{{Short description|Fascist ideology as developed in Italy}} {{redirect|Fascist era|the fascist calendar|Era Fascista|the Italian fascist regimes|Fascist Italy|and|Italian Social Republic}} {{use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} [[File:Mussolini mezzobusto.jpg|thumb|The fascist dictator [[Benito Mussolini]] titled himself ''[[Duce]]'' and ruled the [[Kingdom of Italy]] from 1922 to 1943.]] {{Fascism sidebar}}
'''Italian fascism''' ({{langx|it|fascismo italiano}}), also called '''classical fascism''' or simply '''fascism''', is the original [[fascist]] ideology, which [[Giovanni Gentile]] and [[Benito Mussolini]] developed in Italy. The [[ideology]] of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties led by Mussolini: the [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF), which governed the [[Kingdom of Italy]] from 1922 until 1943,{{refn|<ref name="CPS 2025"/><ref name="Priorelli 2024"/><ref name="Albanese-del Hierro"/><ref name="Ignazi 2016"/><ref name="Ferraresi 1996"/><ref name="Delzell 1971"/>}} and the [[Republican Fascist Party]] (PFR), which governed the [[Italian Social Republic]] (RSI) from 1943 to 1945.{{refn|<ref name="CPS 2025"/><ref name="Priorelli 2024"/><ref name="Albanese-del Hierro"/><ref name="Ignazi 2016"/><ref name="Ferraresi 1996"/><ref name="Delzell 1971"/>}} Italian fascism is also associated with the post-war [[Italian Social Movement]] (MSI) and later Italian [[Neo-fascism|neo-fascist political organizations]].{{refn|<ref name="CPS 2025"/><ref name="Priorelli 2024"/><ref name="Albanese-del Hierro"/><ref name="Ignazi 2016">{{cite book |author-last=Ignazi |author-first=Piero |year=2016 |chapter=Fascists and Post-Fascists |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ku0_CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT211 |editor1-last=Jones |editor1-first=Erik |editor2-last=Pasquino |editor2-first=Gianfranco |title=The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford Academic]] |pages=211–223 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199669745.013.17 |isbn=9780191755736}}</ref><ref name="Ferraresi 1996">{{cite book |author-last=Ferraresi |author-first=Franco |year=1996 |chapter=Fascist Resurgence and Reorganization, ca. 1945–1955 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r0DG3uk9o8oC&pg=PA15 |title=Threats to Democracy: The Radical Right in Italy after the War |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]] and [[Woodstock, Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=15–29 |doi=10.2307/j.ctt7sspj.6 |isbn=978-1-4008-2211-9}}</ref>}}
Italian fascism was initially a [[Left-wing nationalism|left-wing nationalist]] and [[Anti-clericalism|anti-clerical]] movement,<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Payne |author-first=Stanley G. |author-link=Stanley G. Payne |year=2008 |chapter=On the Heuristic Value of the Concept of Political Religion and Its Application |editor1-last=Griffin |editor1-first=Roger |editor1-link=Roger Griffin |editor2-last=Mallett |editor2-first=Robert |editor3-last=Tortorice |editor3-first=John |title=The Sacred in Twentieth Century Politics: Essays in Honour of Professor Stanley G. Payne |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |edition=1st |doi=10.1057/9780230241633 |isbn=978-0-230-24163-3 |page=27 |quote=Though Italian Fascism began as a left nationalist, strongly anticlerical movement, Mussolini eventually grasped that it would be desirable and possible to come to terms with the Catholic Church.}}</ref> and originated from ideological combinations of [[ultra-nationalism]] and [[Italian nationalism]], [[national syndicalism]], [[revolutionary nationalism]], and from the militarism of [[Italian irredentism]] to regain "lost overseas territories of Italy" deemed necessary to restore Italian nationalist pride.<ref name="autogenerated1922">Aristotle A. Kallis. ''Fascist ideology: territory and expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922–1945''. London; New York: Routledge, 2000, p. 41. {{ISBN|9780415216128}}</ref> Italian fascists also claimed that [[Legacy of the Roman Empire|modern Italy was an heiress to the imperial legacy]] of [[Ancient Rome]],<ref name="Nelis 2018"/> and that there existed historical proof which supported the creation of an [[Imperial Italy (fascist)|Imperial Fascist Italy]] to provide ''[[spazio vitale]]'' ("vital space") for the [[Second Italo-Senussi War]] of Italian settler colonization ''en route'' to establishing [[Hegemony|hegemonic control]] of the terrestrial basin of the [[Mediterranean Sea]].<ref>Aristotle A. Kallis. ''Fascist ideology: territory and expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922–1945''. London; New York: Routledge, 2000. p. 50. {{ISBN|9780415216128}}</ref>
Italian fascism promoted a [[Corporatism|corporatist]] [[economic system]], whereby employer and employee [[syndicate]]s were [[Tripartism|linked together]] in associations to collectively represent the nation's economic producers and work alongside the state to set national economic policy.<ref name="massaschussetts1">Andrew Vincent. ''Modern Political Ideologies''. Third edition. Malden, Massachusetts; Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2009. p. 160. {{ISBN|978-1405154956}}</ref> This economic system intended to resolve [[class conflict]] through [[Class collaboration|collaboration between the classes]].<ref>John Whittam. ''Fascist Italy''. Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press, 1995. p. 160. {{ISBN|978-0719040047}}</ref> Italian fascism opposed [[liberalism]], especially [[classical liberalism]], which fascist leaders denounced as "the debacle of individualism".<ref>Jim Powell, "The Economic Leadership Secrets of Benito Mussolini", ''Forbes'', 22 February 2012</ref><ref name="Eugen Weber 1972. p. 791">Eugen Weber. ''The Western Tradition: From the Renaissance to the present''. Heath, 1972. p. 791. {{ISBN|978-0669811414}}</ref> Fascism was opposed to [[socialism]] because of the latter's frequent opposition to nationalism,<ref>Stanislao G. Pugliese. ''Fascism, anti-fascism, and the resistance in Italy: 1919 to the present''. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004. pp. 43–44. {{ISBN|978-0742531222}}</ref> but it was also opposed to the reactionary conservatism developed by [[Joseph de Maistre]].<ref>Stanley G.Payne. ''A History of Fascism, 1914–45''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. p. 214. {{ISBN|0299148742}}</ref> It believed the success of Italian nationalism required respect for [[tradition]] and a clear sense of a shared past among the [[Italian people]], alongside a commitment to a modernized Italy.<ref name="lazzaro2005">Claudia Lazzaro, Roger J. Crum. "Forging a Visible Fascist Nation: Strategies for Fusing the Past and Present" by Claudia Lazzaro, ''Donatello Among The Blackshirts: History And Modernity in the Visual Culture of Fascist Italy''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005. p. 13. {{ISBN|978-0801489211}}</ref>
Originally, many Italian fascists were opposed to [[Nazism]], as the fascist movement in Italy did not espouse [[Nordicism]] nor, initially, the [[antisemitism]] inherent in [[Nazi ideology]]; however, many fascists, in particular Mussolini himself, held openly [[Scientific racism|racialist]] and [[Italian fascism and racism|racist ideas]] (specifically against [[black Africans]], [[Italian Jews]], [[Romani people|Roma]], [[Sinti]], and [[Anti-Slavism|Slavic peoples]]){{refn|<ref name="Trevisan 2023">{{cite journal |author-last=Trevisan |author-first=Paola |year=2023 |title=Internment Camps for ''Zingari'' in Fascist Italy (1940–43): The Story and Memory of a Persecution |journal=Revue d'Histoire de la Shoah |location=[[Paris]] |publisher=[[Mémorial de la Shoah]] |volume=1 |issue=217: ''Persecution of Roma and Sinti and genocidal violence in Western Europe, 1939–1946'' |pages=81–107 |doi=10.3917/rhsho.217.0081 |isbn=9782916966267 |issn=2553-6141 |via=[[Cairn.info]]}}</ref><ref name="Tarchi 2021">{{cite journal |author-last=Tarchi |author-first=Andrea |date=November 2021 |title=''Mabruchismo'': concubinage and colonial power in Italian Libya (1911–1932) |editor1-last=Fantoni |editor1-first=Gianluca |editor2-last=Sabato |editor2-first=Milena |journal=[[Modern Italy]] |location=[[Cambridge]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] on behalf of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=409–424 |doi=10.1017/mit.2021.32 |doi-access=free |issn=1469-9877}}</ref><ref name="Shinn 2019">{{cite book |author-last=Shinn |author-first=Christopher A. |year=2019 |orig-date=2016 |chapter=Inside the Italian Empire: Colonial Africa, Race Wars, and the ‘Southern Question’ |editor-last=Kirkland |editor-first=Ewan |title=Shades of Whiteness |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |pages=35–51 |doi=10.1163/9781848883833_005 |isbn=978-1-84888-383-3 |s2cid=201401541}}</ref><ref name="Trevisan 2017">{{cite journal |author-last=Trevisan |author-first=Paola |date=August 2017 |title=‘Gypsies’ in Fascist Italy: from expelled foreigners to dangerous Italians |editor1-last=Jackson |editor1-first=Louise |editor2-last=Johnston |editor2-first=Gordon |journal=[[Social History (journal)|Social History]] |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]], [[Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=342–364 |doi=10.1080/03071022.2017.1327643 |issn=1470-1200 |jstor=48543383}}</ref><ref name="JMIS 2012">{{cite journal |author-last=De Napoli |author-first=Olindo |year=2012 |title=The origin of the Racist Laws under fascism. A problem of historiography |editor-last=Davis |editor-first=John A. |journal=[[Journal of Modern Italian Studies]] |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]], [[Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=106–122 |doi=10.1080/1354571X.2012.628112 |issn=1469-9583 |s2cid=216113682}}</ref><ref name="Gentile 2004">{{cite book |author-last=Gentile |author-first=Emilio |author-link=Emilio Gentile |year=2004 |chapter=Fascism in Power: The Totalitarian Experiment |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xeHuSpHzqGUC&pg=PA44 |editor1-last=Griffin |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Feldman |editor2-first=Matthew |title=Fascism: Critical Concepts in Political Science |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |volume=IV |pages=44–45 |isbn=9780415290159}}</ref><ref name="JMIS 2003">{{cite journal |author-last=Barrera |author-first=Giulia |year=2003 |title=Mussolini's colonial race laws and state-settler relations in Africa Orientale Italiana (1935–41) |editor-last=Davis |editor-first=John A. |journal=[[Journal of Modern Italian Studies]] |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]], [[Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=425–443 |doi=10.1080/09585170320000113770 |issn=1469-9583 |s2cid=145516332}}</ref><ref name="Negash 1997">{{cite book |author-last=Negash |author-first=Tekeste |year=1997 |title=Eritrea and Ethiopia: The Federal Experience |chapter=Introduction: The legacy of Italian colonialism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CBrImoJfFboC&pg=PA17 |location=[[Uppsala]] |publisher=[[Nordic Africa Institute|Nordiska Afrikainstitutet]] |pages=13–17 |isbn=978-91-7106-406-6 |oclc=1122565258}}</ref><ref name="Hollander 1997">{{cite book |author-last=Hollander |author-first=Ethan J. |year=1997 |title=Italian Fascism and the Jews |location=[[San Diego]], [[California]] |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |url=http://weber.ucsd.edu/~ejhollan/Haaretz%20-%20Ital%20fascism%20-%20English.PDF |url-status=dead |isbn=0-8039-4648-1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515202656/http://weber.ucsd.edu/~ejhollan/Haaretz%20-%20Ital%20fascism%20-%20English.PDF |archive-date=15 May 2008 |access-date=21 April 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Sestani |editor-first=Armando |date=10 February 2012 |trans-title=The Istrian, Dalmatian, and Rijeka Refugees in Lucca |chapter=Il confine orientale: una terra, molti esodi |trans-chapter=The Eastern Border: One Land, Multiple Exoduses |url=http://www.provincia.lucca.it/scuolapace/uploads/quaderni/ricordo2012.pdf |title=I profugi istriani, dalmati, e fiumani a Lucca |location=[[Lucca]], Italy |publisher=Instituto storico della Resistenca e dell'Età Contemporanea in Provincia di Lucca |language=it |pages=12–13 |quote=When dealing with such a race as Slavic—inferior and barbarian—we must not pursue the carrot, but the stick policy. We should not be afraid of new victims. The Italian border should run across the Brenner Pass, Monte Nevoso and the Dinaric Alps. I would say we can easily sacrifice 500,000 barbaric Slavs for 50,000 Italians.}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes |access-date=21 April 2026}}</ref>}} that were enshrined into law as official policy over the course of fascist rule.{{refn|<ref name="Shinn 2019"/><ref name="JMIS 2012"/><ref name="Gentile 2004"/><ref name="JMIS 2003"/><ref name="Negash 1997"/><ref name="Hollander 1997"/>}} As [[Fascist Italy (1922-1943)|Fascist Italy]] and [[Nazi Germany]] grew politically closer in the latter half of the 1930s, Italian laws and policies became explicitly antisemitic due to pressure from Nazi Germany{{refn|<ref name="Goeschel 2017"/><ref name="Robertson 1988"/>}} (although antisemitic laws were rarely enforced in Italy),{{refn|<ref>{{cite book|author=Giuseppe Acerbi|title=Le leggi antiebraiche e razziali italiane ed il ceto dei giuristi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJ9qbG1aoNYC&pg=PA33|access-date=9 August 2013|year=2011|publisher=Giuffrè Editore|isbn=978-88-14-15571-0|pages=33–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Richard S. Levy|title=Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tdn6FFZklkcC&pg=PA585|access-date=12 August 2013|date=1 January 2005|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-439-4|pages=585–}}</ref>}} including the promulgation of the ''[[Manifesto of Race]]'' and [[Italian racial laws]] in the [[Kingdom of Italy]] and all colonies of the [[Italian colonial empire|Italian Empire]].{{refn|<ref name="Shinn 2019"/><ref name="JMIS 2012"/><ref name="Gentile 2004"/><ref name="JMIS 2003"/><ref name="Negash 1997"/><ref name="Hollander 1997"/>}} In addition, the [[Greeks|Greek population]] of the [[Dodecanese]] and [[Northern Epirus]], which were then [[Italian invasion of Greece|under Italian occupation]], were persecuted by the Italian fascists as well.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/diplomatic-documents-relating-to-italy-s|title=Diplomatic documents relating to Italy's aggression against Greece; the Greek White Book|year=1943|publisher=American Council on Public Affairs|pages=5–8}}</ref> When the Italian fascists were in power, they also persecuted some [[Languages of Italy#Historical linguistic minorities|linguistic minorities]] and [[Protestantism|Protestant]] [[Christian denomination|denominations]] in Italy.{{refn|<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Moro |author-first=Renato |year=2026 |chapter=Catholic Anti-Protestantism until the Second World War |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9PKEQAAQBAJ&pg=PR184 |editor1-last=Hutchinson |editor1-first= Mark P. |editor2-last=Saresella |editor2-first=Daniela |editor3-last=Zanini |editor3-first=Paolo |title=A Global History of Italian Protestantism |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=2: ''From the Napoleonic Wars to the Present'' |pages=184–209 |doi=10.1163/9789004748903_016 |isbn=978-90-04-74890-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author-last=Messina |author-first=Dino |date=7 July 2017 |title=I pentecostali perseguitati dal fascismo |url=https://lanostrastoria.corriere.it/2017/07/07/i-pentecostali-perseguitati-dal-fascismo/ |work=[[Corriere della Sera]] |location=[[Milan]], Italy |publisher=[[RCS MediaGroup]] |language=it |issn=1120-4982 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711150321/https://lanostrastoria.corriere.it/2017/07/07/i-pentecostali-perseguitati-dal-fascismo/ |archive-date=11 July 2017 |access-date=21 April 2026}}</ref><ref>[https://minorityrights.org/minorities/greek-speakers/ "Minority Rights Group International – Italy – Greek-speakers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190109060358/https://minorityrights.org/minorities/greek-speakers/ |date=9 January 2019}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Jepson|first1=Allan|last2=Clarke|first2=Alan|title=Managing and Developing Communities, Festivals, and Events|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A-wYDAAAQBAJ|publisher=AIAA|date=2015|page=137|isbn=978-1137508539|access-date=13 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190114044433/https://books.google.gr/books?id=A-wYDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover|archive-date=14 January 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
==Etymology== [[File:Fasces FR2.svg|thumb|200x200px|The [[fasces]], a symbol of [[Ancient Rome]], was employed in the modern era by various political movements to denote strength through unity.{{sfnp|Paxton|2004|pp=4–5}}]]
