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Nature of the Fascist state in Italy - Coggle Diagram
Nature of the Fascist state in Italy
Totalitarian state
Mussolini wanted his dictatorship independent from the Fascist Party and the ras => Regime after 1925 was a personal rather than a Fascist Party dictatorship
Mussolini played of the divisive factions within the PNF against each other + remove loyal fascist member from the party and replace them with liberals to establish HIS OWN base of loyal support not to the FASCIST PARTY
Less fascist presence in Italian society => Taming the Fascist Party to be more loyal and supportive of Mussolini
Made no attempt to 'fascistise' the system of the government, deliberately restricted the influence of the PNF by appointing tradition conservative elite to maintain law and order (1927 - 27% of members of the civil service were fascists)
The chief police was another position held by career politicians rather than fascists
Prefects' power greatly increased after the abolishment of local council => usually chose 'respectable' landowners or former army officers to be mayors in provinces rather than local fascists
Prefects and the podesta set about stamping out squadrismo. Jan 1927 - Mussolini instructed all Italians including fascists offer prefects total obedience
1930s - civil servants often proclaimed loyalty to Fascist Party only to retain their jobs
Turati purged the PNF of more militant fascists and opened up membership for those who only wanted to further their career (membership rose from 640k to 940k in 1 year)
Most of the new members came from local elites that had previously supported or belonged to the liberals
=> Very few "Fascists of the First Hours" - over 100 000 members left disgusted by the dilution of fascism in their very own party
Gradual weakening of the PNF was due in part to internal divisions and disunity which had existed since its foundation
Thurlow - there were at least 5 factions within the party (militant ras who wanted a second wave of fascist revolution to replace the state institutions with fascist ones >< left fascist who wanted to establish a corporativist or national syndicalist, state
No widespread terror or use of violence
Historiography
Historian Renzo de Felice said that Mussolini enjoyed a basis of content from the people
Blinkhorn - The existence of autonomous, conservative interests - monarchy, industry, armed forces and Church made the regime less fascist and less totalitarian in scope that it claimed to be and that outward appearance suggested
Tannenbaum - Mussolini could not rule alone and the Fascist Party was of little help to him in running the country. The civil service, the courts, the armed forces and the police remained in the hands of career officials who commitment to Fascism was usually nominal
Payne - The new system was a personal dictatorship under Mussolini, yet still legally a monarchy ... the basic legal and administrative apparatus of the Italian government remained intact. There was no 'Fascist revolution' save at the top.
Individual freedom were suppressed
Mussolini frequently intervened in legal cases and imprisonment without trial was common
Mussolini instigated purge of the judiciary + sacked many judges for lack of loyalty and being on an overly independent line
April 1926 - Alfredo Rocco's law made all strikes illegal even those by Fascist syndicates - and declared that industrial disputes must be settled in special labour courts
All organisation under state control
Vidoni Palace Pact (Oct 1925) - the Confindustria and the Confederation of Fascist Syndicates were the only organisation allowed to represent employers and employees
Workers could not challenge the authority of employers and managers
All workers' factory councils were closed down and non-fascist trade unions were abolished
April 1926 - Alfredo Locco's law - there could only be one organisation (a fascist syndicate) of workers and employers in each brand of industry
The corporate state
A 'third way' between capitalism and communism
Aim - replace the politics of traditional parliamentary democracy with that of corporations representing the nation's various economic sectors with equal representation for employers and employees => overcome class conflict => avoiding strikes + labour disputes with elements of increased state control
Increasing power of the Corporates
March 1929 election - Fascist Grand Council drafted 1000 names to be voted => with use of "persuasion", the votes turned out 98.3% of voting in favour of the list presented
Weakened Fascist syndicates => 1928 - Fascist Syndicates was abolished
1929 - Bottai took over as Minister of Corporations and set up the National Council of Coperations (NCC) in March 1930 => Number of corporations grew to 22 by 1934
July 1926 - established Ministry of Corporations each corporation made up of representative of employers and workers of the same economic or industrial sectors
1938 - Abolished Chamber of Deputies replaced by Chamber of Fasci and Corporations => give more credibility to the corporate state
Historian interpretation - (Renzo de Felice + Emilio Gentile) tended to examine the nature of the Italian Fascist state as a corporate state >< others more skeptical, considering the ideology surrounding the corporate state = incoherent and its declared achievements mainly unfounded propaganda claims
In reality - had little susbtance or power was dominated from above
Was Mussolini a strong dictator?
Mussolini had to share power with the nations groups that had been in power in Italy before 1922 (monarchy, Catholic Church, civil service and the courts, industrial and financial elites + their organisation)
Evidence - After other fascist leaders began moving against Mussolini, it was the king that ordered his arrest on 25 July 1943 =>
ending Mussolini's attempt to create a completely totalitarian state (largely unsuccessful)