Why was Italy’s Fascism Totalitarian?
Totalitarian refers to a form of government which basically does not allow any individual freedom and it aims at subordinating all aspects of the individual’s life. Totalitarian government is actually characterized by a strong centralized rule, which aims at controlling as well as directing all aspects of an individual’s life through coercion and repression “Outside the state there can be neither individuals nor groups”. Totalitarian government can be distinguished from dictatorship since a totalitarian government supplants all political institutions with new ones and a totalitarian government will also sweep away all legal, social as well as political traditions. In most cases a totalitarian will
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he appealed many groups across the country, for example to peasant men, he appealed to them by calling for the battle of the wheat that would greatly enhance farm productivity. Peasant women on the other hand greatly approved of him for his praise of maternal duty and Mussolini appeared to value womanhood in order to appeal to women. He went on to launch avant-garde architectural projects which won the hearts of many city residents which led to demolition of old residential neighborhoods so that they could pave way for Fascist military parades which were often captured by newsreel cameras and they were often broadcast live on radio, Benito Mussolini also went ahead to claim that he had actually made trains run on time, such a claim of triumph in modern technology greatly increased peoples hopes and they believed that Mussolini could restore order even it meant military order across the country. Mussolini was able to consolidate the mass media and everything that was aired and published in the mass media were the things that Mussolini wanted Italians to hear and read, he would personally go through all newspapers just ensure that they had the right …show more content…
It is indeed true that Mussolini had a totalitarian state as the whole state was just down to one party “Fascism attacks the whole complex of democratic ideologies and rejects them both in their theoretical premises and in their application.” Mussolini was able to wipe out any opposition to his party thus the country was left with only one party which was the Fascist Party. It is also clear that Mussolini had total control over the party to the extent that many people argued that the party did not play any part in the running of the country as everything was done according to the will of Mussolini. He finally came to the conclusion that he would run the country all by himself and the party could only do what he asked it to do and nothing more. This clearly indicates a totalitarian regime because we can see that there was total control for the Fascist and total control for Benito Mussolini over the country as well as the Fascist
He believed that only a strong leader like himself could defeat conflicts caused by other political parties (especially communists/socialists) and post-war problems (World War I). Mussolini’s first call to action was creating a group called the “Blackshirts” that would carry out beatings against communist leaders and throwing them out of office. People of all different backgrounds joined including teachers, business people, and store owners (Document 5). Mussolini constantly told his people that he was going to restore Italy back to its glorious Roman Empire era. He backed up his sayings by invading Ethiopia.
The planned march of thousands of Fascist supporters to take control of Rome. In response to this, Mussolini was given the legal right to control Italy. Totalitarian State A government in which a one-party dictatorship regulates every aspect of citizens’ lives.
Everyone has a place or part in the government and operate together, as a whole, “We are nothing. Mankind is all” (Rand 21). Likewise, in a society with a fascist government, individuality is prohibited, contrary ideas are censored and nationalism is emphasized. Benito Mussolini was the leader in Italy during its reign under fascism. Soon after declaring himself dictator, a strict press censorship was instituted.
In 1919, Benito Mussolini described fascism as “A movement that would strike against the backwardness of the right and the destructiveness of the left.” That “Fascism sitting on the right, could also have sat on the mountain of the center… These words in any case do not have a fixed and unchanged: they do have a variable subject to location, time and spirit. We don’t give a damn about these empty terminologies and we despise those who are terrorized by these words.” Fascism came into prominence in the early 20th-century Europe. It originated in Italy during World War I.
Fascism is ideology which often uses totalitarianism and nationalism methods. The fascist leaders made people are the subject to the government, and limit the independency of the people, in order to gain the better for the nation. This is somehow similar to absolutism of western Europe during 17th and 18th century. Absolutism had given the monarch absolute power to rule over people, while fascism had given the leader and the nation the power to rule over the people of the state. Moreover, fascism had denied the democratic parliament system, and had only allowed the “elite” to rule over the country.