The Italian term {{lang|it|fascismo}} is derived from {{lang|it|fascio}}, meaning "bundle of sticks", ultimately from the [[Latin language|Latin]] word {{lang|la|[[fasces]]}}.<ref name="m-w">{{cite encyclopedia|title=fascism |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism |dictionary=[[Merriam-Webster Online]] |access-date=22 August 2017 |archive-date=22 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822084905/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism |url-status=live}}</ref> This was the name given to political organizations in Italy known as [[fasci]], groups similar to [[guild]]s or [[syndicate]]s. According to Italian fascist dictator [[Benito Mussolini]]'s own account, the [[Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria|Fasces of Revolutionary Action]] were founded in Italy in 1915.{{sfnp|Mussolini|2006|p=227}} In 1919, Mussolini founded the [[Fasci Italiani di Combattimento|Italian Fasces of Combat]] in Milan, which became the [[National Fascist Party]] two years later. The fascists came to associate the term with the ancient Roman fasces or {{lang|it|[[fascio littorio]]}},{{sfnp|Falasca-Zamponi|2000|p=95}} a bundle of rods tied around an axe,<ref>{{cite web |last=Johnston |first=Peter |date=12 April 2013 |title=The Rule of Law: Symbols of Power |url=http://www.okwu.edu/keating-center/2013/04/the-rule-of-law-symbols-of-power/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330232643/http://www.okwu.edu/keating-center/2013/04/the-rule-of-law-symbols-of-power/ |archive-date=30 March 2017 |access-date=28 April 2013 |publisher=The Keating Center, [[Oklahoma Wesleyan University]] |language=en-US}}</ref> an [[Ancient Rome|ancient Roman]] symbol of the authority of the [[Roman Magistrates|civic magistrate]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/page.cfm?siteID=78&pageID=35 |title=Policing Rome: Maintaining Order in Fact and Fiction |last=Watkins |first=Tom |work=Fictional Rome |publisher=[[Stockton University]] |location=Stockton, New Jersey |year=2013 |access-date=28 April 2013 |archive-date=16 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140316011914/http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/page.cfm?siteID=78&pageID=35 |url-status=dead}}</ref> carried by his [[lictor]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://Britannica.com/topic/fasces |author=<!-- not stated --> |title=Fasces |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Britannica |access-date=17 April 2024 |quote=When carried inside Rome, the ax was removed (unless the magistrate was a dictator or general celebrating a triumph) as recognition of the right of a Roman citizen to appeal a magistrate's ruling.}}</ref> The symbolism of the fasces suggested strength through unity: a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is difficult to break.{{sfn|Brennan|2022|pp=2, 12}}
Prior to 1914, the fasces symbol was widely employed by various political movements, often of a left-wing or liberal persuasion. For instance, according to the American political scientist and historian [[Robert Paxton]]: "[[Marianne]], symbol of the [[French First Republic|French Republic]], was often portrayed in the nineteenth century carrying the fasces to represent the force of Republican solidarity against her aristocratic and clerical enemies."{{sfnp|Paxton|2004|pp=4–5}} The symbol often appeared as an architectural motif, for instance on the [[Sheldonian Theatre|Sheldonian Theater]] at the [[University of Oxford]] and on the [[Lincoln Memorial]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]{{sfnp|Paxton|2004|pp=4–5}}
== Principal beliefs == === Nationalism === {{Main|Italian nationalism|Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states|Risorgimento}} {{Further|First Italian War of Independence|Second Italian War of Independence|Third Italian War of Independence}} [[File:Has seven 1 a.jpg|thumb|right|[[Benito Mussolini]] and fascist [[Blackshirts|Blackshirt youth]] in 1935]]
Italian fascism is based upon [[Italian nationalism]] and in particular, it seeks to complete what it considers the incomplete Italian nationalist project of ''[[Risorgimento]]'' ("Resurgence", 1815–1871) by incorporating the [[Italian irredentism|"unredeemed"]] [[Italian diaspora|Italian-inhabited territories]] scattered across the [[Balkans]] and [[Southern Europe]] that both Italian nationalists and fascists regarded as ''[[Italia irredenta]]'' ("unredeemed Italy") into the [[Kingdom of Italy]] after [[Unification of Italy|its unification]] under the [[House of Savoy]] (1861).{{refn|<ref name="autogenerated1922"/><ref name="Kellas 2004"/><ref name="Forlenza 2018"/><ref name="autogenerated3">Terence Ball, Richard Bellamy. ''The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought''. Cambridge University Press, p. 133. {{ISBN|978-0521691628}}</ref>}} The [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF: ''Partito Nazionale Fascista''), founded in [[Milan]] by [[Benito Mussolini]] in 1921, declared that the party was to serve as "a revolutionary militia placed at the service of the nation. It follows a policy based on three principles: order, discipline, hierarchy".<ref name="autogenerated3"/>
It identifies [[Modern history of Italy|modern Italy]] as the heir to the [[Roman Empire]] and Italy during the [[Renaissance]] and it promotes the cultural identity of ''[[Romanitas]]'' ("Romanness").{{refn|<ref name="Nelis 2018"/><ref name="autogenerated3"/>}} Italian fascism historically sought to forge a strong [[Italian colonial empire|Italian Empire]] as a [[Third Rome]], identifying [[ancient Rome]] as the First Rome and [[Italian Renaissance|Renaissance-era Italy]] as the "Second Rome".{{refn|<ref name="Nelis 2018"/><ref name="autogenerated3"/>}} Italian fascism has attempted to emulate [[ancient Rome]] in many ways, and in particular Mussolini had emulated a few [[Roman emperors]], such as [[Julius Caesar]] as a model for [[March on Rome|Mussolini's rise to power]] and [[Augustus]] as a model for building the [[Italian Empire]].{{refn|<ref name="Nelis 2018"/><ref>Claudia Lazzaro, Roger J. Crum. "Augustus, Mussolini, and the Parallel Imagery of Empire" by Ann Thomas Wilkins, ''Donatello Among The Blackshirts: History And Modernity in the Visual Culture of Fascist Italy''. [[Ithaca, New York]]: [[Cornell University Press]], 2005. p. 53. {{ISBN|978-0801489211}}</ref>}} Italian fascism has directly promoted [[colonialism]] and [[imperialism]], expounded through the politico-philosophical essay and ideological manifesto ''[[The Doctrine of Fascism]]'' (''La dottrina del fascismo'', 1932), authored by the [[Actual idealism|actualist]] Italian philosopher [[Giovanni Gentile]],<ref name="Griffin 2008"/> [[Ghostwriter|ghostwritten]] by Gentile himself on behalf of [[Benito Mussolini]] and published in 1932:<ref name="gentile"/> {{blockquote|The Fascist state is a will to power and empire. The Roman tradition is here a powerful force. According to the Doctrine of Fascism, an empire is not only a territorial or military or mercantile concept, but a spiritual and moral one. One can think of an empire, that is, a nation, which directly or indirectly guides other nations, without the need to conquer a single square kilometre of territory.|Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile, ''[[The Doctrine of Fascism]]'' (1932)}}
==== Irredentism and expansionism ==== {{Main|History of Italy|Italian irredentism|Italianization}} {{Further|Spazio vitale|Italia irredenta|Italian Empire|Mare Nostrum|Mediterraneanism}} [[File:RegioniIrredenteItalia.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Italian ethnic regions claimed in the 1930s. [[Italian irredentism in Savoy|Savoy]] and [[Italian irredentism in Corfu|Corfu]] were later claimed.
{{legend|#01ec95|[[Italian irredentism in Nice|Nice]], [[Italian irredentism in Switzerland|Ticino]], and [[Italian irredentism in Dalmatia|Dalmatia]]}} {{legend|#f41820|[[Italian irredentism in Malta|Malta]]}} {{legend|#bc85be|[[Italian irredentism in Corsica|Corsica]]}}]]
Italian fascism emphasized the need for the restoration and continuity of the Italian nationalist ''[[Risorgimento]]'' ("Resurgence", 1815–1871) tradition developed by [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] and [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] that followed the [[unification of Italy]] under the [[House of Savoy]] (1861),<ref name="Forlenza 2018"/> that the fascists claimed had been left incomplete and abandoned in [[Modern history of Italy|modern Italy]] due to the [[Liberals (Italy)|liberal-led]] [[List of prime ministers of Italy#Prime ministers of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|governments]] of the [[Giovanni Giolitti|Giolittian Era]].<ref>Fabio Fernando Rizi, ''Benedetto Croce and Italian Fascism''. University of Toronto Press, 2003. p.249 {{ISBN|9780802037626}}</ref> In 1914, [[Italian nationalism|Italian nationalists]] began to campaign actively against the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], which still controlled some [[Italian irredentism|Italian-speaking "irredent lands"]] in the aftermath of the [[Third Italian War of Independence]] (1866), and [[Military history of Italy during World War I|Italian neutrality between the major European Powers]] after the [[Causes of World War I|outbreak of the Great War]].<ref name="Kellas 2004">{{cite book |author-last=Kellas |author-first=James G. |year=2004 |chapter=Italy/Italia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MseGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |title=Nationalist Politics in Europe: The Constitutional and Electoral Dimensions |location=[[Basingstoke]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |pages=98–107 |doi=10.1057/9780230597273_6 |isbn=978-0-230-59727-3 |lccn=2003062247}}</ref> After the end of [[World War I]] and during the [[Interwar period]] (1918–1939), the [[Fascist Italy|Fascist regime]] sought the incorporation of claimed "unredeemed" territories into the [[Kingdom of Italy]] and the [[Italian colonial empire|Italian Empire]].{{refn|<ref name="Forlenza 2018">{{cite book |author-last=Forlenza |author-first=Rosario |year=2018 |chapter=Democracy and The Power of Memory: The "Risorgimento" in Modern Italian Politics |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gvWEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA157 |title=On the Edge of Democracy: Italy, 1943–1948 |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford Academic]] |pages=157–177 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198817444.003.0006 |isbn=9780191859045}}</ref><ref name="Tomasevich 2002"/><ref name="Wolff 2001"/>}}
To the east of Italy, the Italian fascists claimed that [[Dalmatia]] was a land of [[Italian culture]], whose Italian population ([[Dalmatian Italians]]), including those of Italianized [[South Slavs|South Slavic]] descent, had been driven out of Dalmatia and into exile in Italy, and supported the return of Italians of Dalmatian heritage.<ref name="Tomasevich 2002">{{cite book |author-last=Tomasevich |author-first=Jozo |year=2002 |chapter=Foreign Annexation of Yugoslavia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fqUSGevFe5MC&pg=PA130 |title=War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration |location=[[Stanford, California]] |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |pages=130–156 |isbn=9780804779241 |lccn=2001020024}}</ref> Mussolini identified Dalmatia as having strong Italian cultural roots for centuries due to their heritage being linked to the [[Roman Empire]] and the [[Republic of Venice]].<ref name="Wolff 2001">{{cite book |author-last=Wolff |author-first=Larry |year=2001 |chapter=Conclusions and Continuities: The Legacy of the Venetian Enlightenment in Napoleonic Illyria, Habsburg Dalmatia, and Yugoslavia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2LFRiT1nfYC&pg=PA355 |title=Venice and the Slavs: The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment |location=[[Stanford, California]] |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |page=355–362 |isbn=9780804739467}}</ref> The fascists especially focused their claims based on the Venetian cultural heritage of Dalmatia, claiming that Venetian rule had been beneficial for all Dalmatians and had been accepted by the Dalmatian population.<ref name="Wolff 2001"/> In the [[aftermath of World War I]], Italian fascists were outraged when the agreement between Italy and the [[Triple Entente|Entente Allies]] to have Dalmatia join Italy made in the 1915 [[Treaty of London (1915)|Treaty of London]] was revoked in 1919.<ref name="Wolff 2001"/> The Fascist regime supported the annexation of [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia's region]] of [[Slovene Lands|Slovenia]] into Italy that already held a portion of the [[Slovenes|Slovene population]], whereby Slovenia would become an Italian province,<ref>Allan R. Millett, Williamson Murray. ''Military Effectiveness, Volume 2''. New edition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 184. {{ISBN|978-0521737500}}</ref> resulting in a quarter of Slovene ethnic territory and approximately 327,000 out of a total population of 1.3 million Slovenes<ref name="SacroEgoismo2012">Lipušček, U. (2012) ''Sacro egoismo: Slovenci v krempljih tajnega londonskega pakta 1915'', Cankarjeva založba, Ljubljana. {{ISBN|978-9612318710}}</ref> being subjected to forced [[Italianization]].<ref name=Cresciani_ClashOfCivilisations>Cresciani, Gianfranco (2004) [https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1aAzmXBjZO5eFQySUlrdTBYRkk Clash of civilisations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200506152156/https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1aAzmXBjZO5eFQySUlrdTBYRkk |date=6 May 2020 }}, Italian Historical Society Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, p. 4</ref><ref name="Hehn 2005 44–45">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nOALhEZkYDkC&pg=PA45 |last=Hehn |first=Paul N. |title=A Low Dishonest Decade: The Great Powers, Eastern Europe, and the Economic Origins of World War II, 1930–1941 |year=2005 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |pages=44–45 |isbn=0826417612}}</ref> The fascist regime imposed mandatory Italianization upon the German and South Slavic populations living within Italy's borders.<ref name="John F. Pollard 1985, p. 92">John F. Pollard. ''The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–32: A Study in Conflict''. Cambridge University Press, 1985, 2005. p. 92. {{ISBN|978-0521023665}}</ref> The fascist regime abolished the teaching of minority German and Slavic languages in schools, German and Slavic language newspapers were shut down, and geographical and family names in areas of German or Slavic languages were to be Italianized forcibly.<ref name="John F. Pollard 1985, p. 92"/> This resulted in significant violence against South Slavs deemed to be resisting the fascist policy of Italianization.<ref name="John F. Pollard 1985, p. 92"/>
In addition, the fascist regime supported the [[Italian annexation of Albania]], claiming that [[Albanians]] were ethnically related to Italians through links with the prehistoric [[Italiotes|Italiote]], [[Illyrians|Illyrian]], and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] populations, and that the major influence exerted by the [[Roman Empire]] and the [[Republic of Venice]] over Albania in the previous centuries justified Italy's right to possess it.{{refn|<ref name="Tomasevich 2002"/><ref name="Wolff 2001"/><ref name=Ro106>{{cite book|last=Rodogno |first=Davide |author-link=Davide Rodogno |title=Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcUNELPsQQsC&pg=PA106|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0521845157|page=106}}</ref>}} The fascist regime also justified the annexation of Albania on the basis that''—''because several hundred thousand people of Albanian descent had been absorbed into society in southern Italy already''—''the incorporation of Albania was a reasonable measure that would unite people of Albanian descent into one state.<ref>Owen Pearson. ''Albania in the twentieth century: a history'', Volume 3. London; New York: I.B. Taurus Publishers, 2004. p. 389. {{No ISBN}}</ref> The fascist regime endorsed Albanian irredentism, directed against the predominantly [[Albanian diaspora|Albanian-populated]] [[Kosovo]] and [[Epirus (region)|Epirus]], particularly in [[Chameria]], inhabited by a substantial number of Albanians.<ref>[[Bernd Jürgen Fischer]]. ''Albania at war, 1939–1945''. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 1999. pp. 70–73. {{ISBN|978-1557531414}}</ref> After Italy annexed Albania in 1939, the fascist regime endorsed assimilating Albanians into Italians and colonizing Albania with Italian settlers from the [[Italian Peninsula]] to gradually transform it into an Italian land.<ref>{{Cite book | first1=Raphael | last1=Lemkin | first2=Samantha | last2=Power | year=2008 | title=Axis Rule in Occupied Europe | publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. | isbn=978-1584779018 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y0in2wOY-W0C | pages=99–107 | access-date=14 August 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502200304/https://books.google.com/books?id=y0in2wOY-W0C | archive-date=2 May 2016 | url-status=live }}</ref> The Fascist regime claimed the [[Ionian Islands]] as Italian territory on the basis that the islands had [[Ionian Islands under Venetian rule|belonged to the Venetian Republic]] from the mid-14th until the late 18th century.<ref>Rodogno 2006, p. 84</ref>
