Mussolini and TotalitarianismMolly Cros, Ryan Fernandez,

Natalie Viera

Totalitarianism ● Totalitarianism is a form of government that theoretically permits no individual

freedom, and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of the individual’s life to the

authority of the government.

● The leadership of such a state claims exclusive right to govern the country on

behalf of a party or an ideology.

● This leadership attempts, and ideally achieves, to permeate all aspects of daily life

through the establishment of controlling and restrictive mechanisms over social,

political, industrial, military, and economic matters.

● The decision-making process is highly centralized, as so is political control.

Totalitarianism● Opposition to the state is suppressed through the use of violence, and the

underlying basis for the state’s control is the subservience of the individual to the

state; this usually leads to and justifies the curtailing of fundamental liberal

freedoms.

● Totalitarianism also implies that the will, needs, and desires of the state and the

individual are one and the same, that there exists a certain level of popular

support for not merely tolerance of the state.

How Mussolini met the criteria● Mussolini’s Italy was dominated by one party, the Fascist party, which was led by

one leader, Mussolini.

● Opposition was suppressed, although torture and execution were uncommon;

Mussolini preferred either exiling dissidents to remote villages in the backward

countryside or transporting them to prisoner camps.

● Mussolini also had great powers over this party, almost to the extent that many

people would argue that the party had no part to play in the running of the

country, and it was all Mussolini and his ways. He decided that he wanted to run

the country himself, and that the party was no longer good for anything else than

doing his dirty work.

How Mussolini met the criteria ● Mussolini’s Italy had a terrorist police force and this police force was put to good

use by Mussolini. The secret police’s name was OVRA and they operated

independently of the regular police force, and on average had 20,000 actions to

deal with each week.

● Mussolini was a very good propagandist. He encouraged the Italian population

that he was the right man for the job in the first place, albeit through force as well,

but once he was in power, everything that Mussolini wanted the people to see

were the only things that people did see.He also had all all anti views and the

abolition of all opposition destroyed.

How Mussolini met the criteria● Things such as the art people were allowed to produce was carefully monitored,

and Mussolini would read every paper to check that there was no opinions within

it that should not be there. This also leads back to the idea of an official ideology

which was being rammed home into the minds of the Italian people, through the

mass media and communication, and helped the state to last under Mussolini’s

rule for as long as it did.

● Mussolini described the totalitarian state as, “All within the state, none outside

the state, none against the state.”

How Mussolini didn’t meet the criteria● The existence of alternative bodies that claimed citizens’ loyalty conflicts with the

idea of a totalitarian state, such as the church, the military, and the King

● The Church’s influence was not suppressed for fear of upsetting people, and

Mussolini had to keep the support of the King and military

● The King had the power to dismiss Mussolini

● The armed forces pledged their allegiance to the monarchy, not Mussolini

● Mussolini had to constantly try to keep the support of different groups, meaning

he didn’t have control of them

● Essentially, Mussolini’s rule was NOT totalitarian, but an attempt at it within the

confines of a power acquired lawfully

To What Extent Did Mussolini Impose a Totalitarian Regime on the Italian people?

Historical Interpretations

● M.Gall, in Mussolini’s Italy (1973), considers the regime to be “thoroughly fascist”

and to have profoundly infused everyday life so that “special supervision was the

fate...of all Italians.”

● However, historians studying totalitarian states in 1930’s Europe and setting

fascist Italy alongside Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union have usually

concluded that Mussolini’s regime was the least totalitarian of the three.

● In Modern Italy (1996), Martin Clark views the attempts of the Italian fascist

regime to control the lives of its citizens and is unimpressed by its efforts.

To What Extent Did Mussolini Impose a Totalitarian Regime on the Italian people?

Mussolini did to an extent impose a totalitarian regime on the italian people by

eliminating all legal ways for expressing disagreement like

● Physically preventing any of the opposition deputies who withdrew from the

Chamber in the Aventine Secession in 1924 (was the withdrawal of the Italian

Socialist Party from the Italian Chamber of Deputies following the murder of

Giacomo Matteotti)

● Closing down opposition newspapers or fascist supporters bought them

● Authorizing police in 1926 to banish undesirables to remote areas; opposition

party members being the main victims in this case

● Passing laws to close down both the opposition parties and non-fascist trade

unions

To What Extent Did Mussolini Impose a Totalitarian Regime on the Italian people?

Mussolini also imposed a totalitarian regime through legal basis with

● The new office of “head government” being created for Mussolini because he was no

longer accountable to parliament except the king alone

● The Grand Council of the Fascist Party was given state responsibility of approving the

list of candidates in parliamentary elections and to nominate Mussolini’s successor to

challenge any future monarchy

● A Law for the Defense of the State - anyone accused of political crimes would be tried by

the Special Tribunal operated according to military law

● The Fascist Party Statute which ensured that the party did not have an independent

existence outside Mussolini’s authority

● The Roco Law- required all labor relations to be controlled by fascist syndicates

The rapid introduction of these measures ended any hope of independent political challenge

To What Extent Did Mussolini Impose a Totalitarian Regime on the Italian people?

Other ways Mussolini imposed his totalitarian Regime was through

● Corporate State

● Propaganda

● Press Censorship

● Leisure and education

To What Extent Did Mussolini Impose a Totalitarian Regime on the Italian people?

However it is also argued that Italy was never under a fully totalitarian regime under

Mussolini because

● Mussolini was technically never all powerful because the King remained

● Did not completely control leisure time

● Old power structures remained intact

- No attempt to purge conservative classes

- Controlled labor, however, businesses were self- regulating

- No land reform

- Lateran Agreement establishing the Vatican as an independent state

● No ruthless police state

● Racial persecution established much later about alliance with Germany