The Role of Control and Propaganda in Mussolini’s Reign and Their Importance

The war created many social and political problems throughout the country and by the election of 1919 things changed dramatically. The socialists and popular Catholic parties took over the Parliament, which lead to the ideas of a revolution among the people (Defusco). One leader of this revolution was Benito Mussolini, who founded a movement called Fascism. After four years of revolution, Mussolini took over as the dictator of Italy and eliminated civil liberties, political parties, and encouraged a totalitarian regime (Defusco). Mussolini soon joined forces with Hitler and World War II came into affect. The Fascists later turned on Mussolini and Italy joined the Allies to fight Germany. This reaction lead to a strong anti-Fascist movement called the Committee of National Liberation (Defusco). By the year 1946 the idea for a republic was anonymous. Various parties were

Italian Fascism is an authoritarian and nationalistic system of government and social organization, it was the political result of the relationship between socialist and nationalist rhetoric. It is a form of governance which employs intolerant views and practices, advocating traditionalism, interventionism and sameness rather than individualism. In order to promote their totalitarian ideals during the 1930s to 1945 fascist politicians such as Benito Mussolini, who had previously been a socialist newspaper editor, employed propaganda that included virtually all modes of media: the press, posters and film. The widespread dissemination of totalitarian ideals infiltrated into the school system where young Italians born from 1910 to 1935 were taught to “obey and fight.” The purpose of this paper is to analyse the diffusion of the Italian Identity through fascist propaganda from 1922-1943 and the identity that was diffused as a result of the exploitation of Mussolini’s various propaganda mediums. Did fascist propaganda contribute to the diffusion of an Italian identity? If so, what identity was diffused?

During the Second World War, Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was the leader of the Italian Nationalist Fascist government. He was head of the Italian government from 1922 till 1943. The significance of Mussolini is that he played a key role acting as the Italian Prime Minister and established a totalitarian regime, during this time, as the unchallenged supreme leader, known as ‘Il Duce’. Fascism consisted of many contributors of which Mussolini with all his quirks was the key to most of its failures and successes, making him the most significant player that is worthy of being investigated. This topic is worthy of being investigated as Mussolini made a lot of decisions that lead to the death of many, but the question as to

• In 1922 Mussolini became prime minister of Italy. He outlawed all political parties and established a secret police that could arrest anyone for political or nonpolitical

Within Italy, The Great War caused many problems and a great amount of distress. As a result of this, hundreds of new fascist groups started to emerge. In October 1922, Benito Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy and contributed a lot to the nation. He developed his power by forming the Fascist National Party in 1923 and eliminating political opposition. Mussolini and his followers ruled Italy through an authoritarian dictatorship. He made it clear that the war was a turning point for Italy and the returning of combat soldiers would form a new elite and bring about a new type of state to transform Italian politics and society. Mussolini set many

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

Benito Mussolini: Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country from 1922 to his ousting in 1943. In 1926 Mussolini seized total power as dictator and ruled Italy as Il Duce from 1930 to 1943.

He won over the people of Italy using the same techniques and imagery that Hitler used in his homeland. The fascist ideas, and idea of an ultimate Italian empire, appealed to Mussolini, and he would stop at nothing to gain power.

Mussolini consolidation of fascist power in Italy in the years 1922-1929 could have been mainly due to the use of force and intimidation. However this was not a straightforward process, since fascism was a new thing. In the years 1922 to January 1925 marked the transition from the liberal parliamentary system to the fascist state. Like many political transitions, it was an untidy and complicated process. Although from the start Mussolini’s intentions were quite difficult to establish, however it could be that Mussolini wanted to set up from the beginning a totalitarian one party state.

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

     In October of 1922 Mussolini was named the premier. He used his militia to purge local governments of any opposition to Fascism. Under

The economic instability of Europe developed totalitarian goverments that began rising during the depression in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Germany, Italy, and Japan all became countries subjected to the rule of dictated military rule leaving no room for opposition. Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922 (Calvocoressi, Wint, p 777, 1999). Mussolini had his own philosophy that his destiny was to rule over Italy as Caesar in a more modern version while re-creating the Roman Empire. In his attempts in

The Fascists’ social and economic policies up to 1939 significantly aided their control over Italy yet may not be cited as the sole cause. The Fascist party’s social and economic policies along with other factors attributed to the overall control of Italy. Through such policies it was a certainty that the Fascist party would hold complete power over the population of Italy in each aspect of an individual’s life whether it was their leisure time through the Dopolavoro or at work under the corporate state system which was formally introduced in 1934. This complete domination of the Italian peoples’ lives could be argued to have been the instrumental factor behind the Fascists’ control over Italy up to 1939. Other factors which assisted the

Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister in 1922 due to the depriving affects that world war one had on Italian society. The war destroyed Italy economically leading to a rise in socialism. This in turn lead to highlighting the weaknesses of the liberals as the country was torn apart in the red years. This strengthened the appeal of fascism as it was the cure that Italy needed to get rid of the socialists. The fascists needed only to organise their party and take advantage of the open opportunity to seize power in Rome.

Mussolini and the fascists managed to rise to power and take control of Italy in 1922. Mussolini’s rise to power took place mainly due to a combination of conditions that characterized the liberal Italian state, which existed before his take over. The main factors that led to Mussolini’s rise to power were the impact of the First World War, the weaknesses of the Risorgimento, the Biennio Rosso , the elite’s support for the Fascist Party, and the March on Rome. All of these factors contributed to Mussolini and the fascist’s rise to power.