Mussolini the Totalitarian?

A very well recognised attempt at creating a checklist for a totalitarian state was by Fredrich and Brezinski, but it must be noted that this checklist was created during the time of the cold war in the USA and was a away of linking communism to fascism and to nazism. They also point out, subsequent to their checklist, that it is a twentieth century phenomenon made possible owing to ideological manipulation of the population through the mass media. This essay will be structured around there original checklist. But it must also be noted that the checklist leaves out one very important, and recognised point, which is that totalitarianism is an all embracing nature and one which has complete control over society.

The first point on the checklist is the idea of an official ideology enjoying an almost religious state of infallibility, and Fascism was most certainly an official ideology, but whether it was infallible is another matter..

Mussolini’s Italy was dominated by one party, the Fascist party, which was led by one leader, Mussolini. This part of the idea of Mussolini’s state being totalitarian can be almost definite in the answer that yes, Mussolini on this point did have a totalitarian state, if it was just down to that party. All opposition were wiped out and disposed of, which left only the fascists to rule and compete for the country. 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 what he asked of them, his dirty work if you will. This is a very good example of a part of Italy that was very much a totalitarian section, in that there was total control for the Fascists, and total control for Mussolini over the country and the Fascist party, due to the fascist party.

Mussolini’s Italy had a terrorist police force, another point of Fredrich and Brezinski’s, 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! There was a vast network of informants and agents all over Italy so the secret police could know what was going on everywhere in the country all of the time, and as the historian Morgan said: “Police harassment and surveillance became habitual and continuos, affecting even the most mundane areas of life, especially in the working class areas of life.” This shows Mussolini’s worries about his country and the population, especially the working class, and the need for the secret police was apart for the totalitarian state which many people agree he set up. This is another point which can be ticked off for Mussolini’s Italy on the checklist, and another step towards deciding whether or not the country at that time was a totalitarian state.

Possibly the most important point on the list is the idea of total control of all types of the media and mass communication meaning that only pure ideological and reliable views could be expressed.

Mussolini’s Italy and the fascists had the backing of the army and the monopoly of the weapons of armed conflict, giving them alone the capacity to use force. As well as this, there was of course the secret police, but due to there control of the army, the fascists rarely received any backlashes or uprisings other than very small ones. Many people were just too scared to stand up to the Fascists and say what they really felt, because of the control of the army by the Fascists. The use of the army during the Abyssinian and Spanish wars showed the control Mussolini did have over the forces, and the willingness he had to use them. His late entry to the second world war was not due to the reluctance of the army, rather due to the reluctance of Mussolini as he felt the country was not ready for it. Due to this, we can assume that the army was at Mussolini’s personal disposal, and that again is another important factor in the checklist of Fredrich and Brezinski.

Mussolini seemed to have control over the economic life of the country. The main way he did this was through his corporate state, the third way, taking the benefits of capitalism and socialism while missing out their weaknesses at the same time. The main ideas behind this was to bring together the workers and the employers and get them to work for the good of the country, the revolutionary idea of syndicalism where syndicates would decide production to produce a fairer society, employers seeing corporations as a way to control workers and so control their jobs and Mussolini wanting to buttress his regime and gain international recognition and respect and provide office jobs for his supporters. There were problems with the system however, in that the representation of the employers and workers was uneven, with the employers representing themselves, but the workers being represented by fascist party members. Mussolini was the real power in the whole thing, the syndicates just did the talking, while Mussolini made up all the important ideas and set them in motion. It just turned out to be a facade and a joke in the end, and did not really go any way in the direction that the state and Mussolini wished it to go, and rather than gaining respect from around the world, it received snide remarks and hilarity. This was not Mussolini’s best idea and was not the one which he pulled off the best either. In this sense, it is pretty safe to say that Mussolini and the Fascists did not have complete control over all aspects of the economics lives within the country, rather they thought they did and hoped they did.

One very important point the checklist leaves out is the overall embracing nature of the fascist ideology. It drew people into its cause, and once there they were content to stay there. The way that Mussolini managed to get the youth on his side through his youth movements etc. and the awards etc. for women that he bought in all contributed towards the success of the regime. Everyone wants to feel a part of the regime and this led to the extraordinary following that Mussolini built up, almost surmounting to the whole population, and which made him the most successful and important ruler that Italy has and had seen for a long time, possibly of all time.

Mussolini made great claims for the dramatic changes that had taken place in Italy. He claimed to have replaced a failed system with a new, vigorous Italy, organised in a totalitarian state. This implies that fascism had a great impact, to the point of making the state totalitarian. Mussolini was the first major politician to use the term and in 1925 he spoke of Italy as “everything within the state, nothing outside the state; everything for the state.” An in 1941 he defined it thus “The fascist conception of the state is all-embracing; outside it is no human or spiritual value may exist, much less have any value. Thus understood fascism is totalitarian.” Total state control of all aspects of a country is perhaps impossible to achieve, but Mussolini gave it a damn good attempt. He managed to capture the hearts and minds of the Italian people, he had control over the countries youth and the education of the future population, he controlled the mass media and communication networks and infiltrated them with his propaganda to achieve what he wished, his party and himself dominated the country and there was little to no opposition, he set up his own secret, terrorist police force and used it to good effect, he had control of the army and all the weapons etc. associated with it, and he had the embracing nature of his ideology to thank for the success he did have.