Benito Mussolini A Totalitarian Analysis

Benito Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism and premier of Italy from 1922-43 and ruling as a dictator from about 1925. In 1919

Francisco Franco and other army leaders staged a coup and installed a right-wing fascist government, touching off a civil war between loyalist Republican forces (aided by Russia) and Franco's Fascist party (aided by Mussolini and Hitler).

Both of these political leaders took over and used the ideas of fascism as their type of government, the people gravitated towards them especially during times of need. To start, Benito Mussolini who was a newspaper editor and politician who pledged to rescue Italy during their time of desperate need. Fascism was on the rise in Italy, it was fueled by their disappointment and failure to win large territorial gains. People gravitated towards the new and vastly improving idea of Fascism. Italians wanted a leader who would take action and they found their answer in Benito Mussolini. Mussolini had vowed to provide strong leadership to the Italian people during this time. Mussolini had founded the Fascist Party in the year of 1919. When Italy’s economic problems continued to worsen, Mussolini’s power would considerably grow. Mussolini’s number one weapon during his rise to power was fear, he used the fear of people to take control over them. Soon thereafter, Mussolini and 30,000 of his Fascist supporters marched to Rome demanding the King step down and hand over his total power to Mussolini. The King gave in to their demands and gave Benito Mussolini full control over the Italian government. Mussolini became the Il Duce, or leader, and he made fascism the ruling political party in

Totalitarianism is a form of rule in which the government has complete or “total” control over society. In a totalitarian dictatorship, people do not have individual freedom, and the government controls every aspect of an individual’s life. In order to achieve this type of dominance over society the dictator instills fear into everyone which makes totalitarianism a cruel form of government.

Francisco Franco: Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish military leader and statesman who ruled as the dictator of Spain from 1936 until his death. He came to power during the Spanish Civil War while serving as the Generalísimo of the Nationalist faction.

A Totalitarian state is defined as a government that subordinates the individual to the state and strictly controls all aspects of life by coercive measures. A Totalitarian state aims to establish complete:

Benito Mussolini outlines several essential characteristics of his preferred political ideology, Fascism, in what has become known as the Doctrine of Fascism. In this paper, Mussolini outlines his vision of the ideology, and explains the major issues that Fascism will address once it becomes the leading political system in Italy. Mussolini’s major points as outlined in the Doctrine included an extreme emphasis on nationalism, organization and modernization of the state, persistent focus on religion, life as a struggle, and the notion that individuals exist only for the improvement of society as a whole. Wolfgang Schieder, after reviewing the Doctrine of Fascism, explains Mussolini’s success based on it and

Totalitarianism is defined as a political system of government in which those in power have complete control and do not allow people to oppose them. Those in power are a single party dictatorship in which one party controls state, and all other parties are forbidden. Other important features that distinguish or help define totalitarianism include restricted or eliminated constitutional rights, state terrorism, and totalitarian rulers are known as ideological dictators. The government of Oceania, in the novel 1984, is an example of totalitarian society. Germany, under Adolf Hitler’s National Socialism is another example of totalitarianism. Orwell’s Oceania has both similarities and differences to the totalitarian states of the twentieth

Mistrust in Mussolini’s Fatal Fascist Empire After the Italian unification (1858-1870) and World War One (1914-1918) Italy craved the great power reputation that other European nations had. Italy was in complete disarray: unemployment, peasant rebellions, and political tension; the one thing Italians agreed on was their need for a new government. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), or ‘Il Duce,’ was originally a poor revolutionary boy who rose through the ranks, creating a totalitarian government. After the March to Rome (October 1922), Mussolini was called by the king to discuss his ideas for a new government, one Mussolini called Fascism.

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever

In short, totalitarian means a political system that has complete control over all aspects of people's lives. The very same tome that I previously quoted from contains this definition of dictator: "Dictator

In 1939 he became friends with Hitler. And Hitler made it so that Italy had discrimination policies against Jews. In 1942 the United States made a plan to stop Benito and to take Italy out of the World War 2. Allied forced marched to the Italian peninsula. Mussolini was forced to resign and was arrested. Mussolini hoped if he moved his government northern he would influence people, but Allied forces stopped that. Mussolini and Claretta Petacci, his mistress, tried to escape to Switzerland but they were caught on April 27, 1945. They were executed the next day and their bodies were hung on display in a Milan plaza. People were happy he died. Benito decisions weren’t always good and that’s why he was

As a ruler Mussolini's love for italy made him their most favorable dictator. For example (by Britannica article), The new york times in 1923 quoted saying that, “Mussolini is a latin (Teddy) Roosevelt who first acts and then inquires if it's legal. He has been of great service to italy.” (magazine writer Isaac Marcosson). Many loved Mussolini his care for italy, he was described as a calm genuine person.He was a great learner in many things like war, leader and dictator and he never repeated the same thing twice, instead he improved and made italy better. he was always calm when being bombed because being paranoid caused chaos to his people. He was a great listener and cared for problems only to find the solution.

He could now do whatever he wanted and no one in Italy could block his decisions and laws. He used the powers to restore order. The use of Propaganda Mussolini and his fascist party used the propaganda as a tool for both attaining power and consolidating power. In public, Mussolini was shown as “Il Duce” (which is the Italian word for leader).

Generalissimo Francisco Franco came into power after his victory in the Civil war in 1939 and ruled over Spain till his death in 1975. In this 40-year period Spain was massive changed that causes much debate as to the political nature of Franco’s regime whether it is fascist or something different, Francoism. To understand if Franco’s regime was fascist, fascism must first be defined. There are many working definitions of a fascist regime, Stanley Payne’s states that the dictator must alien his regime to the idea of anti-isms, them being aintiliberalism, antidemocratic, anticonservatism, anticommunism and antidemocratic. Payne states these are fundamental in the description of a fascist regime. Another useful definition is Robert Griffin, stating that a fascist regime will use symbolism, violence to pursue its political aims, with the importance aimed at expansionism. Finally Griffin also states the need of the dictator to implement an authoritarian and totalitarian government. All these help to create a fascist regime and more importantly a truly fascist dictator. There is little doubt Franco holds to some of these definitions yet in later year the idea of Francosim becomes more viable however to understand if Franco was a truly fascist dictator we must look to the similarities and differences and determine by examining Franco’s rise politically his general style of government and finally his foreign policies it will determined whether Franco was a truly fascist dictator.