To the west of Italy, the fascists claimed the territories of [[Corsica]], [[Nice]], and [[Savoy]] and to the south claimed the territories of [[Malta]] and [[Corfu]] due to the presence of [[Corsican Italians]], [[Niçard Italians]], [[Maltese Italians]], [[Corfiot Italians]], and [[Savoyard Italians]].<ref>Aristotle A. Kallis. ''Fascist Ideology: Expansionism in Italy and Germany 1922–1945''. London; New York: Routledge, 2000. p. 118. {{ISBN|978-0415216111}}</ref><ref>McGregor Knox, ''Mussolini Unleashed, 1939–1941: Politics and Strategy in fascist Italy's Last War''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, 1999. p. 38. {{ISBN|978-0521338356}}</ref> During the period of Italian unification in 1860 to 1861, Prime Minister of [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Piedmont-Sardinia]], [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour]], who was leading the unification effort, faced opposition from [[French Emperor]] [[Napoleon III]] who indicated that France would oppose Italian unification unless France was given the [[County of Nice]] and Savoy that were held by Piedmont-Sardinia, as France did not want a powerful state having control of all the passages of the Alps.<ref>Adda Bruemmer Bozeman. "Regional Conflicts Around Geneva: An Inquiry into the Origin", ''Nature'', and Implications of the Neutralized Zone of Savoy and of the Customs-free Zones of Gex and Upper Savoy. p. 196.</ref> As a result, [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Piedmont-Sardinia]] was pressured to concede Nice and Savoy to France in exchange for France accepting the unification of Italy.<ref>Adda Bruemmer Bozeman. "Regional Conflicts Around Geneva: An Inquiry into the Origin", ''Nature'', and Implications of the Neutralized Zone of Savoy and of the Customs-free Zones of Gex and Upper Savoy. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1949. p. 196.</ref> The fascist regime produced literature on Corsica that presented evidence of the ''italianità'' (Italianness) of the island.<ref name="autogenerated2006">Davide Rodogno. ''Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. p. 88. {{ISBN|978-0521845151}}</ref> The fascist regime produced literature on Nice that justified that Nice was an Italian land based on historic, ethnic and linguistic grounds.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> The fascists quoted medieval Italian scholar [[Petrarch]], who said: "The border of Italy is the Var; consequently Nice is a part of Italy".<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> The fascists quoted Italian national hero [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]], who said: "Corsica and Nice must not belong to France; there will come the day when an Italy mindful of its true worth will reclaim its provinces now so shamefully languishing under foreign domination".<ref name="autogenerated2006"/> Mussolini initially pursued promoting annexation of Corsica through political and diplomatic means, believing that Corsica could be annexed to Italy through first encouraging the existing autonomist tendencies in Corsica and then the independence of Corsica from France, that would be followed by the annexation of Corsica into Italy.<ref>John Gooch. ''Mussolini and his Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922–1940''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. p. 452. {{ISBN|978-0521856027}}</ref>
To the north of Italy, the fascist regime in the 1930s had designs on the largely Italian-populated region ([[Swiss Italians]]) of [[Ticino]] and the [[Romansh people|Romansch-populated region]] of [[Graubünden]] in [[Switzerland]] (the Romansch are a [[Romance languages|Latin-speaking people]] of the [[Western Alps]]).<ref name="John F. L 1989. p. 91">John F. L. Ross. ''Neutrality and International Sanctions: Sweden, Switzerland, and Collective Security''. ABC-CLIO, 1989. p. 91. {{No ISBN}}</ref> In November 1938, Mussolini declared to the Grand Fascist Council: "We shall bring our border to the [[Gotthard Pass]]".<ref>Aurelio Garobbio. ''A colloquio con il duce''. 1998. Mursia, p. xvi. {{ISBN|978-8842524229}}</ref> The fascist regime accused the Swiss government of oppressing the Romansch people in Graubünden.<ref name="John F. L 1989. p. 91"/> Mussolini argued that Romansch was an Italian dialect and thus Graubünden should be incorporated into Italy.<ref>Carl Skutsch. ''Encyclopedia of the world's minorities, Volume 3''. London: Routledge, 2005. p. 1027. {{ISBN|978-1579583927}}</ref> Ticino was also claimed because the region had belonged to the [[Duchy of Milan]] from the mid-fourteenth century until 1515, as well as being inhabited by Italian speakers of Italian ethnicity.<ref>Ferdinando Crespi. ''Ticino irredento: la frontiera contesa : dalla battaglia culturale dell'Adula ai piani d'invasione'', F. Angeli, 2004, p. 284 {{ISBN|8846453646}}</ref> Claim was also raised on the basis that areas now part of Graubünden in the [[Mesolcina valley]] and [[Hinterrhein District|Hinterrhein]] were held by the Milanese [[Trivulzio]] family, who ruled from the [[Mesocco Castle]] in the late 15th century.<ref>Crespi 2004, p. 250</ref> Also during the summer of 1940, [[Galeazzo Ciano]] met with Hitler and Ribbentrop and proposed to them the dissection of Switzerland along the central chain of the [[Western Alps]], which would have left Italy also with the canton of [[Valais]] in addition to the claims raised earlier.<ref name="Knox">McGregor Knox, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_PwCu_D-HiUC Mussolini Unleashed, 1939–1941: Politics and Strategy in Fascist Italy's Last War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018022101/https://books.google.com/books?id=_PwCu_D-HiUC |date=18 October 2015 }}'' (Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], 1982), 138. {{ISBN|978-0521338356}}</ref>
[[File:Gran Consiglio Fascismo.jpg|250px|thumb|The session of the [[Grand Council of Fascism|Grand Council]] of 9 May 1936, where the [[Italian Empire]] was proclaimed]] To the south, the regime claimed the [[Geography of Malta|archipelago of Malta]], which had been [[History of Malta#Malta in the British Empire (1800–1964)|ruled by the British Empire]] since 1800.<ref name="rix">Juliet Rix. ''Malta''. Bradt Travel Guides. 2010. pp. 16–17. {{ISBN|978-1841623122}}</ref> Mussolini claimed that the [[Maltese language]] was a dialect of Italian and theories about Malta being the cradle of the Latin civilization were promoted.<ref name="rix"/><ref>[[Jeffrey Cole]]. ''Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia''. ABC-CLIO. 2011. p. 254. {{ISBN|978-1598843026}}</ref> Italian had been widely used in Malta in the literary, scientific and legal fields and it was one of Malta's official languages until 1937 when its status was abolished by the British as a response to Italy's invasion of Ethiopia.<ref>Norman Berdichevsky. ''Nations, Language, and Citizenship''. McFarland. 2004. pp. 70–71. {{ISBN|978-0786417100}}</ref> Italian irredentists had claimed that territories on the coast of [[North Africa]] were Italy's [[Fourth Shore]] and used the historical Roman rule in North Africa as a precedent to justify the incorporation of such territories to Italian jurisdiction as being a "return" of Italy to North Africa.<ref>Tony Pollard, Iain Banks. ''Scorched Earth: Studies in the Archaeology of Conflict''. Brill. 2007, p. 4. {{ISBN|978-9004164482}}</ref> In January 1939, [[Italian Libya#Foundation of Italian Libya: Unification and Fourth Shore (1934–1943)|Italy annexed territories in Libya]] that it considered within Italy's Fourth Shore, with Libya's four coastal provinces of Tripoli, Misurata, Benghazi and Derna becoming an integral part of metropolitan Italy.<ref name="Jon Wright p. 165">John Wright. ''History of Libya''. Oxford University Press. 2012, p. 165. {{ISBN|978-0199327119}}</ref> At the same time, indigenous Libyans were given the ability to apply for "Special Italian Citizenship", which required such people to be literate in the [[Italian language]] and confined this type of citizenship to be valid in Libya only.<ref name="Jon Wright p. 165"/> [[French protectorate of Tunisia|Tunisia]], ruled by the [[French colonial empire|French Empire]] as a protectorate since 1881, had the highest concentration of Italians in [[North Africa]]; its seizure by France had been viewed as an injury to national honour in Italy at what they perceived as a "loss" of Tunisia from Italian plans to incorporate it.<ref>Susan Slyomovics. ''The Walled Arab City in Literature, Architecture and History: The Living Medina in the Maghrib''. Routledge, 2003. p. 124.{{ISBN|978-0714651774}}</ref> Upon entering [[World War II]], Italy declared its intention to seize Tunisia as well as the province of [[Constantine (departement)|Constantine]] of [[French Algeria|Algeria]] from France.<ref>Robert O. Paxton. ''Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order 1940–1944''. Columbia University Press, 2001. p. 74. {{ISBN|978-0231124690}}</ref>
To the south, the fascist regime held an interest in expanding Italy's African colonial possessions. In the 1920s, Italy regarded [[First Portuguese Republic|Portugal]] as a weak country that was unbecoming of a colonial power due to its weak hold on [[Portuguese Empire|its colonies]] and mismanagement of them, and as such Italy desired to annexe Portugal's colonies as well.<ref name="Lucas F. Bruyning 1990. p. 113">Lucas F. Bruyning, Joseph Theodoor Leerssen. ''Italy – Europe''. Rodopi, 1990. p. 113. {{ISBN|978-9051831948}}</ref> Italy's relations with Portugal were influenced by the rise to power of the [[Authoritarian conservatism|authoritarian conservative]] [[Ditadura Nacional|nationalist dictatorship]] of [[António de Oliveira Salazar]],{{refn|<ref name="Fascism 2018a"/><ref name="Albanese 2016"/>}} which borrowed fascist methods,{{refn|<ref name="Fascism 2018a"/><ref name="Albanese 2016"/>}} though Salazar upheld Portugal's traditional alliance with the [[United Kingdom]].<ref name="Lucas F. Bruyning 1990. p. 113"/>
==== Racism ==== {{Main|Italian fascism and racism}} {{Further|Italian racial laws|Manifesto of Race}} [[File:Corriere testata 1938.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Front page of the Italian newspaper {{lang|it|[[Corriere della Sera]]}} on 11 November 1938: "''Le leggi per la difesa della razza approvate dal Consiglio dei ministri''" ({{langx|en|"The laws for the defence of race approved by the [[Italian Parliament (1928–1939)|Council of Ministers]]"|italics=no}}). On the same day, the [[Italian racial laws|Racial Laws]] entered into force under the [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Italian Fascist regime]], enacting the racial discrimination and persecution of [[Italian Jews]].{{refn|<ref name="Shinn 2019"/><ref name="Gentile 2004"/><ref name="Negash 1997"/><ref name="Hollander 1997"/>}}]]
Until [[Benito Mussolini]]'s personal friendship with [[Adolf Hitler]] and the [[Pact of Steel|military-political alliance]] between Fascist Italy and [[Nazi Germany]], he had always denied any antisemitism within the [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF). In the early 1920s, Mussolini wrote an article which stated that Fascism would never elevate a "[[Jewish Question]]" and that "Italy knows no antisemitism and we believe that it will never know it" and then elaborated "let us hope that Italian Jews will continue to be sensible enough so as not to give rise to antisemitism in the only country where it has never existed".<ref name="Zimmerman2005">{{cite book|author=Joshua D. Zimmerman|title=Jews in Italy Under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922–1945|url=https://archive.org/details/jewsitalyunderfa00zimm_502|url-access=limited|date=27 June 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-84101-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/jewsitalyunderfa00zimm_502/page/n87 62]}}</ref> In 1932 during a conversation with [[Emil Ludwig]], Mussolini described antisemitism as a "German vice" and stated: "There was 'no Jewish Question' in Italy and could not be one in a country with a healthy system of government".<ref>Christopher Hibbert, Benito Mussolini (1975), p. 99</ref> On several occasions, Mussolini spoke positively about Jews and the [[Zionism|Zionist movement]].<ref>Zimmerman, p.160</ref> Mussolini had initially rejected Nazi racism, especially the idea of a [[master race]], as "arrant nonsense, stupid and idiotic".<ref>Hibbert, p. 98</ref>
In 1929, Mussolini acknowledged the contributions of Italian Jews to Italian society, despite their minority status, and believed that Jewish culture was Mediterranean, aligning with his early [[Mediterraneanism|Mediterraneanist perspective]].{{refn|<ref name="Shinn 2019"/><ref name="Gentile 2004"/><ref name="Negash 1997"/><ref name="Hollander 1997"/><ref name="Goeschel 2017"/><ref name="Robertson 1988"/>}} He also argued that [[Italian Jews]] were natives to Italy, as [[History of the Jews in Italy|they had been living in the Italian Peninsula]] since [[History of the Jews in the Roman Empire|Roman times]].{{refn|<ref name="renaissance">{{cite book |last1=Baum |first1=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jwMGPYlnFeoC&q=italian+racial+laws+appease&pg=PA236 |title=Hebraic Aspects of the Renaissance: Sources and Encounters |date=2011 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004212558 |access-date=9 January 2016}}</ref><ref name="Neocleous, Mark 1997. p. 35">Neocleous, Mark. ''Fascism''. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. p. 35</ref>}} Initially, [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]] did not enact comprehensive racist policies like those policies which were enacted by its [[Axis powers|World War II Axis]] partner [[Nazi Germany]].{{refn|<ref name="Shinn 2019"/><ref name="Gentile 2004"/><ref name="Negash 1997"/><ref name="Hollander 1997"/><ref name="Goeschel 2017"/><ref name="Robertson 1988"/>}} Italy's [[National Fascist Party]] leader, [[Benito Mussolini]], expressed different views on the subject of [[Race (human categorization)|race]] throughout his career. In an interview conducted in 1932 at the [[Palazzo Venezia]] in Rome, he said "Race? It is a feeling, not a reality: ninety-five percent, at least, is a feeling. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/talkswithmussoli006557mbp | title=Talks with Mussolini | date=4 January 2024 | publisher=Little Brown and Company }}</ref> After the [[Italian Libya#History|repression of anti-colonial resistance in Italian Libya]] (1911–1932) and the [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War]] (1935–1936), the Italian Fascist government implemented strict [[racial segregation]] between Italians and Africans in all colonies of the [[Italian Empire]].{{refn|<ref name="Tarchi 2021"/><ref name="Shinn 2019"/><ref name="Gentile 2004"/><ref name="Negash 1997"/><ref name="Hollander 1997"/><ref name="Goeschel 2017">{{cite journal |author-last=Goeschel |author-first=Christian |date=March 2017 |title=Staging Friendship: Mussolini and Hitler in Germany in 1937 |editor1-last=Leow |editor1-first=Rachel |editor2-last=Gallagher |editor2-first=John |journal=[[The Historical Journal]] |location=[[Cambridge]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=149–172 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X15000540 |s2cid=156952523 |issn=1469-5103}}</ref><ref name="Robertson 1988">{{cite journal |author-last=Robertson |author-first=E. M. |date=January 1988 |title=Race as a Factor in Mussolini's Policy in Africa and Europe |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002200948802300103 |url-access=subscription |editor1-last=Evans |editor1-first=Richard J. |editor1-link=Richard J. Evans |editor2-last=Neuburger |editor2-first=Mary C. |journal=[[Journal of Contemporary History]] |location=[[Thousand Oaks, California]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=37–58 |doi=10.1177/002200948802300103 |issn=1461-7250 |s2cid=161818702}}</ref>}}
