The Success of Mussolini's Domestic Policies

The Success of Mussolini's Domestic Policies

Mussolini's domestic policies can be summed up in to two groups,

Fascist Policies and Non-Fascist policies. To simply say that the

fascist policies were unsuccessful, while the Non-Fascist policies

were quite successful and popular amongst the Italians, would be

right, because of poor political incentives, and arrogant views.

However, the surprising thing is that Mussolini stayed in power for so

long, so we have to ask ourselves why.

When Mussolini came in to power, he surprised and upset many fascists,

by leaving non anti-fascist civil servants in their jobs with the

majority becoming fascist members so they could get promoted. He also

left the army largely untouched, and pleased many groups, most

importantly the rich and the church. Mussolini wanted to create a

dictatorship, and have support from the people who have large

influence over the people. He also doubled journalist wages, and

guaranteed job security, so as to gain political support.

Mussolini tried to consolidate power by removing the decision making

power of the parliament, who were not disbanded until 1939. Mussolini

basically abolished local governments and replaced the politicians

with loyal fascists. However, Mussolini had such control over the

fascists, that even loyal fascists, were not allowed to make

decisions. Mussolini also removed hostile and independent judges, and

sometimes intervening in cases. With so much power, Mussolini was in

affect a dictator, who had total control over Italy.

Mussolini gave himself important senior positions, which led to work

not getting thoroughly done, as Mussolini was laz...

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... fascists tried to indoctrinate children with Fascist views and with

the belief that Mussolini was Il Duce. However the success is

difficult to calculate, as while the younger children may have been

successful, there were rival youth groups, and after 1945, fascism

disappeared.

One extremely popular policy was the leisure policy. This had little

Fascist propaganda involved with it. The Dopolavro, provided leisure

activities, such as sport and cinema. It provided cheap entertainment.

However, any attempts to change people's lifestyles, such as the

fascist salute, failed miserably.

In general Mussolini was probably popular with most Italians before

WWII because of propaganda, political stability, economic prosperity.

However, when Mussolini made policies with fascist ideals, they were

highly unpopular and failed.