The origins of Fascism
Fascism arose in Italy due to the imbalances
caused by the Great War, in a relatively
young, undeveloped and divided nation. The
liberal ruling class revealed themselves to be
inadequate for the dynamics of the twentieth-
century policy becoming divided owing to
their choices of intervention and incapable of
overseeing the post-war tension.
The traditional opposition parties, despite
having achieved an important electoral success,
remained internally divided. Especially the
Socialists, who faced three divisions between
1921 and 1923, spread a revolutionary rhetoric
that increased the fears of the middle classes.
Also decisive was the king’s decision to refrain
from using violence against the rising Fascism.
The conquest of power
On the 23rd March 1919 the Fascist movement
was founded in San Sepolcro Square in Milan;
three years later the PNF members, the first
party of the country, were 322,000. This
sudden rise was because of two factors. First,
the vicious use of violence by the squads
especially in Val Padana where the landowners
were armed against the red and white leagues.
Then, there was Mussolini’s ability to exploit
the frustrations and fears, which permeated
Italian society that had just come out of the
war.
The authoritarian turn
Within two years, the press and strike freedoms
were banned. All of the oppositions were
declared outlaw. Administrative elections were
abolished and political ones were transformed
into the Fascist referendums (in 1939, this last
apparent form of democracy was liquidated).
Fascism used repressive methods and applied
new ones, such as the Special Court for the
State Security and the Secret Police (OVRA).
The National Corps cohesion was also fuelled
by identification, stigmatisation and repression
of enemies who threatened its homogeneity
from the inside, for example anti-Fascist and
antisocial groups, half-castes
and finally, Jews.
Reasons and limits of consent
Modern dictatorships combined the use of
violence with ideological persuasion and
forced mobilization. Consequently, Fascism
concerned itself with involving and organizing
the population. It did this through new means
of communication, particularly through the
cinema and the radio and with the social
classification into mass organisations, such as
ONMI, ONB, OND. Above all, it built a political
religion, whose centre was the myth of the
Duce.
”[Mussolini] presents himself as the monolith. An
entire piece: if this piece is in a room, the room
seems to go around it; if this piece is among the
population, the population surrounds it, organises
itself as a pyramid and spontaneously accepts
this piece as the vertex.’’ (Vitaliano Brancati)
After the signing of the Lateran Treaty in 1929,
which was the start of the corporate system
and the “Empire conquest”, the regime reached
its height of consent, but the easy victories in
Africa, Spain and Albania fuelled remarkable
illusions. The German approach had heavy
consequences:
in 1938, the Racist Laws were
released, then in 1940, “the time of irrevocable
decisions” had arrived.
