How Fascist was Fascist Italy?

International Baccalaureate History

Daniel Longo

History 11th HL

Ms. McPhilemy

How Fascist was Fascist Italy?

Mussolini defined his reign as “Fascist”, a party which not only has all power over the state, but is also characterized by the fact that only one man has power over the party, and consecutively, of the state. The belief of Fascist supporters is that a state can flourish and stay strong as long as the leadership is strong. Weather or not Mussolini remained faithful to the principle of “Fascism” throughout his power is a much discussed matter which historians have addressed heavily.

To state weather or not Fascist Italy was really Fascist, we are required to take into consideration Mussolini’s policies and ruling methods. During Mussolini’s reign, he realized that he needed the support of the church in order to be a successful ruler; his method of obtaining the catholic’s support was achieved by granting land to the Vatican state, thus showing his support towards the religious group and urging the Vatican to give his support to the rising Dictator. From an Extreme fascist point of view, this move is considered to be wrong, as, if he were to follow the Fascist ideal, the correct response to such issue would have been much simpler: eliminate the church.

The ‘Corporate state’ is a straight forward example in proof of Mussolini’s manipulation of Fascism. ‘Il Duce’ himself believed that there was a ‘third way’, this consisted in his interpretation of a state which finds itself between capitalism and communism; Mussolini claimed that his ‘third way’ had the best of both ideologies, creating a powerful and stable state. Mussolini’s Corporate State had the objective of eliminating the traditional class system were society was divided into working class, middle class ecc. The goal Mussolini wanted to reach through the ‘third way’ was the creation of a vertical economy, were the employers ...

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The ‘Corporate state’ is a straight forward example in proof of Mussolini’s manipulation of Fascism. ‘Il Duce’ himself believed that there was a ‘third way’, this consisted in his interpretation of a state which finds itself between capitalism and communism; Mussolini claimed that his ‘third way’ had the best of both ideologies, creating a powerful and stable state. Mussolini’s Corporate State had the objective of eliminating the traditional class system were society was divided into working class, middle class ecc. The goal Mussolini wanted to reach through the ‘third way’ was the creation of a vertical economy, were the employers and the employes had a peaceful relationship. The outcome of such ideology was that workers had less liberties and bosses were supported by the state, suppressing class conflict but not solving class conflict.

One of the many ways Mussolini gained the support of italian people was by creating the Cult of Ducismo. This ideology shows to be very similar to Hitler’s idea of ‘Fuhrer’. The word ‘Duce’ is translated to ‘guide’ and ‘leader’. Such cult satisfied Mussolini’s belief that Italy needed a strong leader to guide the nation and make it flourish. This instated a strong respect and esteem towards the leader as he was seen as the man who was going to guide italy out of the crisis and into a period of happiness. Such policy was only successful to a certain extent, as the leader still had opposition groups against him.

Italy was a constitutional monarchy, and remained as such after Mussolini took power over the state, this means that Italy could never be a fully fascist state; if fact, Mussolini never created a fascist state, the majority of the ministers were not even changed.

Mussolini’s aim of creating a self-sufficient state was never reached, his major attempt to create an autarkic state was the battle for grain, which consisted in the massive increase of production and required the drainage of wet grounds, however, this policy was not successful, causing italy not to be a proper Fascist State.