big role in support for Fascism as well, having just come out of the Great War Italian economy was wounded and the workers and ex soldiers bitter and tired, they had become in many ways disillusioned by the war and were by no means happy with the democratic government. It has been documented that in harsh time’s people tend to vote for the more extreme parties. Extreme circumstances = Extreme solution. In many ways Fascism was the only real option available at the time. In 1919 were unhappy with the democratic government and feared socialism and as a result had really nowhere else to turn. In this regard it is fair to say that many Italians were ‘tactical’ fascists. They harbored no real support for Fascism but simply took them as a source of action and the lesser of two evils. The danger of these supporters is of course the volatile nature of their support which meant that were socialism to no longer be a threat or were Fascism to become too violent and uncontrollable then a large percentage of supporters would be lost.

Mussolini of course could not keep everyone happy all the time, while in the beginning in 1919 he presented many pseudo socialist policies which appealed to the workers and ex  soldiers but over the course of the three years his policies changed dramatically which resulted in the loss of some groups over the years. This loss of some support became inevitable when he ‘seamlessly’ made the transition from strong Left wing to strong Right wing presenting dramatically opposed notions. While in 1919 and early 1920 Mussolini he was following a socialist line, by late 1920 and certainly by 1921 he was demonstrating very strong right wing views because he felt this would provide him with the most support. It is fair to say that Mussolini was in many ways key to the progression and acquisition of widespread support for Fascism from 1919-1922. In the 1919 elections Mussolini failed terribly holding only 2% of the votes with his socialist policies and so decided a change was needed and moved to the right were in 1922 Fascism gained 35 seats.

It should be recognized however that violence was a prominent factor in Mussolini’s rise to power. By 1922 the RAS was firmly under the command of Mussolini who used them to influence the Italian public successfully. Many people were afraid of the violence threatened by the Fascists and so supported him on the principle of fear, which again was a tenuous form of support but support nonetheless. On the flipside the violence also appealed to some Italians causing Fascism to gain support for that reason. Angry students were enticed by the promise of violence and were roped into supporting Fascism on this pretence.

The other major group of support for Fascism was the ‘real’ Fascists. These were the supporters whose allegiance was unlikely to change regardless of circumstances. It was those that really believed in Fascism and had supported it for the majority of its existence.  This group provided a solid basis of support for Fascism and prevented the candle from burning out.

Overall Fascism gained widespread support from 1919-1922 partly because of the circumstances and the lack of a better alternative; the government alienated the population and the population were afraid of the socialists leaving Fascism as the only force that could stop socialism and provide ‘action’ and the restoration of Italian glory. It was this combined with Mussolini’s charisma and keen journalistic abilities that kept Fascism alive and caused it to progress into a major contender for power which did inevitably seize control from the weak democracy in place.