Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini - Term Paper Example

?How was Mussolini able to take advantage of the social conditions that existed in Italy in order to attain power? Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian political thinker and leader who chose a middle path between the extremes of communism and socialism on the one side and capitalism on the other side; in-between he treaded on the path of Fascism. He was a prominent political figure of early nineteenth century Italy and Europe who paved the road towards Fascism.1 Mussolini, the 40th Prime Minister of Italy, took advantage of the social conditions in Italy to attain the seat of political power by changing his ideals with the passing of times, by making new in-roads to political ideology. He was called by the title of II Duce by 1925 and after 1936 his official title was “His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of the Empire.” He was also the top rank of military, First Marshal of the Empire besides the King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, created by Mussolini himself, which offered him as well as the King joint highest control over the military of Italy. 1 Although initially Mussolini denounced war by writing in an article named “Down with the war. We remain neutral” but he found an opportunity in war for himself, his political ambitions and those of his countrymen. Mussolini was impressed by anti-Austrian Italian nationalist feelings thinking that the war could liberate Italians in 1 Austria-Hungary from the rule of Habsburgs. He raised his voice supporting socialists to win over the autocratic rulers in Germany and Austria-Hungary who were against socialism as per Mussolini. 2 A discussion on Mussolini is incomplete without analyzing the ideology he was committed to. Fascism and Mussolini seem to be the two sides of the same coin. Fascism was like a big river with a number of tributaries assimilating such as Nationalism, Futurism, and Syndicalism. Other than being a practical experiment in government, fascism inculcated a theory and a philosophy, and to an extent an art, a mysticism and a religion. As announced Mussolini, “Fascism has a doctrine, or, if you will, a philosophy with regard to all the questions which beset the human mind today,” adding further, “We play upon every chord of the lyre, from violence to religion, from art to politics.” 3 The start of fascism was not grand as Mussolini himself formed the first Fascio di Combattimento in March, 1919, which erupted in the coming into being of the National Fascist party in November, 1921. The sensational march on Rome, which positioned the party safely in power, happened on 22 October. Fascism took a defensive posture with the murder of Matteotti in May1924 but from which it emerged strong. It has not since then seen backward; it went ahead with its creative program resulting in the great Labor Charter of April 1927, the most happening thing. 3 The inner reality of fascism did not match with the outward projections, as proletarian changed to bourgeois, and radical changed to conservative. Sedition turned to loyalty; left changed to right. The only thing that did not change was Mussolini. That’s why Mussolini has been blamed by opponents of being the arch-turncoat of history. He outsmarted all others in his cheating to attain popular liberty. No one can deny that at one point of time Mussolini was a socialist, a republican, an atheist who overturned government but later became averse to all these. Mussolini once stood against all that was constitutional turned to become Authority incarnate. Even he rid himself off from pacifism and feminism. Such volte-face was Mussolini. It is said that overambitious nature of Mussolini was responsible for the ever-changing attire of thought leadership that Mussolini went on acquiring and relieving with. Supporters of Mussolini saw in him a political personality rich in creative thoughts that directed the course of happenings. Taking a decision in favor or against this blame on Mussolini making volte-face on ideologies without analyzing the events judiciously would be partiality. Agreeing with the verdict even from judicious historical perspective is a risky proposition. 3 Mussolini has himself given some hints of the impressions that enriched his viewpoints and perspective on life. These hints have been ignored by his biographers and writers on fascism. In the face of the distinct and multi-facet personality of Mussolini and the sequence of events, ideas seemed feeble and insignificant. Like Napoleon, Mussolini always showed his hatred for ideologies. He disliked abstract thinking. He delegated the theorizing work of fascism on his ministers who formed principles on the subject of fascism but Mussolini was very fast on receiving intelligence by practicing wit and will. He was an expert adapter ands assimilator of ideas that suited him. The great thinkers of his time who impressed him were three foreigners, Nietzsche, William James, and Georges Sorel, and one was his countryman named Machiavelli besides two others, Pareto and Oriani. In the different phases