By 1938, Mussolini began to actively support racist policies in the Italian Fascist regime, as evidenced by his endorsement of the ''[[Manifesto of Race]]'', the seventh point of which stated that "it is time that Italians proclaim themselves to be openly racist",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ww2.d155.org/pr/tdirectory/APetersen/Lists/19th%20%2020th%20Century%20World%20History%20Calendar/Attachments/232/The%20Manifesto%20of%20Race.pdf|title=The Manifesto of Race|date=1938|access-date=1 March 2019|archive-date=14 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414213149/http://ww2.d155.org/pr/tdirectory/APetersen/Lists/19th%20%2020th%20Century%20World%20History%20Calendar/Attachments/232/The%20Manifesto%20of%20Race.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> although Mussolini said that the Manifesto was endorsed "entirely for political reasons", in deference to [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] wishes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hibbert |first=Christopher |title=Il Duce; the Life of Benito Mussolini |date=1962 |publisher=Little, Brown |pages=87 |language=en}}</ref> The ''[[Manifesto of Race]]'' was published on 14 July 1938, paving the way for the enactment of the [[Italian racial laws|Racial Laws]].{{refn|<ref name="Shinn 2019"/><ref name="Gentile 2004"/><ref name="Negash 1997"/><ref name="Hollander 1997"/><ref name="Goeschel 2017"/><ref name="Robertson 1988"/>}} Leading members of the [[National Fascist Party]], such as [[Dino Grandi]] and [[Italo Balbo]], reportedly opposed the Racial Laws.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.149663/2015.149663.Inside-Europe#page/n283/mode/2up | title=Inside Europe | publisher=Harper & Brothers | author=Gunther, John | author-link=John Gunther | location=New York | year=1940 | page=262}}</ref> Balbo, in particular, regarded antisemitism as having nothing to do with fascism and staunchly opposed the antisemitic laws.<ref name="autogenerated1999">Claudio G. Segrè. ''Italo Balbo: A Fascist Life''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999. p. 346. {{ISBN|978-0520071995}}</ref> After 1938, racial discrimination and persecution of ethnic minorities in Fascist Italy intensified and became an increasingly important hallmark of [[Fascism and ideology|Italian Fascist ideology and policies]].{{refn|<ref name="Trevisan 2023"/><ref name="Shinn 2019"/><ref name="Trevisan 2017"/><ref name="Gentile 2004"/><ref name="Negash 1997"/><ref name="Hollander 1997"/><ref name="Goeschel 2017"/><ref name="Robertson 1988"/>}} Nevertheless, Mussolini and the Italian military did not consistently apply the laws adopted in the ''Manifesto of Race''.<ref>Kroener, Bernhard R.; Muller, Rolf-Dieter; Umbreit, Hans (2003). ''Germany and the Second World War Organization and Mobilization in the German Sphere of Power.'' Vol. VII. New York: Oxford University Press p. 247</ref> In 1943, shortly after the [[Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy|downfall of the Italian Fascist regime]], Mussolini expressed regret for the endorsement, saying that it could have been avoided.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Gillette |author-first=Aaron |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Y8XRZAdv9IC&pg=PA95 |title=Racial Theories in Fascist Italy |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |page=95 |isbn=978-0-203-16489-1}}</ref>
=== Totalitarianism === {{Main|Totalitarianism}} {{Further|Authoritarianism|Caesarism}}
In 1925, the [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF) declared that [[Fascist Italy|Italy's fascist state]] would be [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]].<ref name="autogenerated3"/> The term "totalitarian" had initially been used as a pejorative accusation by Italy's liberal opposition that denounced the fascist movement for seeking to create a [[Totalitarianism|total]] [[dictatorship]].<ref name="autogenerated3"/> However, the fascists responded by accepting that they were totalitarian, but presented totalitarianism from a positive viewpoint.<ref name="autogenerated3"/> Mussolini described totalitarianism as seeking to forge an authoritarian national state that would be capable of completing ''Risorgimento'' of the ''Italia Irredenta'', forge a powerful modern Italy and create a new kind of citizen – politically active fascist Italians.<ref name="autogenerated3"/> ''[[The Doctrine of Fascism]]'' (''La dottrina del fascismo'', 1932) by the [[Actual idealism|actualist]] Italian philosopher [[Giovanni Gentile]] is the official formulation of Italian fascism, [[Ghostwriter|ghostwritten]] by Gentile and published under [[Benito Mussolini]]'s name in 1932.<ref name="gentile"/> It described the totalitarian nature of Italian fascism, stating the following: {{blockquote|Fascism is for the only liberty which can be a serious thing, the liberty of the state and of the individual in the state. Therefore for the fascist, everything is in the state, and no human or spiritual thing exists, or has any sort of value, outside the state. In this sense fascism is totalitarian, and the fascist state which is the synthesis and unity of every value, interprets, develops and strengthens the entire life of the people.|Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile, ''[[The Doctrine of Fascism]]'' (1932)}}
American journalist [[H. R. Knickerbocker]] wrote in 1941: "Mussolini's Fascist state is the least terroristic of the three totalitarian states. The terror is so mild in comparison with the Soviet or Nazi varieties, that it almost fails to qualify as terroristic at all." As example he described an Italian journalist friend who refused to become a fascist. He was fired from his newspaper and put under 24-hour surveillance, but otherwise not harassed; his employment contract was settled for a lump sum and he was allowed to work for the foreign press. Knickerbocker contrasted his treatment with the inevitable torture and execution under Stalin or Hitler, and stated "you have a fair idea of the comparative mildness of the Italian kind of totalitarianism".<ref name="knickerbocker1941">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RwGwpIBHhgcC&pg=PA72|title=Is Tomorrow Hitler's? 200 Questions on the Battle of Mankind|publisher=Reynal & Hitchcock|author=Knickerbocker, H. R.|year=1941|pages=72–73|isbn=978-1417992775|access-date=14 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125050130/https://books.google.com/books?id=RwGwpIBHhgcC&lpg=PR2&pg=PA72|archive-date=25 November 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>
However, since [[Historiography of World War II|World War II historians]] have noted that in Italy's colonies Italian fascism displayed extreme levels of violence. The [[Libyan genocide (1929–1934)|deaths of one-tenth of the population of the Italian colony of Libya]] occurred during the fascist era, including from the use of gassings, [[concentration camp]]s, starvation and disease; and in Ethiopia during the [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War]] and afterwards by 1938 a quarter of a million Ethiopians had died.<ref>[[Ruth Ben-Ghiat]]. ''Fascist Modernities: Italy, 1922–1945''. University of California. 2001. p. 126. {{ISBN|978-0520223639}}</ref>
=== Corporatist economics === Italian fascism promoted a [[Corporatism|corporatist]] [[economic system]]. The economy involved employer and employee [[syndicate]]s being linked together in corporative associations to collectively represent the nation's economic producers and work alongside the state to set national economic policy.<ref name="massaschussetts1"/> Mussolini declared such economics as a "[[Third Position]]" to capitalism and [[Marxism]]. For instance, he said in 1935 that [[Laissez-faire|orthodox capitalism]] no longer existed in the country. Preliminary plans as of 1939 intended to divide the country into 22 corporations which would send representatives to Parliament from each industry.{{r|gunther1940}}
State permission was required for almost any business activity, such as expanding a factory, merging a business, or to fire or lay off an employee. All wages were set by the government, and a [[minimum wage]] was imposed in Italy. Restrictions on labor increased. While corporations still could earn profits,<ref name="gunther1940">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.149663/2015.149663.Inside-Europe#page/n273/mode/2up|title=Inside Europe|publisher=Harper & Brothers|author=Gunther, John|author-link=John Gunther|location=New York|year=1940|pages=251–253|access-date=18 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190201043331/https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.149663/2015.149663.Inside-Europe#page/n273/mode/2up|archive-date=1 February 2019|url-status=live}}{{No ISBN}}</ref> Italian fascism supported criminalization of strikes by employees and [[Lockout (industry)|lockouts]] by employers as illegal acts it deemed as prejudicial to the national community as a whole.<ref>George Sylvester Counts. ''Bolshevism, fascism, and capitalism: an account of the three economic systems''. 3rd edition. Yale University Press, 1970. p. 96. {{No ISBN}}</ref>
=== Age and gender roles === The Italian fascists' political anthem was called ''[[Giovinezza]]'' ("Youth").<ref name="Mark Antliff 2007. p. 171">Mark Antliff. ''Avant-Garde Fascism: The Mobilization of Myth, Art, and Culture in France, 1909–1939''. Duke University Press, 2007. p. 171. {{ISBN|978-0822340157}}</ref> Fascism identifies the physical age period of youth as a critical time for the moral development of people that will affect society.<ref>Maria Sop Quine. ''Population Politics in Twentieth Century Europe: Fascist Dictatorships and Liberal Democracies''. Routledge, 1995. p. 47. {{ISBN|978-0415080699}}</ref>
Italian fascism pursued what it called "moral hygiene" of youth, particularly regarding [[Human sexuality|sexuality]].<ref name="Maria Sop Quine 1995. pp. 46–47">Maria Sop Quine. ''Population Politics in Twentieth Century Europe: Fascist Dictatorships and Liberal Democracies''. Routledge, 1995. pp. 46–47. {{ISBN|978-0415080699}}</ref> Fascist Italy promoted what it considered normal sexual behaviour in youth while denouncing what it considered deviant sexual behaviour.<ref name="Maria Sop Quine 1995. pp. 46–47"/> It condemned pornography, most forms of [[birth control]] and contraceptive devices (with the exception of the [[condom]]), homosexuality and prostitution as deviant sexual behaviour.<ref name="Maria Sop Quine 1995. pp. 46–47" /> Fascist Italy regarded the promotion of male sexual excitation before [[puberty]] as the cause of criminality amongst male youth.<ref name="Maria Sop Quine 1995. pp. 46–47"/> Fascist Italy reflected the belief of most Italians that homosexuality was wrong. Instead of the traditional Catholic teaching that it was a sin, a new approach was taken, based on the contemporary psychoanalysis, that it was a social disease.<ref name="Maria Sop Quine 1995. pp. 46–47"/> Fascist Italy pursued an aggressive campaign to reduce prostitution of young women.<ref name="Maria Sop Quine 1995. pp. 46–47"/>
Mussolini perceived [[Women in Italy|women]]'s primary role to be childbearers while men were warriors,<ref name="Wilson 2000">{{cite book |author-last=Wilson |author-first=Perry R. |year=2000 |orig-year=1996 |chapter=Women in Fascist Italy |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aJvzjv12CkcC&pg=PA78 |editor-last=Bessel |editor-first=Richard |editor-link=Richard Bessel |title=Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany: Comparisons and Contrasts |location=[[Cambridge]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |edition=Reprint |pages=78–93 |isbn=9780521477116}}</ref> once saying that "war is to man what maternity is to the woman".<ref name="psychoanalysis">Bollas, Christopher, ''Being a Character: Psychoanalysis and Self-Experience'' (Routledge, 1993) {{ISBN|978-0415088152}}, p. 205.</ref><ref name=malagreca-bridgew>{{cite journal|last=Malagreca|first=Miguel|title=Lottiamo Ancora 1: Reviewing One Hundred and Fifty Years of Italian Feminism|journal=Journal of International Women's Studies|date=May 2006|volume=7|issue=4|url=http://www.bridgew.edu/soas/jiws/May06/ItalianfeminismMiguel.pdf|access-date=22 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121225061018/http://www.bridgew.edu/SoAS/jiws/May06/ItalianfeminismMiguel.pdf|archive-date=25 December 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> In an effort to increase [[birth rate]]s, the Italian fascist government initiated policies designed to reduce a need for families to be [[Affluence in Italy|dependent on a dual-income]]. The most evident policy to lessen female participation in the workplace was a [[Pro-natalism|program to encourage large families]], where parents were given subsidies for a second child, and proportionally increased subsidies for a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth child.<ref name="mussolini73">McDonald, Hamish, ''Mussolini and Italian Fascism''. Nelson Thornes. 1999. p. 27. {{ISBN|0748733868}}</ref> Italian fascism called for women to be honoured as "reproducers of the nation" and the Italian fascist government held ritual ceremonies to honour women's role within the Italian nation.<ref name="university74">Mann, Michael. ''Fascists''. Cambridge University Press. 2004. p. 101. {{ISBN|978-0521831314}}</ref> In 1934, Mussolini declared that employment of women was a "major aspect of the thorny problem of unemployment" and that for women working was "incompatible with childbearing". Mussolini went on to say that the solution to unemployment for men was the "exodus of women from the work force".<ref name="routledge75">[[Durham, Martin]], ''Women and Fascism''. Routledge. 1998. p. 15. {{ISBN|978-0415122801}}</ref> Although the initial ''[[Fascist Manifesto]]'' contained a reference to [[universal suffrage]], this [[Anti-feminism|broad opposition to feminism]] meant that when it granted women the right to vote in 1925 it was limited purely to voting in local elections, and only applied to a small section of the female population. Furthermore, this reform was quickly made redundant as local elections were abolished in 1926 as a part of the {{ill|Exceptional Fascist Laws|it|Leggi fascistissime}}.<ref>Kevin Passmore, ''Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe, 1919-45''. [[New Brunswick, New Jersey]]: [[Rutgers University Press]]. 2003. p. 16 {{ISBN|978-0813533087}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last = De Grand |first= Alexander |date=1976 |title=Women under Italian Fascism | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2638244 |journal=The Historical Journal |language=en |volume=19 |issue= 4 |pages= 947–68|doi= 10.1017/S0018246X76000011 |jstor= 2638244 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
=== Tradition === [[File:Lupa Capitolina, Rome.jpg|thumb|[[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[She-wolf (Roman mythology)|she-wolf]], symbol of the [[Founding of Rome|founding legend of Rome]]]]
Italian fascism believed that the success of [[Italian nationalism]] required a clear sense of a shared past amongst the Italian people along with a commitment to a modernized Italy.<ref name="lazzaro2005"/> In a famous speech in 1926, Mussolini called for fascist art that was "traditionalist and at the same time modern, that looks to the past and at the same time to the future".<ref name="lazzaro2005"/>
Ancient symbols of [[Ancient Rome|Roman civilization]] were utilized by the Italian fascists, particularly the [[fasces]] that symbolized unity, authority and the exercise of power.<ref name="lazzaro1">Claudia Lazzaro, Roger J. Crum. "Forging a Visible Fascist Nation: Strategies for Fusing the Past and Present" by Claudia Lazzaro, ''Donatello Among The Blackshirts: History And Modernity in the Visual Culture of Fascist Italy''. [[Ithaca, New York]]: [[Cornell University Press]], 2005. p. 16. {{ISBN|978-0801489211}}</ref> Other traditional symbols of ancient Rome used by the fascists included the [[She-wolf (Roman mythology)|she-wolf]].<ref name="lazzaro1" /> The fasces and the she-wolf symbolized the shared Roman heritage of all the regions that constituted the Italian nation.<ref name="lazzaro1" /> In 1926, the fasces was adopted by the fascist government of Italy as a symbol of the state.<ref name="autogenerated1989">Denis Mack Smith. ''Italy and its Monarchy''. Yale University Press, 1989. p. 265. {{ISBN|978-0274734382}}</ref> In that year, the fascist government attempted to have the Italian national flag redesigned to incorporate the fasces on it.<ref name="autogenerated1989" /> This attempt to incorporate the fasces on the flag was stopped by strong opposition to the proposal by Italian monarchists.<ref name="autogenerated1989" /> Afterwards, the fascist government in public ceremonies rose the national tricolour flag along with a fascist black flag.<ref>Emilio Gentile. ''The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist Italy''. Harvard University Press, 1996. p. 119. {{ISBN|978-0674784758}}</ref> Years later, and after Mussolini was forced from power by the King in 1943 only to be rescued by German forces, the [[Italian Social Republic]] founded by Mussolini and the fascists did incorporate the fasces on the state's war flag, which was a variant of the Italian tricolour national flag.
