Who Really Ruled Italy In 1926-40? Essay, Research Paper

Who Really Ruled Italy in 1926-40?

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Mussolini is considered as one of the most important European dictators of the twenties

century. If he is a dictator he would be the absolute ruler of Italy, but a man can not

do everything himself. So how important were the other protagonists: the fascist party

and the establishment? Their strength would be measured in power.

Mussolini through his political situation was the most powerful man in Italy. He was

Prime Minister and held up to 8 ministries at once. The parliament had very restrained

powers, Mussolini decided and the parliament could only agree as the members all

belonged to Mussolini’s party. It was used as a security valve. He would give tasks to

the independent members such as Farinacci to keep them occupied and on is side. Even

if the members of the parliament and of the government were members of the fascist

party their influence and power was limited.

Not only was Mussolini the leader of the country he was also from 1926 the chairman of

the Fascist party. This meant that he had much more power over the party than he

had before when he was representing the party in the Government. Mussolini was also

able to appoint people whilst before for candidates to take posts the party had to vote

for them. Mussolini by being the chairman absorbed a main part of the fascist party

power. The symbiosis of the Mussolini’s power as Prime minister and as leader of the

Fascist party diminished the influence of all other powers.

Unlike Russia, the party did not take the state over. It was Mussolini who took over the

country and the fascist party almost followed him. Mussolini was chosen Prime Minister

and by his reforms he increased the importance of the Fascist political party. The party

was still Mussolini accessory.

Mussolini over-centralised Italy in Rome to limit the power and independence of the raj.

Mussolini acted like a 17th century king; he kept everyone under his eyes. Mussolini

wanted to be able to rule the whole of Italy from Rome. This increased his importance

in the towns of Italy. It was almost as if he was the mayor of each town.

The corporate State increased his control of the workers and employers. Mussolini was

aware that even if he had banned all trade unions strikes were possible. His solution

was to install twenty-two corporations, which acted as mediator between the workers,

who thought that this was in their favour, and the industrials. This seemed to have

saved Mussolini from major strikes, which could have been the end of his quite fragile

party. Mussolini even if he was the leader of the party he still needed it to keep him in

power. When he was forced to leave in 1941 it was not the fascist party that put him

back in power but the Nazi army.

The fascist party had many important roles in the Italian social life. Mussolini relied on

this party for the propaganda. Propaganda was and is very important in a dictatorship;

it had to create the illusion of a strong Italy. An example of the role of the fascist party

would be the numerous military displays. Organising the propaganda was in actual fact

quite easy since a strict censorship had been installed and Italy became more isolated.

The fascist party failed in understanding the need of a scapegoat.

The fascist party was also responsible for organising the fascist parallel powers, which

were the OVRA (secret fascist police) and its militia. With these two tools the fascist

party increased its’ role and also Mussolini’s dependence of the party. Mussolini would

rely on the party through the militia to keep him in place. But these organisations were

only parallel to the more independent police and army.

The fascist party organised the education and the indoctrination of the Italian youth.

This was important for the future of the fascist and Mussolini’s regime. The fascist

party decided of the programme, wrote out new textbooks to glorify Mussolini and the

fascist party and also obliged teachers to support Mussolini.

The fascist party even with the mild purges increased, it reached 2,5 million members.

The sheer size of the party greatened its influence but it also diluted its essence. It

also turned middle class because it was believed that a fascist party member would

have a pay or social situation increase. The Fascist Party was divided and breaches

appeared. As there were no other parties, some non-fascist politicians joined the

fascist party but still had their previous beliefs, and most of all they did not have the

same ambition for the party. This situation was in favour of Mussolini because a weaker

party meant that Mussolini would be stronger.

Constitutionally Mussolini was not the highest ranked person in Italy. The King

appointed him and could also appoint someone else. Of course this was not a real

threat to Mussolini since the royal family was supporting the fascist party, the royal

party had more a figurative role and it would be risky for a king to dismiss a poplar

prime minister specially if the prime minister had is militia.

The army and Police stayed independent even if the fascist party had infiltrated them.

Mussolini knew that they did not conflict with his power or rule. If anything the army

would be pleased to have a Prime Minister wanting to develop their profession. As

Mussolini’s propaganda made people believe that he has developed this army, they

would be more critical in case of a defeat. The police on the other hand was put in

competition with the militia. On the whole between the army police and Mussolini there

was more a relationship of complaisance.

The church wasn’t after the Lateran accords opposed to the fascist party. From then

on the Pope and the Catholic Church concentrated more on the religious than on the

politics. Mussolini managed to corrupt the Pope by handing back some land taken in the

Italian unification so that there could be a papal state and Mussolini also granted

indemnities for the land kept. After this agreement Mussolini was sure that the Catholic

Church, which was the religion of a vast majority of Italians, would no longer criticise

the fascist regime Also the Catholic Church was almost a political party, the last one to

not have been banned by the fascists. This is probably Mussolini’s greatest

accomplishment. He managed to calm down the opposition of the only institution he

could not destroy.

Mussolini’s ambition was to make Italy an autarky. His failure meant that Italy suffered

the 1929 crisis in a much more dramatical way than a country, which had almost

reached total autarky like Russia. Mussolini then couldn’t rule Italy as he wanted he had

to rule accordingly to Italian economy influenced by the world’s economy. Mussolini

from 1935 was also relying on Hitler for coal, steel and petrol. Hitler’s importance in the

Italian political life increase and reached its apex in 1942 when he was maintaining

Mussolini in power and dictating to the dictator what he should do.

The Mafia had strong influence in the south; it almost ruled it. Even if Mussolini did a lot

to destroy this organisation it still existed under cover. The Mafia did not accompany

Mussolini and the fascist party’s power but it replaced it. Indeed the south of Italy

remained mainly in rural area independent of Fascist influence. This independence was

nevertheless unimportant because the southern part of Italy was poor, lightly

populated and not industrialised. Mussolini neglected the south in his efforts to

dynamise the industry and economy of the country.

We can say that Mussolini had ultimate power but not absolute power. He really ruled

Italy from 1926-37 when Hitler’s influence was increasingly important. Mussolini never

had the power of Hitler or Stalin. His strength is only in comparison with the other weak

political parties in Italy. One could almost say that he is only a violent Prime Minister

who didn’t respect the democratic rules.