of his life time, he remained under the impression of one or the other thinker of his time. 3 Let’s analyze the social conditions which put the whole of the Europe in turmoil. After the World War, conditions further aggravated the social order. Italy became a center of incongruities. Government was managed by alternative ambitions, changing rapidly by undoing the previous ideals affecting reform. The two phases were prevailing; one belonged to socialistic and communistic viewpoint getting support from industry and agriculture while the second was Fascism. War strengthened the government’s position but only till 1919 when situation started worsening. Communism was on the surge everywhere while the government remained silent spectator. D'Annunzio's occupation of Fiume inflamed into international crisis. Only south remained adamant. By 1920 Giolitti had replaced Nitti as premier and was replaced by Bonomi in 1921. 4 No agreement could be reached between the warring parties including communists, socialists and fascists to control violence, which was finally signed on August 3, 1921. The first phase of violence under Giolitti was all disorganization in social order; people attacked and captured estates. Metal workers stopped working and captured plants while the government was involved in maintaining diplomatic relations with rioters. Socialism was capturing the attention of the masses because of the Russian example, closely linked to communism; soon after factories and stores were captured. 3The popularists led by Luigi Sturzo got a good chunk of seats in the assembly. Trade unions also became powerful with the joining by returned soldiers, presenting their stake to control the nation. Amidst all disorder appeared Fascism from the alliance of syndicates and nationalists. Mussolini got many votes from the Milan electorate during the elections. Fascism got momentum in a year by establishing the Fascist party. After the march on Rome in October 1922, Mussolini was appointed premier by the King on October 29. 4 Rene Albrecht-Carrie has analyzed the historical events in Italy before the start of the Second World War. The issue was related to finding a solution between freedom and organization through the example of Italy. Through selective events the phenomena of Fascism was attempted not as inevitable but because it was 'logical,' 'natural,' and ‘understandable,’ under the prevailing conditions. The treatment of the subject does not seem natural; Mussolini’s internal politics is overly generalized although the book throws sufficient light on his foreign policy in the matrix of European power game. 5 Two questions were crucial for the rulers in Italy; one was related to politics while the other had socio-economic aspect. Italy participated in the war without getting approval from its working class. Even Lenin agreed that Italian Social Party’s disagreement as well as industry response to shifting of labor could be a cause of great dissatisfaction. Involvement of the forces and fulfilling their war-time demands was paramount but happened at the cost of neglecting industry needs for man power to support war by producing war stock. 6 Not finding the support of the Socialist Party, the government passed the IM Regolamento, a harsh step to interfere in the labor market and the labor discipline. The case of Italy was different from other European countries in that it required defining the types of application of past principles not coming up to the mark in the new changes implemented by the war, which was already tested it to be successful in the matter of labor force mobility in Italy. After the war, the organization was discarded although Dallolio had great plans to implement it on a larger scale in the industry but with his resignation in April 1918, it came to an abrupt dismissal. Further initiatives were taken by Ettore Conti, to return to the laissez-faire pattern and loosen the limits put by an 'entrepreneurial' state, managing economic affairs inefficiently but all changed with the coming of Fascism with Mussolini leading the way for change. 6 For Mussolini, what mattered more than anything was rising to the top rank irrespective of the movement. As getting to the senior most rank depended not on length of service in a revolutionary party but on the merit basis, therefore in 1919 he came in way of the formation of the groups named “fascisti of 1919”. Showing his allegiance to the Western capitalism while writing in the Popolo, he remarked favorably on the capitalist concepts of personal freedom, which cannot be crushed by any dictatorship. 4 Mussolini further wrote that the promise of socialism held by the Russians would take the masses back to the barbarian times. The sudden change in his approach was a pretend so that later on it does not question his allegiance to the “claims” of fascism, the attempt of which was made at Florence. Thus, in the face of rising communism, Mussolini preferred to remain with the conservative instincts, criticizing socialism as the model, “nothing but a revival of the barbarianism of the eleventh century”. 