The issue of the rule of monarchy or republic in Italy was an issue that changed several times through the development of Italian fascism, as initially the fascist movement was [[Republicanism|republican]] and denounced the [[House of Savoy|Savoy monarchy]].<ref name="autogenerated11">John Francis Pollard. ''The fascist Experience in Italy''. Routledge. 1998. p. 72. {{ISBN|978-0415116312}}</ref> However, Mussolini tactically abandoned republicanism in 1922 and recognized that the acceptance of the monarchy was a necessary compromise to gain the support of the establishment to challenge the liberal constitutional order that also supported the monarchy.<ref name="autogenerated11" /> King Victor Emmanuel III had become a popular ruler in the aftermath of Italy's gains after World War I and the army held close loyalty to the King, thus any idea of overthrowing the monarchy was discarded as foolhardy by the fascists at this point.<ref name="autogenerated11" /> Importantly, fascism's recognition of monarchy provided fascism with a sense of historical continuity and legitimacy.<ref name="autogenerated11" /> The fascists publicly identified King [[Victor Emmanuel II]], the first King of a reunited Italy who had initiated the ''Risorgimento'', along with other historic Italian figures such as [[Gaius Marius]], Julius Caesar, Giuseppe Mazzini, [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour]], Giuseppe Garibaldi and others, for being within a tradition of dictatorship in Italy that the fascists declared that they emulated.<ref>Christopher Duggan. ''Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini's Italy''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2013. p. 76. {{ISBN|978-0199730780}}</ref> However, this compromise with the monarchy did not yield a cordial relationship between the King and Mussolini.<ref name="autogenerated11" /> Although Mussolini had formally accepted the monarchy, he pursued and largely achieved reducing the power of the King to that of a [[figurehead]].<ref>Beasley Sr., Jimmy Lee. ''I Was There When It Happened''. Xlibris Corporation, 2010. p. 39. {{ISBN|978-1453544570}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=December 2017}} The King initially held complete nominal legal authority over the military through the ''[[Statuto Albertino]]'', but this was ended during the fascist regime when Mussolini created the position of [[First Marshal of the Empire]] in 1938, a two-person position of control over the military held by both the King and the head of government that had the effect of eliminating the King's previously exclusive legal authority over the military by giving Mussolini equal legal authority to the King over the military.<ref>Davide Rodogno. ''Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War''. p. 113. {{ISBN|978-0521845151}}</ref> In the 1930s, Mussolini became aggravated by the monarchy's continued existence due to envy of the fact that his counterpart in Germany [[Adolf Hitler]] was both head of state and head of government of a republic; and Mussolini in private denounced the monarchy and indicated that he had plans to dismantle the monarchy and create a republic with himself as head of state of Italy upon an Italian success in the then-anticipated major war about to erupt in Europe.<ref name="autogenerated11" />
After being removed from office and placed under arrest by the King in 1943, with the Kingdom of Italy's new non-fascist government switching sides from the [[Axis Powers]] to [[Allies of World War II|the Allies]], Italian fascism returned to republicanism and condemnation of the monarchy.<ref name="lastdays, pp 16–17">{{cite book|last=Moseley|first=Ray|title=Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce|publisher=Taylor Trade|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UmxaWvOL_IgC&q=Campo+Imperatore+abruzzo+mussolini&pg=PA7|isbn=1589790952|year=2004}}</ref> On 18 September 1943, Mussolini made his first public address to the Italian people since his rescue from arrest by allied German forces, in which he commended the loyalty of Hitler as an ally while condemning King Victor Emmanuel III of the Kingdom of Italy for betraying Italian fascism.<ref name="lastdays, pp 16–17"/> On the topic of the monarchy removing him from power and dismantling the fascist regime, Mussolini stated: "It is not the regime that has betrayed the monarchy, it is the monarchy that has betrayed the regime" and that "When a monarchy fails in its duties, it loses every reason for being. ... The state we want to establish will be national and social in the highest sense of the word; that is, it will be fascist, thus returning to our origins".<ref name="lastdays, pp 16–17" /> The fascists at this point did not denounce the [[House of Savoy]] in the entirety of its history and credited Victor Emmanuel II for his rejection of "scornfully dishonourable pacts" and denounced Victor Emmanuel III for betraying Victor Emmanuel II by entering a dishonourable pact with the Allies.<ref>Luisa Quartermaine. ''Mussolini's Last Republic: Propaganda and Politics in the Italian Social Republic (R.S.I.) 1943–45''. Intellect Books, 1 January 2000. p. 102. {{ISBN|978-1902454085}}</ref>
The relationship between Italian fascism and the [[Roman Catholic Church]] was mixed, as originally the fascists were highly [[Anti-clericalism|anti-clerical]] and [[Anti-Catholicism|hostile to Roman Catholicism]], though from the mid to late 1920s anti-clericalism lost ground in the movement as Mussolini in power sought to seek accord with the Church, as it held major influence on [[History of Italy|Italian society]], with [[Catholic Church in Italy|most Italians being Roman Catholic]].<ref>John F. Pollard. ''The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–32: A Study in Conflict''. Cambridge University Press, 1985, 2005. p. 10. {{ISBN|978-0521023665}}</ref> In 1929, the Fascist regime signed the [[Lateran Treaty]] with the [[Holy See]], a [[concordat]] between the Kingdom of Italy and the Roman Catholic Church that allowed for the creation of a small enclave known as [[Vatican City]] as a sovereign state representing the [[papacy]]. This ended years of perceived alienation between the Church and the Italian government after Italy annexed the [[Papal States]] in 1870. Italian fascism justified its adoption of [[Italian racial laws|antisemitic laws]] in 1938 by claiming that Italy was fulfilling the Christian religious mandate of the Roman Catholic Church that had been initiated by [[Pope Innocent III]] in the [[Fourth Lateran Council]] of 1215, whereby the Pope issued [[History of the Jews in Europe|strict regulation on the life of Jews in Christian lands]]. Jews were prohibited from holding any public office that would give them power over Christians and Jews were required to wear distinctive clothing to distinguish them from Christians.<ref>Wiley Feinstein. ''The Civilization of the Holocaust in Italy: Poets, Artists, Saints, Anti-Semites''. Rosemont Publish & Printing Corp., 2003. p. 56. {{ISBN|978-1611472608}}</ref>
== Doctrine == {{Main|Fascism and ideology|History of fascism}} {{Redirect|Ceka|the Soviet secret police alternatively transliterated ''Čeka ''|Cheka}} [[File:Giovanni Gentile.png|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Giovanni Gentile]], ideologue and [[Actual idealism|philosophical father]] of Italian fascism.<ref name="Griffin 2008"/> He was the [[ghostwriter]] of ''[[The Doctrine of Fascism]]'' and author of the ''[[Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals]]''.]]
''[[The Doctrine of Fascism]]'' (''La dottrina del fascismo'', 1932), authored by the [[Actual idealism|actualist]] Italian philosopher [[Giovanni Gentile]],<ref name="Griffin 2008"/> is the official formulation of Italian fascism, [[Ghostwriter|ghostwritten]] by Gentile himself and published under [[Benito Mussolini]]'s name in 1932.<ref name="gentile">{{cite book|author-last=Gregor|author-first=A. James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQEjHAAACAAJ&q=giovanni+gentile|publisher=Transaction Pub|title=Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of Fascism|isbn=0765805936|date= 2004|access-date=14 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151030094219/https://books.google.com/books?id=xQEjHAAACAAJ&dq=giovanni+gentile|archive-date=30 October 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Gentile was [[Intellectualism|intellectually]] influenced by [[Plato]], [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|G. W. F. Hegel]], [[Benedetto Croce]], and [[Giambattista Vico]]; thus, his actualist idealism was the basis for the fascist ideology.<ref name="gentile"/> Hence, the ''Doctrine''{{'}}s ''[[Weltanschauung]]'' proposes the world as action in the realm of humanity—beyond the quotidian constrictions of contemporary political trend, by rejecting "[[World peace|perpetual peace]]" as fantastical, and accepting [[Humans|mankind]] as a species continually at [[war]]; those who meet the challenge, achieve [[nobility]].<ref name="gentile"/> To wit, actual idealism generally accepted that conquerors were the men of historical consequence, e.g. the Macedonian [[Alexander the Great]], the Roman [[Julius Caesar]], the Frank [[Charlemagne]], and the French [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]]. The philosopher–intellectual Gentile was especially inspired by the [[Greco-Roman world|civilization]], [[Legacy of the Roman Empire|cultural heritage]], [[Military history of ancient Rome|military conquests]], and [[Pax Romana|political hegemony]] of the [[Roman Empire]] (27 BCE – 476 CE),<ref name="Nelis 2018"/> and the [[Culture of ancient Rome|way of life of ancient Romans]],<ref name="Nelis 2018"/> from whence Italian fascism derives its philosophical ideals and political aspiration:<ref name="gentile"/> {{cquote|The Fascist accepts and loves life; he rejects and despises suicide as cowardly. Life as he understands it means duty, elevation, conquest; life must be lofty and full, it must be lived for oneself but above all for others, both near by and far off, present and future.|15px|15px|Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini, ''[[The Doctrine of Fascism]]'', 1932<ref name="Griffin 2008">{{cite book |author-last=Griffin |author-first=Roger |author-link=Roger Griffin |year=2008 |chapter=''I am no longer human. I am a Titan. A god!'' The Fascist Quest to Regenerate Time |editor-last=Feldman |editor-first=Matthew |editor-link=Matthew Feldman (historian) |title=A Fascist Century: Essays by Roger Griffin |location=[[Basingstoke]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |edition=1st |series=Palgrave History Collection |pages=2–23 |doi=10.1057/9780230594135_1 |isbn=978-0-230-59413-5}}</ref>}}
Gentile defined fascism as an [[Positivism#Criticism|anti-positivist]] and anti-intellectual doctrine, [[Epistemology|epistemologically]] based on faith rather than reason.{{refn|<ref name="Nelis 2018"/><ref name="Payne 1996 215"/>}} [[Fascist mysticism]] emphasized the importance of [[political myth]]s, which were true not as [[Empiricism|empirical facts]], but as "meta-reality".{{refn|<ref name="Nelis 2018"/><ref name="Payne 1996 215"/>}} Fascist visual arts, [[Fascist architecture|architecture]], [[Cinema of Italy#1930s|cinema]], [[Propaganda in Fascist Italy|radio and press]], and [[Fascist symbolism|symbolism]] constituted a process which converted Fascism into a sort of a [[civil religion]] or [[political religion]] in Italy.{{refn|<ref name="Nelis 2018">{{cite book |author-last=Nelis |author-first=Jan |year=2018 |chapter=Fascist Modernity, Religion, and the Myth of Rome |editor1-last=Roche |editor1-first=Helen |editor2-last=Demetriou |editor2-first=Kyriakos N. |title=Brill's Companion to the Classics, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |series=Brill's Companions to Classical Reception |volume=12 |pages=133–156 |doi=10.1163/9789004299061_007 |isbn=978-90-04-29906-1 |issn=2213-1426}}</ref><ref name="Payne 1996 215"/>}} ''La dottrina del fascismo'' states that fascism is a "religious conception of life" and forms a "spiritual community" in contrast to [[Bourgeois nation|bourgeois]] [[Economic materialism|materialism]].<ref name="Payne 1996 215"/> Fascist slogans such as ''Credere, Obbedire, Combattere'' ("Believe, Obey, Fight") reflect the importance of political faith in Italian fascism.<ref name="Payne 1996 215">{{cite book |author-last=Payne |author-first=Stanley G. |author-link=Stanley G. Payne |year=1996 |title=A History of Fascism, 1914–1945 |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |isbn=978-1857285956 |page=215}}</ref>
[[File:National Fascist Party logo.svg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Emblem of the [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF)]] The earliest Italian fascist political organization, [[Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria|Fasces of Revolutionary Action]] (''Fasci d{{'}}Azione Rivoluzionaria''),{{sfnp|Brennan|2022|pp=178–197}} inspired by the programmatic manifesto of the [[Fascio Rivoluzionario d'Azione Internazionalista|Revolutionary Fasces of Internationalist Action]] (''Fascio Rivoluzionario d{{'}}Azione Internazionalista'') written by the Italian [[National syndicalism|national syndicalist]] [[Alceste De Ambris]] and [[Left-interventionism|left-wing interventionist]] [[Filippo Corridoni]] (5 October 1914), was founded by the then-journalist [[Benito Mussolini]] in 1915.{{sfnp|Mussolini|2006|p=227}} Its successor, the [[Fasci Italiani di Combattimento|Italian Fasces of Combat]] (''Fasci Italiani di Combattimento''), was co-founded in [[Milan]] by Mussolini,<ref name="Berghaus 2019"/> [[Futurism|Futurist poet]] and art theorist [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]],<ref name="Berghaus 2019"/> and [[Italy in World War I|WWI veteran]] and poet [[Giuseppe Ungaretti]],<ref name="Berghaus 2019">{{cite book |author1-last=Somigli |author1-first=Luca |author2-last=Di Genova |author2-first=Giorgio |year=2019 |chapter=Italy |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBd-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA576 |editor-last=Berghaus |editor-first=Günter |title=Handbook of International Futurism |location=[[Berlin]], [[Boston]], and [[Munich]] |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |pages=576–627 |doi=10.1515/9783110273564-037 |isbn=9783110273564}}</ref> and its politico-philosophical tenets were presented through ''[[The Manifesto of the Fascist Struggle]]'' (''Il manifesto dei fasci italiani di combattimento'', June 1919), written by Marinetti and De Ambris.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Elazar |author-first=Dahlia S. |year=2001 |title=The Making of Fascism: Class, State, and Counter-Revolution, Italy 1919–1928 |url=http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?isbn=978-0275958640 |url-status=live |location=[[Westport, Connecticut]] |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |edition=1st |page=73 |isbn=978-0275958640 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224111411/http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?isbn=9780275958640 |archive-date=24 December 2013 |access-date=1 November 2012}}</ref> It was divided into four sections, describing the movement's objectives in political, social, military, and financial fields.<ref>{{cite web|title=Il manifesto dei fasci di combattimento|url=http://web.tiscalinet.it/regno76/testi/manifesti/Il%20manifesto%20dei%20fasci%20di%20combattimento.htm|access-date=2 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220075247/http://web.tiscalinet.it/regno76/testi/manifesti/Il%20manifesto%20dei%20fasci%20di%20combattimento.htm|archive-date=20 February 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Israeli historian [[Zeev Sternhell]], "most syndicalist leaders were among the founders of the fascist movement", who in later years gained key posts in Mussolini's regime.<ref>Zeev Sternhell, with Mario Sznajder, Maia Asheri, ''The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution'' Princeton: NJ, Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 33. {{ISBN|978-0691032894}}</ref> Mussolini expressed great admiration for the ideas of French philosopher and social theorist [[Georges Sorel]],<ref>Jacob Leib Talmon, ''The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution'', University of California Press, 1981, p. 451. {{ISBN|978-0520044494}}</ref> who he claimed was instrumental in birthing the core principles of Italian fascism.<ref>Zeev Sternhell, ''Neither Left nor Right: Fascist Ideology in France'', Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 107. {{ISBN|978-0691006291}}</ref> Israeli historian [[J. L. Talmon]] argued that fascism billed itself "not only as an alternative, but also as the heir to socialism".<ref>Jacob Leib Talmon, ''The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution'', University of California Press, 1981, p. 501. {{ISBN|978-0520044494}}</ref>
''La dottrina del fascismo'' proposed an Italy of greater living standards under a [[One-party state|one-party]] fascist system than under the [[Multi-party system|multi-party]] [[Liberal democracy|liberal democratic]] [[Fifth Giolitti government|Giolitti government]] of 1920.<ref name="heater"/> As the leader of the [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF: ''Partito Nazionale Fascista''), Mussolini said that democracy is "beautiful in theory; in practice, it is a fallacy" and spoke of celebrating the burial of the "putrid corpse of liberty".{{refn|<ref name="heater"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Spignesi|first=Stephen J|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ufXPKUqorS8C&q=%22Democracy+is+beautiful+in+theory%22|publisher=CITADEL PR|title=The Italian 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential, Cultural, Scientific, and Political Figures, Past and Present|isbn=0806523999|year=2003|access-date=14 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151130120200/https://books.google.com/books?id=ufXPKUqorS8C&dq=%22Democracy+is+beautiful+in+theory%22|archive-date=30 November 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>}} In 1923, to give Deputy Mussolini control of the [[Pluralism (political theory)|pluralist]] [[List of prime ministers of Italy#Prime ministers of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|parliamentary government]] of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] (1861–1946), an Italian economist, the Baron [[Giacomo Acerbo]], proposed—and the [[Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy|Italian Parliament]] approved—the [[Acerbo Law]], changing the electoral system from [[proportional representation]] to [[Majority representation system|majority representation]]. The party who received the most votes (provided they possessed at least 25 percent of cast votes) won two-thirds of the Parliament; the remaining third was proportionately shared among the other parties; thus, the fascist manipulation of liberal democratic law rendered Italy a [[one-party state]].