Throughout history governments have evolved in their laws and ruling tactics. It has also changed the way literature has been portrayed to the readers. This essay is based on Totalitarian government. Totalitarianism is a form of government that whereabouts the fact that the ruler and government is an absolute control over the state. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini are some of the dictators that had total control over the people and state.
Giovanni Gentile, the father of Italian fascism, suggest that the totalitarian state looks to "total representation of the nation and total guidance of national goals" (Appelrouth and Edles, 2012). He indicates that while this control is most obvious and pronounced under a dictatorship, it is not entirely absent in democratic
When he was older Italy was in a very bad economic situation. The economy and state of their country was horrible. Mussolini decided to come along and promise that he would bring the country back and out of the hard times. This led his Fascist Party to the top of Italy’s political world. A fascist party censors the media, does not give individual rights, is loyal to the state, is an extreme form of nationalism, and is very militaristic.
Have you ever heard the saying that Fascism and Communism are two sides of the same coin? These ideologies flourished during the first half of the 20th century and influenced several European states which followed the two ideologies. Fascism was imposed in order to promote powerful and permanent nationalism within a totalitarian state led by a dictator which is ready to engage in conflict internally and with its neighbors. The doctrine of Fascism was drafted in 1919 by Giovanni Gentile and adopted by Mussolini (Mussolini is considered the founder of fascism). Gentile stated, “Everything for the state; nothing against the state” (Heywood, Politics 48).
A clear aspect of what makes a state totalitarian is having one strong ideology and Nazi Germany perfectly covers this criterion. The government of Nazi Germany was a fascist state. The Nazi ideology uses biological racism and antisemitism, Nazi fascism’s ideology included a racial theory which praised the Aryan race and denigrated those who did not fit this race. Extreme nationalism was encouraged which called for the unification of all German-speaking peoples, the use of private paramilitary organizations to stop and terrorize the opposition, and the centralization of decision-making by, and loyalty to, a single leader. All of these aspects of Nazi ideology contribute to the idea that Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state.
Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany were similar in that both were dictatorships. Both Mussolini and Hitler came to power through legal means and believed that people were divided into either inferior or superior races. For example, Hitler was obsessed with the Aryan race and called for the genocide of Jews during WWII. In addition, both Mussolini and Hitler favored the wealthy, believed that an individual was meaningless and must submit to the decisions of their leaders, and aimed at self-sufficiency so that each could survive entirely without international trade. Furthermore, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy “had aimed for prestige and power for their countries, and brought instead humiliation and destruction” (Tarr, R.,
Communism believed in a classless society, while Fascism followed a dictatorship, but maintaining a dictatorship required the suppression of the people. Fascist ideology believed that “war alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it,” which requires constant violence to prove power (Lualdi 236). By 1924, Mussolini was able to gain 65% of the vote for fascism, but in 1933, the Nazi party only gained 44% of the vote, and even with a minority ruling party was able to gain control of the government. Both Mussolini and Hitler came into power through legal means, but Mussolini was named Prime Minister in the hopes of avoiding war but after gaining control. Yet after their legal rise into power, they used coercion and violence to further their fascist rulings.
Totalitarianism is when the government controls every aspect of the public and private sectors. It means to erase the line that separates government and society. There were three leaders known to fit the mold of totalitarians. Adolph Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy, and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union.
376) This description of Fascism indicates a government that is involved in the lives of its citizens to an extreme degree. By illustrating the government as a “powerful form of personality”, Mussolini alludes to the Fascist characteristic of organicism, where the state is seen as an organic whole being. Mussolini continues his
Totalitarianism states use tight control over their citizens, by employing strict laws, not only for the public realm but as well as the private realm. They then use propaganda and police or military intimidation to inforce these laws. This can be interpreted as an advantage because it is argued that it is easy to rule under these conditions because voting and other exercise of a citizen’s freedom are not an inconvenience to governance. Totalitarianism establishes a strong government.