7 Mussolini never remained stuck with one thought; he kept on changing with the times, as he changed the sub title of the Popolo from “Socialist Daily,” to the “Journal of the Fighters and the Producers.” War necessitated in Mussolini a changeover from Socialist outlook to the hard reality of Italy. Mussolini took note of the happening in Russia, which were not turning to the ideal of socialism; Lenin also admitted this fact that there was no economic basis to the Socialist Republic was not existent till then. Mussolini keenly studied the trends turning to capitalism in coming decades. Amidst opposition he declared, “It will last! It will last! It has lasted some time already!” Mussolini believed that a temporary break in freedom would serve the cause of the nation. Mussolini took the cause of proving communism an illusion through all possible means. To sum up, Fascism was a reaction to control the expansion of Bolshevism. 7 Stanley Payne in his book, “A History of Fascism, 1914-1945,” has assimilated historiography with political ideology to help in the analysis of generic fascism. He has elaborated the concept of fascism along with developing the history of individual aspects. 5 Fascism has been projected as an ideology of action rather than philosophy, Paxton’s research on fascism defines it as a 'static picture of something better perceived in movement' (p. I4) and misses on how fascism came to power. He has analyzed fascism as a cocept in five stages: i) the creation of movements; 2) their embedding in the political system; 3) the capture of power; 4) the use of power; and 5) the longer term in which fascism either revolutionizes or dies uncertain death. Most of the fascist movements entered only the first stage as it happened in Italy through election and the opportunity of coming to power by Mussolini by remaining away from the changing rhetoric of the movement for a wider audience and future coalitions. Mussolini had to reject the anti-capitalist rhetoric in the initial stage to cater to the business class interests and conservative party leaders. Success for Mussolini remained in his ability to change the fascism such way that all parties get attracted to its ideology. 9 According to Paxton, the liberal and conservative politicians helped Mussolini attain power. ‘One of the most important preconditions', he argued, 'was a faltering liberal order. Fascism grew from the back rooms to the public arena most easily where the existing government functioned badly or not at all’ (p. 77). The chances of communist 6revolution in this context were very bright in 1921 in Italy. The movement got momentum because of the inefficiency of the government to resolve such issues as the effect of Great Depression. The fascist Italy was the result of taking a middle way to attain power although there was no total support of the masses because of division in the views of radicals and conservative party men. 9 Mussolini, an earlier atheist and republican had to compromise with the Church and monarchy to finally taking the road to war for Fascists. Had there been no war, it could have not been possible for fascism to succeed; fascism never saw the dream of abolishing right to property but it was bound to abolish social hierarchy based on elite class divisions. Any ways, traditional conservatives would have shown uneasiness on this issue of abolishing class hierarchy. Success in the war would have established the superiority of the ‘New Man’ and traditional elites overall. Fascist extremism would have become well rooted in Italy had the Third Reich and its allies won the Second World War. 9 Although Paxton has discussed the fascist movement in its historical and political context, telling about the decisions made by fascist leaders when in power, it has avoided discussion on the ideological roots of fascism. Common features of fascism and communism are absent because to him fascism relied on superiority of the master race while communism desired ‘universal equality. 9 A big changeover in Mussolini vision occurred after the World War I. He found a relation between the past Rome and the present in the socialist attire. He often quoted the example of the downfall of the Roman Empire in negative connotations but when gaining power Mussolini referred to Rome as symbol of national spirit and growth. Mussolini became popular when Vatican recognized Italy as a state. He started projecting Rome a safe place for the flourishing of Christianity. Mussolini agreed in words on Rome’s Mediterranean mission and fate during the Ethiopian campaign in 1935 coming to the front in Fascist classicism but he never made classical antiquity a part of his public speeches except once when Mussolini made a reference to classical antiquity in the context of racialism. Racial laws were formed to ban Jews from the public life of Italy. He accused Romans of antiquity as highly racial and the big question of the great struggle for Roman Republic was to know whether it could peacefully coexist with other races. (O.O. 29:190) It was a time when having no control over circumstances with the decision to participate in Second World War; he could not come out of his own myth of unerring Duce. He made attempts to keep the people of Italy on his side by referring to Roman tragedies. He gave the example of Punic Wars when he saw the end approaching: “Think of the Punic Wars. Cannae seems to crush Rome. …at Zama, Rome destroys Carthage, and removes it from geography and history, forever” (O.O. 30:54-55). Did Mussolini know the fate of Carthage would be, in a future that was drawing nearer, that of his Fascist Italy? 