In 1924, the PNF won the election with 65 percent of the votes,<ref name="matteotti">{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,797902,00.html|magazine=Time|title=So Long Ago|date=8 January 2008|access-date=16 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090224094326/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,797902,00.html|archive-date=24 February 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> yet the [[United Socialist Party (Italy, 1922–1930)|United Socialist Party]] (PSU) refused to accept such a defeat—especially Deputy [[Giacomo Matteotti]], who on 30 May 1924 in Parliament formally accused the PNF of [[electoral fraud]] and reiterated his denunciation of ''[[squadrismo]]'' to the Parliament, a form of [[political repression]] and [[Political violence|politically-motivated violence]] perpetrated by the [[Blackshirts]] against Italian citizens and non-fascist politicians;{{refn|<ref name="CPS 2025">{{cite journal |author1-last=Costalli |author1-first=Stefano |author2-last=Guariso |author2-first=Daniele |author3-last=Ruggeri |author3-first=Andrea |date=December 2025 |title=The Violent Legacy of Fascism: Evidence From Italy |journal=[[Comparative Political Studies]] |volume=58 |issue=4: ''Legacies of Repression and Resistance in the Early 20th Century'' |location=[[Thousand Oaks, California]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |pages=3250–3284 |doi=10.1177/0010414024125 |issn=1552-3829 |lccn=68007517}}</ref><ref name="Albanese 2016">{{cite book |author-last=Albanese |author-first=Giulia |year=2016 |chapter=Searching for Antifascism: Historiography, the Crisis of the Liberal State, and the Birth of Fascism and Antifascism in Italy, Spain, and Portugal |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoFTCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA76 |editor1-last=García |editor1-first=Hugo |editor2-last=Yusta |editor2-first=Mercedes |editor3-last=Tabet |editor3-first=Xavier |editor4-last=Clímaco |editor4-first=Cristina |title=Rethinking Antifascism: History, Memory, and Politics, 1922 to the Present |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Berghahn Books]] |pages=76–91 |doi=10.3167/9781785331381 |isbn=978-1-80758-488-7 |jstor=j.ctvpj7j84.8}}</ref><ref name="JMIS 2022">{{cite journal |author-last=Foot |author-first=John |year=2022 |title=A micro-history of Fascist violence. Squadristi, victims, and perpetrators |editor-last=Davis |editor-first=John A. |journal=[[Journal of Modern Italian Studies]] |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]], [[Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=528–549 |doi=10.1080/1354571X.2022.2045454 |doi-access=free |issn=1469-9583 |s2cid=248060324}}</ref><ref name="TPV 2008">{{cite journal |author1-last=Eubank |author1-first=William |author2-last=Weinberg |author2-first=Leonard |year=2000 |title=The Italian regions and the prospects for democracy |editor-last=Forest |editor-first=James J. F. |editor-link=James J. F. Forest |journal=[[Terrorism and Political Violence]] |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |volume=12 |issue=3–4: ''The Democratic Experience and Political Violence'' |pages=293–307 |doi=10.1080/09546550008427580 |issn=1556-1836 |lccn=93642626}}</ref><ref name="Nash 2004"/>}} at that time, he was publishing a book substantiating his accusations, ''The Fascists Exposed: A Year of Fascist Domination''.{{refn|<ref name="matteotti"/><ref>[http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Italia_-_30_maggio_1924,_Discorso_alla_Camera_dei_Deputati_di_denuncia_di_brogli_elettorali Speech of the 30th of May 1924] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100217033833/http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Italia_-_30_maggio_1924,_Discorso_alla_Camera_dei_Deputati_di_denuncia_di_brogli_elettorali |date=17 February 2010}}</ref>}} Consequently, on 10 June 1924, the ''Ceka''<ref>{{cite book|first= Giorgio |last=Candeloro|title=Il fascismo e le sue guerre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i0B0pptCs4oC&dq=matteotti+assassinato+da+ceka&pg=PA68|page=68|publisher=Feltrinelli|year=1986|language=it|access-date=13 January 2023|isbn=978-8807808043}}</ref> (ostensibly a party [[secret police]], modelled on the Soviet [[Cheka]]) assassinated Matteotti and of the five men arrested, [[Amerigo Dumini]], also known as ''Sicario del Duce'' ("The Leader's Assassin"), was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for [[murder]] but served only eleven months, and was freed under amnesty from [[King of Italy|King]] [[Victor Emmanuel III]].<ref name="Nash 2004"/>
Moreover, when the King [[Political endorsement|endorsed]] Mussolini as [[List of prime ministers of Italy#Prime ministers of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Prime Minister]] in the [[Matteotti Crisis|aftermath of Matteotti's murder]],<ref name="Nash 2004">{{cite book |author-last=Nash |author-first=Jay R. |author-link=Jay Robert Nash |year=2004 |chapter="PREPARE ORATIONS FOR MY FUNERAL"/June 10, 1924 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SpSHEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 |title=The Great Pictorial History of World Crime |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |volume=1 |pages=122–125 |isbn=9798216316558}}</ref> all members of the [[Italian Socialist Party]], [[Italian Liberal Party]], [[Italian People's Party (1919)|Italian People's Party]], and [[Communist Party of Italy]] from the [[Chamber of Deputies (Kingdom of Italy)|Chamber of Deputies]] quit the Parliament in protest through the [[Aventine Secession (20th century)|Aventine Secession]], leaving the fascists to govern unopposed.{{refn|<ref name="Nash 2004"/><ref name="fsmith"/>}} At that time, assassination was not yet the ''modus operandi'' norm and the Italian fascist ''Duce'' usually disposed of opponents in the Imperial Roman way: political arrest punished with [[Exile|island banishment]] (''confino'').{{refn|<ref name="Exile 2019">{{cite book |author1-last=Garofalo |author1-first=Piero |author2-last=Leake |author2-first=Elizabeth |author3-last=Renga |author3-first=Dana |year=2019 |chapter=Confino in historical perspective |title=Internal exile in Fascist Italy: History and representations of confino |location=[[Berlin]], [[Boston]], [[Manchester]], and [[Munich]] |publisher=[[De Gruyter]]/[[Manchester University Press]] |pages=45–88 |doi=10.7765/9781526133885.00008 |isbn=9781526133885}}</ref><ref name="farrell">{{cite book|last=Farrell|first=Nicholas Burgess|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aSlIzmsxU8oC&q=new+life+mussolini|publisher=Orion Publishing Group|title=Mussolini: A New Life|isbn=1842121235|year=2004|access-date=14 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151127020944/https://books.google.com/books?id=aSlIzmsxU8oC&dq=new+life+mussolini|archive-date=27 November 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>}} In 1925, after [[1924 Italian general election|Mussolini's rise to power]], he assumed the title ''[[Duce]]'' ("Leader"), derived from the Latin ''[[dux]]'' ("leader"), a [[Roman Republic]] military-command title. Although [[Fascist Italy]] (1922–1943) is considered to be an [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]]–[[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] [[dictatorship]] by contemporary historians, its government retained the original "[[Liberal democracy|liberal democratic]]" façade: the [[Grand Council of Fascism]] remained active as administrators; and [[King of Italy|King]] [[Victor Emmanuel III]] still held legal authority over Mussolini and all other subjects of [[Kingdom of Italy|his kingdom]]; hence, he could—at the risk of [[House of Savoy|his crown]]—dismiss Mussolini as [[List of prime ministers of Italy#Prime ministers of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Prime Minister]] anytime he wanted, as he eventually did on 25 July 1943.<ref name="Delzell 1971">{{cite book |author-last=Delzell |author-first=Charles F. |year=1971 |chapter=Monarchist Coup d'État and Republican Fascism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e7qwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA221 |title=Mediterranean Fascism 1919–1945 |location=[[Basingstoke]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |edition=1st |series=The Documentary History of Western Civilization |pages=221–256 |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-00240-5_7 |isbn=978-1-349-00240-5}}</ref>
== Conditions which precipitated the rise of fascism ==
=== Nationalist discontent === {{Main|Aftermath of World War I|Balkan Front (World War I)|Italian front (World War I)}} {{Further|Creation of Yugoslavia|Dissolution of Austria-Hungary|Italia irredenta|Italian Empire}} [[File:Austria Hungary ethnic.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Map indicating [[Italian diaspora|Italian-inhabited territories]] (bright green) within the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Empire]] in 1911]] [[File:Promised Borders of the Tready of London.png|thumb|upright=1.2|Territories promised to Italy by the [[Treaty of London (1915)|Treaty of London]] (1915): [[South Tyrol]]/[[Trentino-Alto Adige]] (tan), the [[Julian March]] and [[Dalmatia]] (tan), and the [[Snežnik (plateau)|Snežnik Plateau]] area (green). After the end of [[World War I]] (1914–1918), Dalmatia was not assigned to Italy but to [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]].]]
After the end of [[World War I]] (1914–1918), despite the [[Kingdom of Italy]] (1861–1946) being a full-partner [[Allies of World War I|Allied Power]] against the [[Central Powers]], both [[Italian nationalism|Italian nationalists]] and fascists claimed that Italy had been cheated in the [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)|Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye]] (1919); thus, the Allies had impeded Italy's progress to becoming a "Great Power".<ref name="fsmith">{{cite news|url=http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch12.htm|publisher=FSmitha.com|title=Mussolini and Fascism in Italy|date=8 January 2008|access-date=16 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080623084330/http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch12.htm|archive-date=23 June 2008|url-status=live}}</ref> Thenceforth, the [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF) successfully exploited that "slight" to Italian nationalism in presenting fascism as best-suited for governing the country by successfully claiming that [[democracy]], [[socialism]], and [[liberalism]] were failed political systems. The PNF arose to power in Italy after the [[March on Rome]] in October 1922, consequent to the fascist leader [[Benito Mussolini]]'s oratory and [[Blackshirts]]' [[Squadrismo|paramilitary political violence]].{{refn|<ref name="CPS 2025"/><ref name="Albanese 2016"/><ref name="JMIS 2022"/><ref name="TPV 2008"/>}}
At the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919, the Allies compelled the Kingdom of Italy to yield the Croatian seaport of Fiume ([[Rijeka]]) to the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]]. Moreover, elsewhere Italy was then excluded from the wartime secret [[Treaty of London (1915)|Treaty of London]] (1915) it had concorded with the [[Triple Entente]];<ref>Edward R. Tannenbaum. ''The Fascist Experience''. ACLS History E-Book Project. 2008. p. 22. {{No ISBN}}</ref> wherein Italy was to leave the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]] and join the enemy by [[Declaration of war|declaring war]] against the [[German Empire]] and [[Austria-Hungary]] in exchange for territories at war's end, upon which the Kingdom of Italy held claims ([[South Tyrol]]/[[Trentino-Alto Adige]], the [[Austrian Littoral]], [[Istria]], [[Dalmatia]], the [[Julian March]], and the [[Snežnik (plateau)|Snežnik Plateau]]) based on terms set by the [[Treaty of London (1915)#Terms|Treaty of London]] in 1915 (see ''[[Mutilated victory]]'').
In September 1919, the nationalist response of outraged Italian novelist, poet, and war hero [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]] was declaring the establishment of the [[Italian Regency of Carnaro]].<ref name="macdonal">{{cite book|last=Macdonald|first=Hamish|title=Mussolini and Italian Fascism|publisher=Nelson Thornes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=221W9vKkWrcC&q=Gabriele+d%27Annunzio+paris+peace&pg=PT16 |isbn=0748733868|year=1999}}</ref> To his independent Italian state, he installed himself as the Regent ''Duce'' and promulgated the ''Carta del Carnaro'' (''[[Charter of Carnaro]]'', 8 September 1920), a [[Syncretic politics|politically syncretic]] constitutional amalgamation of right-wing and left-wing [[Anarchism|anarchist]], [[History of fascism|proto-fascist]], and [[Republican democracy|democratic republican]] politics, which much influenced the politico-philosophic development of early Italian fascism. Consequent to the [[Treaty of Rapallo, 1920|Treaty of Rapallo]] (1920), the metropolitan Italian military deposed the Regency of ''Duce'' D'Annunzio on Christmas 1920. In the development of the fascist model of government, D'Annunzio was a nationalist and not a fascist, whose legacy of political–[[Praxis (process)|praxis]] ("Politics as Theatre") was stylistic (ceremony, uniform, harangue and chanting) and not substantive, which Italian Fascism artfully developed as a government model.<ref name="macdonal"/><ref>Roger Eatwell. ''Fascism: A History''. Penguin Books. 1995. p. 49. {{ISBN|978-0140257007}}</ref>
At the same time, Mussolini and many of his revolutionary syndicalist adherents gravitated towards a form of [[revolutionary nationalism]] in an effort to "identify the 'communality' of man not with class, but with the nation".<ref>[[A. James Gregor]], ''Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of Fascism'', New Brunswick: NJ, Transaction Publishers, 2004, p. 55. {{ISBN|0765805936}}</ref> According to [[A. James Gregor]], Mussolini came to believe that "Fascism was the only form of 'socialism' appropriate to the [[proletarian nation]]s of the twentieth century" while he was in the process of shifting his views from socialism to nationalism.<ref>[[A. James Gregor]], ''Phoenix: Fascism in Our Time'', New Brunswick: NJ, Transaction Press, 2009, p. 191. {{ISBN|978-0765808554}}</ref> [[Enrico Corradini]], one of the early influences on Mussolini's thought and later a member of his administration, championed the concept of proletarian nationalism, writing about Italy in 1910: "We are the proletarian people in respect to the rest of the world. Nationalism is our socialism".<ref>Jacob L. Talmon, ''The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution: The Origins of Ideological Polarization'', Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1991. p. 484. {{ISBN|978-0520044494}}</ref> Mussolini would come to use similar wording, for instance referring to fascist Italy during World War II as the "proletarian nations that rise up against the plutocrats".<ref>Mussolini's interview, "Soliloquy for 'freedom' Trimellone island", on the Italian Island of Trimelone, journalist Ivanoe Fossani, 20 March 1945, ''Opera Omnia'', vol. 32. Interview is also known as "Testament of Benito Mussolini", or ''Testamento di Benito Mussolini.'' Also published under "Mussolini confessed to the stars", Publishing House Latinitas, Rome, 1952</ref>
=== Labor unrest === [[File:A sociological study of violence in history (Italy 1919-1922).gif|thumb|upright=0.9|A sociological study of violence in Italy (1919–1922) by [[text mining]] (arrow width proportional to number of violent acts between social groups; click on large animated GIF image to see evolution)]]
Given Italian fascism's pragmatic [[Syncretic politics|political amalgamations]] of [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]] and [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] socio-economic policies, discontented workers and peasants proved an abundant source of popular political power, especially because of peasant opposition to socialist agricultural collectivism. Thus armed, the former socialist Benito Mussolini oratorically inspired and mobilized country and working-class people: "We declare war on socialism, not because it is socialist, but because it has opposed nationalism". Moreover, for campaign financing in the 1920–1921 period, the [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF) also courted the industrialists and historically feudal landowners by appealing to their fears of left-wing socialist and [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] labor politics and urban and rural strikes. The fascists promised a good business climate of cost-effective labor, wage and political stability; and the fascist Party was ''en route'' to power.
Historian Charles F. Delzell reports: "At first, the Fascist Revolutionary Party was concentrated in Milan and a few other cities. They gained ground quite slowly, between 1919 and 1920; not until after the scare, brought about by the workers "occupation of the factories" in the late summer of 1920 did fascism become really widespread. The industrialists began to throw their financial support behind Mussolini after he renamed his party and retracted his former support for Lenin and the Russian Revolution. Moreover, toward the end of 1920, fascism began to spread into the countryside, bidding for the support of large landowners, particularly in the area between Bologna and Ferrara, a traditional stronghold of the Left, and scene of frequent violence. Socialist and Catholic organizers of farm hands in that region, Venezia Giulia, Tuscany, and even distant Apulia, were soon attacked by [[Blackshirts|Blackshirt fascist squads]], armed with castor oil, blackjacks, and more lethal weapons. The era of ''[[squadrismo]]'' and nightly expeditions to burn Socialist and Catholic labor headquarters had begun. During this time period, Mussolini's fascist squads also engaged in violent attacks against the Church where "several priests were assassinated and churches burned by the fascists".<ref>Maurice Parmelle, ''Bolshevism, Fascism, and the Liberal-Democratic State'', London; Chapman and Hill, LTD, New York: John Wiley and Son, Inc., 1935, p. 190. {{No ISBN}}</ref> <!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Benito Mussolini Roman Salute.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Mussolini's [[Roman salute]]]] -->
== Empowerment of fascism == {{Main|Aftermath of World War I|Biennio Rosso|Revolutions of 1917–1923}} {{Further|Mutilated victory|Treaty of Sèvres#Italy|Treaty of Versailles#Italy|World War I reparations}}
[[World War I]] inflated Italy's economy with [[World War I reparations|great debts]], [[unemployment]] (aggravated by thousands of demobilised soldiers), social discontent featuring general strikes, [[Organized crime in Italy|organized crime]],<ref name="fsmith"/> and [[Anarchism|anarchist]], [[Socialism|socialist]], and [[Communism|communist]] insurrections in the country and [[Revolutions of 1917–1923|across Europe]] (1917–1923).<ref name="marchonrome">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://original.britannica.com/eb/article-9083848/March-on-Rome|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|title=March on Rome|date=8 January 2008}}</ref> The [[Liberal Union (Italy)|liberal-led]] [[Giovanni Giolitti|Giolitti governments]] preferred fascist [[class collaboration]] to the [[Communist Party of Italy]]'s [[class conflict]] should they assume government as had [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s [[Bolshevism|Bolsheviks]] in the recent [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian Revolution]] of 1917,<ref name="giolitti"/> although Mussolini had originally praised Lenin's October Revolution<ref>Peter Neville, ''Mussolini'', Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 36. {{ISBN|978-0415249904}}</ref> and publicly referred to himself in 1919 as "Lenin of Italy".<ref>[[Denis Mack Smith]], ''Modern Italy: A Political History'', University of Michigan Press, 1997, first publish in 1959, p. 284. {{ISBN|978-0472108954}}</ref>
When the elected [[Italian Liberal Party]] (PLI) could not rule the country anymore due to social unrests, the fascist leader [[Benito Mussolini]] took matters in hand, combating those issues with the [[Blackshirts]], paramilitary squads of WWI veterans and former socialists, when [[List of prime ministers of Italy#Prime ministers of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Prime Ministers]] such as [[Giovanni Giolitti]] allowed the fascists taking the law in hand.<ref name="giolitti">{{cite book |last=De Grand |first=Alexander J|title=The Hunchback's Tailor: Giovanni Giolitti and Liberal Italy from the Challenge of Mass Politics to the Rise of Fascism, 1882–1922|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5x7hE8hp1UC&q=Giovanni+Giolitti++mussolini|isbn=027596874X |year=2001}}</ref> The [[political violence]] between socialist militants and the mostly self-organized [[Blackshirts|Blackshirt fascist squads]], especially in the countryside, had increased so dramatically that Mussolini was pressured to call a truce to bring about "reconciliation with the Socialists".<ref>Dahlia S. Elazar, ''The Making of Fascism: Class, State, and Counter-revolution, Italy 1919–1922''. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2001. p. 141. {{ISBN|978-0275958640}}</ref> Signed in early August 1921, Mussolini and the major representatives of the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI) agreed to the [[Pact of Pacification]], which was immediately condemned by most ras leaders in the ''[[squadrismo]]''. The peace pact was officially denounced during the Third Fascist Congress on 7–10 November 1921.
[[File:March on Rome.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Mussolini and the fascist paramilitary Blackshirts' [[March on Rome]] in October 1922]] Italy's use of daredevil elite [[shock troops]], known as the ''[[Arditi]]'', beginning in 1917, was an important influence on Italian fascism.<ref name=rg207>Roger Griffin, Matthew Feldman. Fascism: Fascism and culture. London; New York City, US: Routledge, 2004. p. 207. {{ISBN|978-0415290180}}</ref> The ''Arditi'' were soldiers who were specifically trained for a life of violence and wore unique blackshirt uniforms and [[Fez (hat)|fez]]zes.<ref name=rg207/> The ''Arditi'' formed a national organization in November 1918, the ''Associazione fra gli Arditi d'Italia'', which by mid-1919 had about twenty thousand young men within it.<ref name=rg207/> Mussolini appealed to the ''Arditi'' and the Fascists' ''[[Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale|squadristi]]'', developed after the war, were based upon the ''Arditi''.<ref name=rg207/> By the early 1920s, popular support for the fascist movement's fight against Bolshevism numbered some 250,000 people. In 1921, the fascists metamorphosed into the PNF and achieved political legitimacy when Mussolini was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1922.<ref name="fsmith"/> Although the Liberal Party retained power, the governing [[Prime Minister|prime ministries]] proved ephemeral, especially that of the fifth Prime Minister [[Luigi Facta]], whose government proved vacillating.<ref name="fsmith"/>
To [[Deposition (politics)|depose]] the weakened [[Parliamentary system|parliamentary democracy]], Deputy Mussolini (with military, business, and liberal right-wing support) launched the [[March on Rome]] (27–31 October 1922) [[coup d'état]] to oust [[List of prime ministers of Italy#Prime ministers of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Prime Minister]] [[Luigi Facta]] and assume the government of Italy to restore nationalist pride, restart the economy, increase productivity with labor controls, remove economic business controls, and impose [[Law and order (politics)|law and order]].<ref name="fsmith"/> On 28 October, whilst the March occurred, [[King of Italy|King]] [[Victor Emmanuel III]] withdrew his support to the [[Italian Liberal Party|liberal-led]] [[Second Facta government|Facta government]] and appointed Mussolini as the sixth Prime Minister of Italy.<ref name="Priorelli 2024"/> The March on Rome became a victory parade: the fascists believed their success was revolutionary and [[Traditional values|traditionalist]].<ref name="Priorelli 2024">{{cite journal |author-last=Priorelli |author-first=Giorgia |year=2024 |title=Celebrating the March on Rome over time (1920s–1960s): two generations of Italian Fascists in comparison |editor1-last=Kushner |editor1-first=Tony |editor2-last=Rosenbaum |editor2-first=Barbara |editor3-last=Stone |editor3-first=Dan |journal=[[Patterns of Prejudice]] |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]], [[Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] on behalf of the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the [[University of Southampton]] |volume=58 |issue=2–3: ''The Legacies of Fascism in 20th Century Europe: An Intergenerational Approach'' |pages=157–172 |doi=10.1080/0031322X.2024.2412911 |issn=1461-7331}}</ref><ref name="jstororgro">{{cite journal|jstor=1852268|publisher=Roland Sarti|title=Fascist Modernization in Italy: Traditional or Revolutionary|journal=The American Historical Review|date=8 January 2008|volume=75|issue=4|pages=1029–1045|last1=Sarti|first1=Roland|doi=10.2307/1852268}}</ref><ref name="appstate">{{cite news|url=http://www.appstate.edu/~brantzrw/history3134/mussolini.html |publisher=Appstate.edu |title=Mussolini's Italy |date=8 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415145038/http://www.appstate.edu/~brantzrw/history3134/mussolini.html |archive-date=15 April 2008 }}</ref>
=== Economy === {{Main|Economy of Italy under fascism}} [[File:Fiat 508 Balilla, advertisement, 1939, Netherlands.jpg|thumb|left|1939 Dutch [[Fiat]] advertisement]]
Until 1925, when the liberal economist [[Alberto de' Stefani]], although a former member of the ''squadristi'', was removed from his post as Minister of Economics (1922–1925), Italy's coalition government was able to restart the economy and balanced the national budget. Stefani developed economic policies that were aligned with classical liberalism principles as [[inheritance tax|inheritance]], [[luxury tax|luxury]] and [[International taxation|foreign capital taxes]] were abolished;<ref name=Guerin2>[[Daniel Guérin]], ''[[Fascism and Big Business]]'' Chapter IX, Second section, p. 193 in the 1999 Syllepse Editions. {{ISBN|978-2913165014}}</ref> and [[life insurance]] (1923)<ref name=Guerin>[[Daniel Guérin]] ''[[Fascism and Big Business]]'', Chapter IX, First section, p. 191 in the 1999 Syllepse Editions. {{ISBN|978-2913165014}}</ref> and the state communications monopolies were [[Privatisation|privatised]] and so on. During Italy's coalition government era, pro-business policies apparently did not contradict the State's financing of banks and industry. Political scientist Franklin Hugh Adler referred to this coalition period between Mussolini's appointment as prime minister on 31 October 1922 and his 1925 dictatorship as "Liberal-Fascism, a hybrid, unstable, and transitory regime type under which the formal juridical-institutional framework of the liberal regime was conserved", which still allowed pluralism, competitive elections, freedom of the press and the right of trade unions to strike.<ref>Franklin Hugh Adler, ''Italian Industrialists from Liberalism to Fascism: The political development of the industrial bourgeoisie, 1906–1934'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 188. {{ISBN|978-0521522779}}</ref> Liberal Party leaders and industrialists thought that they could neutralize Mussolini by making him the head of a coalition government, where as [[Luigi Albertini]] remarked that "he will be much more subject to influence".<ref>Adrian Lyttelton, ''Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919–1929'', London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973, p. 96. {{ISBN|978-0297765868}}</ref>
One of Prime Minister Mussolini's first acts was the 400-million-lira financing of [[Gio. Ansaldo & C.]], one of the country's most important engineering companies. Subsequent to the 1926 [[deflation]] crisis, banks such as the ''Banco di Roma'' (Bank of Rome), the ''Banco di Napoli'' (Bank of Naples) and the ''[[Banco di Sicilia]]'' (Bank of Sicily) also were state-financed.<ref name=Guerin3>[[Daniel Guérin]], ''[[Fascism and Big Business]]'', Chapter IX, Fifth section, p. 197 in the 1999 Syllepse Editions. {{ISBN|978-2913165014}}</ref> In 1924, a private business enterprise established ''[[Unione Radiofonica Italiana]]'' (URI) as part of the [[Guglielmo Marconi|Marconi]] company, to which the Italian fascist Government granted official radio-broadcast monopoly. After the defeat of fascism in 1944, URI became ''[[Radio Audizioni Italiane]]'' (RAI) and was renamed RAI ''— Radiotelevisione Italiana'' with the advent of television in 1954.
[[File:Inaugurazione Littoria 001.jpg|thumb|The inauguration of [[Littoria]] in 1932]] Given the overwhelmingly rural nature of Italian economy in the period, agriculture was vital to fascist economic policies and propaganda. To strengthen the domestic Italian production of grain, the fascist Government established in 1925 [[protectionist]] policies that ultimately failed (see the [[Battle for Grain]]).
From 1926 following the [[Pact of the Vidoni Palace]] and the [[Syndical Laws]], business and labour were organized into 12 separate associations, outlawing or integrating all others. These organizations negotiated labour contracts on behalf of all its members with the state acting as the arbitrator. The state tended to favour big industry over small industry, commerce, banking, agriculture, labour and transport even though each sector officially had equal representation.<ref>Paul Corner, ''Mussolini e il fascismo''. Viella Libreria Editrice. 2022. p. 101. {{ISBN|979-1254690604}}</ref> Pricing, production and distribution practices were controlled by employer associations rather than individual firms and labour syndicates negotiated collective labour contracts binding all firms in the particular sector. Enforcement of contracts was difficult and the large bureaucracy delayed resolutions of labour disputes.<ref>Sarti, 1968</ref>
After 1929, the fascist regime countered the [[Great Depression]] with massive [[public works]] programs, such as the draining of the [[Pontine Marshes]], [[hydroelectricity]] development, railway improvement and rearmament.<ref>{{cite book |last=Warwick Palmer |first= Alan |title=Who's Who in World Politics: From 1860 to the Present Day|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YdMWTvXhVlUC&q=mussolini's+achievements&pg=PA259 |isbn=0415131618 |date= 1996}}</ref> In 1933, the [[Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale]] (IRI – Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) was established to subsidize failing companies and soon controlled important portions of the national economy via [[government-linked companies]], among them [[Alfa Romeo]]. The Italian economy's [[Gross National Product]] increased 2 percent; automobile production was increased, especially that of the [[Fiat]] motor company;<ref>{{cite book |last=Tolliday |first=Steven |title=The Power to Manage?: Employers and Industrial Relations in Comparative|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UQGKReSZtWsC&q=fiat+fascism&pg=PA205|isbn=0415026253 |year=1991}}</ref> and the [[aeronautical]] industry was developing.<ref name="fsmith"/> Especially after the 1936 League of Nations sanctions against Italian invasion of Ethiopia, Mussolini strongly advocated [[agrarianism]] and [[Autarky|autarchy]] as part of his economic "battles" for [[Battle for Land|Land]], the [[Battle for the Lira|Lira]] and [[Battle for Grain|Grain]]. As Prime Minister, Mussolini physically participated with the workers in doing the work; the "politics as theatre" legacy of Gabriele D' Annunzio yielded great propaganda images of ''Il Duce'' as "Man of the People".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1925b.htm|publisher=Cronologia.it|title=Anno 1925|date=8 January 2008|access-date=16 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722072642/http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1925b.htm|archive-date=22 July 2011|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="economy">{{cite news|url=http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/economy_in_fascist_italy.htm|publisher=HistoryLearningSite.co.uk|title=The Economy in Fascist Italy|date=8 January 2008|access-date=16 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015060608/http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/economy_in_fascist_italy.htm|archive-date=15 October 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>
A year after the creation of the IRI, Mussolini boasted to his Chamber of Deputies: "Three-fourths of the Italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the state".<ref>Gianni Toniolo, editor, ''The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy Since Unification'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 59. {{ISBN|978-0199936694}}</ref><ref>Carl Schmidt, ''The Corporate State in Action: Italy under Fascism'', London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1939, pp. 153–76. {{No ISBN}}</ref> As Italy continued to nationalize its economy, the IRI "became the owner not only of the three most important Italian banks, which were clearly too big to fail, but also of the lion's share of the Italian industries".<ref>Costanza A. Russo, "Bank Nationalizations of the 1930s in Italy: The IRI Formula", ''Theoretical Inquiries in Law'', Vol. 13:407 (2012), p. 408</ref> During this period, Mussolini identified his economic policies with "state capitalism" and "state socialism", which later was described as "economic dirigisme", an economic system where the state has the power to direct economic production and allocation of resources.<ref>[[Iván T. Berend]], ''An Economic History of Twentieth-Century Europe'', New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 93. {{ISBN|978-0521856669}}</ref> By 1939, fascist Italy attained the highest rate of state–ownership of an economy in the world other than the Soviet Union,<ref>Patricia Knight, ''Mussolini and Fascism: Questions and Analysis in History'', New York: Routledge, 2003, p. 65. {{No ISBN}}</ref> where the Italian state "controlled over four-fifths of Italy's shipping and shipbuilding, three-quarters of its pig iron production and almost half that of steel".<ref>[[Martin Blinkhorn]], ''Mussolini and Fascist Italy'', 2nd edition, New York: Routledge, 1991, p. 26. {{ISBN|978-0415102315}}</ref>
=== Relationship with the Catholic Church === {{Main|Lateran Treaty}} [[File:Vatican City annex.jpg|thumb|The "[[Roman Question]]" was resolved with the mutual recognition of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] and the [[Vatican City-State]] in 1929]]
In the 19th century, the Italian liberal, nationalist, and republican forces of ''[[Risorgimento]]'' (1815–1871) [[Capture of Rome|had conquered Rome]] and taken control of it away from the [[Papacy]], which saw itself henceforth as a "[[prisoner in the Vatican]]". In February 1929, as Italian Head of Government, Mussolini concluded the unresolved Church–State conflict of the "[[Roman Question]]" (''Questione Romana'') with the [[Lateran Treaty]] between [[Fascist Italy]] and the [[Holy See]], establishing the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] [[microstate]] in Rome. Upon ratification of the Lateran Treaty, the papacy recognized the state of Italy in exchange for diplomatic recognition of the Vatican City,<ref>[http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/331566/Lateran-Treaty Lateran Treaty]</ref> territorial compensations, introduction of religious education into all state funded schools in Italy<ref name="heater">{{cite book |last=Heater|first=Derek Benjamin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94oMyEWGnXYC&q=Lateran+Treaty+mussolini&pg=PA47|publisher=Oxford University Press|title=Our World this Century|isbn=0199133247 |date= 1987}}</ref><ref>''Chambers Dictionary of World History''. Larousse Kingfisher Chambers. 2000. pp. 464–65. {{ISBN|978-0550130006}}</ref> and 50 million [[pounds sterling]] that were shifted from Italian bank shares into a Swiss company Profima SA. British wartime records from the ''National Archives in Kew'' also confirmed Profima SA as the Vatican's company which was accused during World War II of engaging in "activities contrary to Allied interests". Cambridge historian [[John F. Pollard]] wrote in his book that this financial settlement ensured the "papacy [...] would never be poor again".<ref name="Guardian_2013">[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/21/vatican-secret-property-empire-mussolini How the Vatican built a secret property empire using Mussolini's millions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202103311/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/21/vatican-secret-property-empire-mussolini |date=2 December 2016 }}. Papacy used offshore tax havens to create £500m international portfolio, featuring real estate in UK, France and Switzerland. ''[[The Guardian]]'', 21 January 2013</ref>
Not long after the Lateran Treaty was signed, Mussolini was almost "excommunicated" over his "intractable" determination to prevent the Vatican from having control over education.<ref name="Denis Mack Smith 1983, p. 162">Denis Mack Smith, ''Mussolini'', New York: Vintage Books, 1983, p. 162. {{ISBN|0394716582}}</ref> In reply, the Pope protested Mussolini's "pagan worship of the state" and the imposition of an "exclusive oath of obedience" that obligated everyone to uphold fascism.<ref name="Denis Mack Smith 1983, p. 162" /> Once declaring in his youth that "religion is a species of mental disease",<ref>James A. Haught, ''2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt'', Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1996, p. 256. {{ISBN|978-1573920674}}</ref> Mussolini "wanted the appearance of being greatly favoured by the Pope" while simultaneously "subordinate to no one".<ref name="Denis Mack Smith 1983, p. 162" /> Mussolini's widow attested in her 1974 book that her husband was "basically irreligious until the later years of his life".<ref>Rachele Mussolini, ''Mussolini: An Intimate Biography'', New York: Pocket Books, 1977, p. 131. Originally published by William Morrow in 1974. {{ISBN|978-0671812720}}</ref>
=== Influence outside Italy === {{Main|Fascism in Europe|History of fascism}} {{Further|Extreme right|List of fascist movements|Neo-fascism}}
After the [[March on Rome]] in October 1922, Italian fascism [[History of fascism|spread throughout Europe]], becoming an influential model for [[Fascism in Europe|other fascist organizations across the continent]].{{refn|<ref name="Albanese-del Hierro"/><ref name="Fascism 2018a"/><ref name="Fascism 2018b"/><ref name="Albanese 2016"/><ref name="Bauerkämper 2010"/>}} In the twenty-one-year [[interbellum]] period, many artists, political scientists, and philosophers sought ideological inspiration from [[Fascist Italy]].{{refn|<ref name="Albanese-del Hierro">{{cite book |author1-last=Albanese |author1-first=Matteo |author2-last=del Hierro |author2-first=Pablo |year=2016 |chapter=The Origins of the Fascist Network, 1922–1936 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LygCDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |title=Transnational Fascism in the Twentieth Century: Spain, Italy, and the Global Neo-Fascist Network |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |pages=11–36 |doi=10.5040/9781474219273.ch-001 |isbn=978-1-4725-2859-9 |lccn=2016006595}}</ref><ref name="Fascism 2018a">{{cite journal |author-last=Almeida de Carvalho Filho |author-first=Rita |date=October 2018 |title=Ideology and Architecture in the Portuguese "Estado Novo": Cultural Innovation within a Para-Fascist State (1932–1945) |editor1-last=Griffin |editor1-first=Roger |editor1-link=Roger Griffin |editor2-last=Almeida de Carvalho |editor2-first=Rita |journal=Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies |volume=7 |issue=2: ''Architectural Projections of a "New Order" in Interwar Dictatorships – Part 2'' |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |pages=141–174 |doi=10.1163/22116257-00702002 |doi-access=free |issn=2211-6257}}</ref><ref name="Fascism 2018b">{{cite journal |author-last=Trajano Filho |author-first=Francisco S. |date=October 2018 |title=The Many Faces of a Para-Fascist Culture: Architecture, Politics, and Power in Vargas' Regime (1930–1945) |editor1-last=Griffin |editor1-first=Roger |editor1-link=Roger Griffin |editor2-last=Almeida de Carvalho |editor2-first=Rita |journal=Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies |volume=7 |issue=2: ''Architectural Projections of a "New Order" in Interwar Dictatorships – Part 2'' |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |pages=175–212 |doi=10.1163/22116257-00702003 |doi-access=free |issn=2211-6257}}</ref><ref name="Albanese 2016"/><ref name="Bauerkämper 2010">{{cite journal |author-last=Bauerkämper |author-first=Arnd |date=March 2010 |title=Transnational Fascism: Cross-Border Relations between Regimes and Movements in Europe, 1922–1939 |editor1-last=Iordachi |editor1-first=Constantin |editor2-last=Trencsényi |editor2-first=Balázs |journal=East Central Europe |volume=37 |issue=2–3 |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |pages=214–246 |doi=10.1163/187633010X534469 |issn=1876-3308}}</ref>}} Mussolini's establishment of law and order to Italy and its society was praised by [[Winston Churchill]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ronterpening.com/extras/league_ex.htm|publisher=RonterPening.com|title=Top Ten Facts About Mussolini|date=27 January 2008|access-date=16 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619101104/http://www.ronterpening.com/extras/league_ex.htm|archive-date=19 June 2008|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Sigmund Freud]],{{sfn|Falasca-Zamponi|2000|p=53}} [[George Bernard Shaw]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Matthews Gibbs|first=Anthony|title=A Bernard Shaw Chronology|publisher=Palgrave|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3x8_4LyMyT4C&q=George+Bernard+Shaw+mussolini|isbn=0312231636|date= 2001|access-date=14 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121045615/https://books.google.com/books?id=3x8_4LyMyT4C&dq=George+Bernard+Shaw+mussolini|archive-date=21 November 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Thomas Edison]],<ref name="pound">{{cite news|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=My2rlb0bnx0C&q=%22I+am+no+superman+like+Mussolini%22&pg=PA71|publisher=Leon Surette|title=Pound in Purgatory|date=2008|isbn=978-0252024986|access-date=14 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124045350/https://books.google.com/books?id=My2rlb0bnx0C&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=%22I+am+no+superman+like+Mussolini%22&source=web&ots=UlaTM7Nm67&sig=YW9AV1oyMNjUgc96AgDvJtup2sM&hl=en|archive-date=24 November 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> as the Italian fascist government combated [[Organized crime in Italy|organized crime]] and the [[Sicilian Mafia]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_267.html|publisher=AmericanMafia.com|title=Mussolini Takes on the Mafia|date=8 January 2008|access-date=16 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060213073811/http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_267.html|archive-date=13 February 2006|url-status=live}}</ref>
Italian fascism was copied by [[Adolf Hitler]]'s [[Nazi Party]] (NSDAP), the Romanian [[National Fascist Movement]] (comprising the [[National Romanian Fascia]] and [[National Italo-Romanian Cultural and Economic Movement]]), the [[Russian Fascist Organization]] (RFO), and the Dutch fascist movement based upon the ''[[Verbond van Actualisten]]'' journal of [[H. A. Sinclair de Rochemont]] and [[Alfred Haighton]]. The [[Sammarinese Fascist Party]] (PFS) established an early fascist government in [[San Marino]], and their politico-philosophic basis essentially was Italian fascism.