10 Mussolini’s foreign policy also saw a change in perception in January 1921 he referred to 7it as a “peaceful expansionism” (O.O. 16:102), which changed within two months with radical and extremist overtones: “The foreign policy program of Fascism is in one word: expansionism. . . . Wherever the interests of humankind are at stake, Italy has to be present. It's also time to quit living off the glories of the past. Finally we have to live, fight, and work for the great future” (O.O. 16:300). There was no mention of the word “peaceful”; future has got significance later to be shared with such words as humankind and humanness. 10 To Mussolini, liberalism was not the end of the road, as he learnt from the post-war experience “…To-day the most striking of post-war experiences, those that are taking place before our eyes, are marked by the defeat of Liberalism. Events in Russia and in Italy demonstrate the possibility of governing altogether outside the ideology of liberalism and in a manner entirely opposed to it. Communism and Fascism have nothing to do with Liberalism”. 11 Mussolini was a silent spectator of the metal industry’s labor strike. He oversaw the capture of the Dalmine plants by supporting it. In 1920 when the industrial units were 8captured he had no idea of the pathetic condition of the Italian labor. Mussolini was not yet ready to face a direct confrontation between Fascism and communism. His own agenda was anti-bourgeois, anti-clerical, and anti-royalist. He supported the destruction of rich by usurping and levying taxes. Wit the failure of the business of factories and the total failure of the labor class to take political leverage, the time of the new Fascism arrived. The Milanese group of Mussolini was given concession by the government. An attempt to general strike could not succeed. 11 It is truly stated that Mussolini took advantage of the social conditions that were prevalent in Italy that helped him to attain power, as when socialism did not serve his purpose, nationalism took its place. It was the same with syndicalism shifting to Fascism as smoothly as the “Fourteen Points” become central. This has been a practice since the French revolution. Man was regarded now a part of the nation, of the people who came to prominence when gathered at a place as “masses.” 10 Mussolini checked the pros and cons before taking a risk as a nationalist and thinker who did not feel proud just of his oratory skills but acting was apart of it. Life was a play wherein he played his part as one of the most dramatist politicians of antiquity. Bibliography “Benito Mussolini,” last modified March 1, 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini#Expulsion_from_the_Italian_Socialist_Party Elliott, W.Y. “Mussolini, Prophet of the Pragmatic Era in Politics.” The Academy of Political Science 41 (1926): 161-192. http://www.jstor.org/ Accessed March 1 2011. Griffin, Roger. “Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism, 1914–1945.” The Journal of Modern History, 70 (June 1998): 448-451 The University of Chicago Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/235081 . Accessed March 1 2011. Haynes, Rebecca A. The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O. Paxton. The Slavonic and East Economic Review, 84(4), (October 2006): 770-72 http://www.jstor.org/ Accessed March 1 2011. Nelis, Jan. “Constructing Fascist Identity: Benito Mussolini and the Myth of "Romanita".” The Classical World, 100 (2007): 391-415 Classical Association of the Atlantic States. Accessed March 1 2011. Salomone, A. William. “Italy from Napoleon to Mussolini, by Rene Albrecht-Carrie. The Journal of Modern History, 22 (1950): 371-372 The University of Chicago Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1875907 . Sarfatti, Margherita G. The Life of Benito Mussolini (Kessinger Publishing, 2004), Accessed 1 March 2011, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=J_7dp-P_f3sC&dq=The+Life+of+Benito+Mussolini%22+by+Margherita+Sarfatti&source=gbs_navlinks_s Stewart, William Kilborne. “The Mentors of Mussolini,” The American Political Science Review, 22, (1928): 843-869 American Political Science Association. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1945351 Accessed March 1 2011. Tomassini, Luigi. and Frost, Catherine. “Industrial Mobilization and the Labour Market in Italy during the First World War.” Social History, 16 (1991): 59 -87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4285902 . Accessed March 1 2011. Yoder, Dale . “The Real Revolution in Italy.” The American Journal of Sociology, 33 (1928): 586-598 The University of Chicago Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2765694 Accessed March 1 2011. Read More