In the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]], Serbian politician and economist [[Milan Stojadinović]] established the [[Yugoslav Radical Union]] (JRZ); they wore green shirts and [[Šajkača]] caps, and used the [[Roman salute]]. Stojadinović also adopted the title of ''Vodja'' (a [[Slavic languages|Slavic term]] with the same meaning as ''Duce'' or ''Führer''). In [[Switzerland]], pro-Nazi Colonel [[Arthur Fonjallaz]] of the [[National Front (Switzerland)|National Front]] became an ardent Mussolini admirer after visiting Fascist Italy in 1932, and advocated the Italian annexation of Switzerland whilst receiving fascist foreign aid.<ref>[[Alan Schom|Alan Morris Schom]], [http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=243125 A Survey of Nazi and Pro-Nazi Groups in Switzerland: 1930–1945] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926220409/http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=243125 |date=26 September 2007 }} for the [[Simon Wiesenthal Center]]</ref> The country was host for two Italian politico-cultural activities: the International Centre for Fascist Studies (CINEF: ''Centre International d' Études Fascistes'') and the 1934 congress of the Action Committee for the Universality of Rome (CAUR: ''Comitato d'Azione della Università di Roma'').<ref>Roger Griffin, ''The Nature of Fascism'', London: Routledge, 1993, p. 129. {{ISBN|978-0415096614}}</ref>
In [[First Portuguese Republic|Portugal]] and [[First Brazilian Republic|Brazil]], fascist and para-fascist mass movements that took inspiration from Italian fascism contributed to the establishment of quasi-fascist authoritarian dictatorships in both countries: the ''[[Ditadura Nacional]]'' ("National Dictatorship") under [[António de Oliveira Salazar]] and the ''[[Estado Novo (Brazil)|Estado Novo]]'' ("New State") under [[Getúlio Vargas]], respectively.{{refn|<ref name="Albanese-del Hierro"/><ref name="Fascism 2018a"/><ref name="Fascism 2018b"/><ref name="Albanese 2016"/><ref name="Bauerkämper 2010"/>}} In [[Second Spanish Republic|Spain]], the writer [[Ernesto Giménez Caballero]] in ''Genio de España'' (''The Genius of Spain'', 1932) called for the Italian annexation of Spain, led by Mussolini presiding over an international [[Latin Church|Latin]] [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] empire. He then progressed to become more closely associated with [[Falangism]], which led him to discard his former idea of a Spanish annexation to Fascist Italy.<ref>[[Philip Rees]], ''[[Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890]]''. Simon & Schuster. 1991. p. 148. {{ISBN|978-0130893017}}</ref>
== Italian fascist intellectuals == {{div col}} * [[Benito Mussolini]] * [[Massimo Bontempelli]] * [[Giuseppe Bottai]] * [[Enrico Corradini]] * [[Carlo Costamagna]] * [[Julius Evola]] * [[Enrico Ferri (criminologist)|Enrico Ferri]] * [[Giovanni Gentile]] * [[Corrado Gini]] * [[Agostino Lanzillo]] * [[Curzio Malaparte]] * [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]] * [[Robert Michels]] * [[Angelo Oliviero Olivetti]] * [[Sergio Panunzio]] * [[Giovanni Papini]] * [[Giuseppe Prezzolini]] * [[Alfredo Rocco]] * [[Edmondo Rossoni]] * [[Margherita Sarfatti]] * [[Ardengo Soffici]] * [[Ugo Spirito]] * [[Giuseppe Ungaretti]] * [[Gioacchino Volpe]] {{div col end}}
== Italian fascist slogans == [[File:Iscrizione fascista - Lavenone (Foto Luca Giarelli).jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|"We dream of a Roman Italy" was one of the many fascist slogans.]] * ''Me ne frego'' ("I don't give a damn!"), the Italian fascist [[motto]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://overland.org.au/2018/06/a-brief-fascist-history-of-i-dont-care/|title=A brief fascist history of I dont care|last=Tiso|first=Giovanni|date=22 June 2018|website=Overland|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622074713/https://overland.org.au/2018/06/a-brief-fascist-history-of-i-dont-care/|archive-date=22 June 2018|access-date=24 October 2016}}</ref> * ''Libro e moschetto, fascista perfetto'' ("Book and musket, perfect fascist"). * ''Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato'' ("Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State").<ref>Used by Mussolini in a speech before the Chamber of Deputies on 26 May 1927, ''Discorsi del'' 1927: Milano, Alpes, 1928, p. 157. {{No ISBN}}</ref> * ''Credere, obbedire, combattere'' ("Believe, Obey, Fight").<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/10627|title=Credere Obbedire Combattere - Vincere|website=Imperial War Museums|language=en|access-date=2019-10-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024121925/https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/10627|archive-date=24 October 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> * '' Chi si ferma è perduto'' ("He who hesitates is lost"). * ''Se avanzo, seguitemi; se indietreggio, uccidetemi; se muoio, vendicatemi'' ("If I advance, follow me. If I retreat, kill me. If I die, avenge me"). Borrowed from French Royalist General [[Henri de la Rochejaquelein]].{{cn|date=April 2026}} * ''Viva il Duce'' ("Long live the Leader"). * ''La guerra è per l'uomo come la maternità è per la donna'' ("War is to man as motherhood is to woman").<ref>Sarti, Roland. 1974. ''The Ax Within: Italian Fascism in Action'', New York: New Viewpoints. p. 187. {{ISBN|978-0531064986}}</ref> * ''Boia chi molla'' ("Who gives up is a rogue"); the first meaning of "boia" is "executioner, hangman", but in this context it means "scoundrel, rogue, villain, blackguard, knave, lowlife" and it can also be used as an exclamation of strong irritation or disappointment or as a pejoratively superlative adjective (e.g. ''tempo boia'', "awful weather").<ref>[http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/boia/ "Italian definition of ''boia''"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618224558/http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/boia/ |date=18 June 2013 }}.</ref> * ''Molti nemici, molto onore'' ("Many enemies, much Honor").<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/30/italys-anti-immigration-deputy-pm-matteo-salvini-fire-citing/|title=Italy's anti-immigration deputy PM Matteo Salvini under fire for citing Mussolini|last=Squires|first=Nick|date=30 July 2018|work=The Telegraph|access-date=24 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024123412/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/30/italys-anti-immigration-deputy-pm-matteo-salvini-fire-citing/|archive-date=24 October 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> * ''È l'aratro che traccia il solco, ma è la spada che lo difende'' ("The plough cuts the furrow, but the sword defends it"). * ''Dux mea lux'' ("The Leader is my light"), Latin phrase. * ''Duce, a noi'' ("Duce, to us").<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,776767,00.html|magazine=Time|title=Europe: Bread & Circuses|date=13 May 1946|access-date=10 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120101085035/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,776767,00.html|archive-date=1 January 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> * ''Mussolini ha sempre ragione'' ("Mussolini is always right").<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvD2rZSVau4C&q=%22Mussolini+ha+sempre+ragione%22&pg=PA381|title=World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia|first1=Cyprian|last1=Blamires|first2=Paul|last2=Jackson|date= 2018|publisher=ABC-CLIO|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1576079409}}</ref> * ''Vincere, e vinceremo'' ("To win, and we shall win!"). * ''O con noi, o contro di noi'' ("You're either with us or against us").<ref>[https://www.frasimania.it/motti-fascisti/ Motti Fascisti: I 50 più famosi del ventennio] ''FrasiMania.it''</ref>
==Italian anti-fascism== {{main|Anti-fascism}}
=== During Benito Mussolini's dictatorship === {{see also|Italian resistance movement|Italian Civil War}} [[File:Flag of the Arditi del Popolo Battalion.svg|thumb|left|Flag of ''[[Arditi del Popolo]]'', an axe cutting a ''[[fasces]]''. ''Arditi del Popolo'' was a militant anti-fascist group founded in 1921 in Italy.]]
In Italy, Mussolini's fascist regime used the term ''anti-fascist'' to describe its opponents. Mussolini's [[secret police]] was officially known as the [[Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism]]. During the 1920s in the [[Kingdom of Italy]], anti-fascists, many of them from the [[labor movement]], fought against the violent [[Blackshirts]] and against the rise of the fascist leader Benito Mussolini. After the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI) signed a [[Pact of Pacification|pacification pact]] with Mussolini and his [[Fasci Italiani di Combattimento|Fasces of Combat]] on 3 August 1921,<ref>Charles F. Delzell, edit., ''Mediterranean Fascism 1919–1945'', New York, NY, Walker and Company, 1971, p. 26</ref> and trade unions adopted a legalist and pacified strategy, members of the workers' movement who disagreed with this strategy formed ''[[Arditi del Popolo]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/17283245.pdf |title=Working Class Defence Organization, Anti-Fascist Resistance and the Arditi Del Popolo in Turin, 1919–22 |access-date=23 September 2021 |archive-date=19 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319044401/https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/17283245.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
The [[Italian General Confederation of Labour]] (CGL) and the PSI refused to officially recognize the anti-fascist militia and maintained a non-violent, legalist strategy, while the [[Communist Party of Italy]] (PCd'I) ordered its members to quit the organization. The PCd'I organized some militant groups, but their actions were relatively minor.<ref>[https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/17283245.pdf Working Class Defence Organization, Anti-Fascist Resistance and the Arditi Del Popolo in Turin, 1919–22] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319044401/https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/17283245.pdf |date=19 March 2022 }}, Antonio Sonnessa, in the ''[[European History Quarterly]]'', Vol. 33, No. 2, 183–218 (2003)</ref> The Italian anarchist [[Severino Di Giovanni]], who exiled himself to Argentina following the 1922 [[March on Rome]], organized several bombings against the Italian fascist community.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://anarchist_century.tripod.com/timeline.html |title=Anarchist Century |publisher=Anarchist_century.tripod.com |access-date=7 April 2014}}</ref> The Italian liberal anti-fascist [[Benedetto Croce]] wrote his ''[[Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals]]'', which was published in 1925.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bruscino |first=Felicia |date=25 November 2017|title=Il Popolo del 1925 col manifesto antifascista: ritrovata l'unica copia |url=https://www.ultimavoce.it/il-popolo-manifesto-antifascista/ |access-date=23 March 2022|website=Ultima Voce |language=it-IT}}</ref> Other notable Italian liberal anti-fascists around that time were [[Piero Gobetti]] and [[Carlo Rosselli]].<ref>James Martin, 'Piero Gobetti's Agonistic Liberalism', ''History of European Ideas'', '''32''', (2006), pp. 205–222.</ref>
[[File:Concentrazione_di_azione_antifascista.jpg|thumb|1931 badge of a member of [[Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana]]]] [[Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana]] ({{langx|en|Italian Anti-Fascist Concentration}}), officially known as Concentrazione d'Azione Antifascista (Anti-Fascist Action Concentration), was an Italian coalition of Anti-Fascist groups which existed from 1927 to 1934. Founded in [[Nérac]], France, by expatriate Italians, the CAI was an alliance of non-communist anti-fascist forces (republican, socialist, nationalist) trying to promote and to coordinate expatriate actions to fight fascism in Italy; they published a propaganda paper entitled ''La Libertà''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pugliese |first1=Stanislao G. |last2=Pugliese |first2=Stanislao |title=Fascism, Anti-fascism, and the Resistance in Italy: 1919 to the Present |date=2004 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-3123-9 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDyqHO2LVosC&pg=PA10 |access-date=11 June 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tollardo |first1=Elisabetta |title=Fascist Italy and the League of Nations, 1922-1935 |date=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-95028-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A6JlDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA152 |page=152 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Scala |first1=Spencer M. Di |title=Renewing Italian Socialism: Nenni to Craxi |date=1988 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-536396-8 |pages=6–8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8gGaCQDLUsC&pg=PA6 |access-date=11 June 2020 |language=en}}</ref> [[File:Flag of Giustizia e Liberta.svg|thumb|Flag of [[Giustizia e Libertà]], anti-fascist movement active from 1929 to 1945]]
[[Giustizia e Libertà]] ({{langx|en|Justice and Freedom}}) was an early underground organization formed by [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] members of the [[Italian resistance movement]], active from 1929 to 1945.<ref name=jam>James D. Wilkinson (1981). ''The Intellectual Resistance Movement in Europe''. Harvard University Press. p. 224.</ref> The movement was cofounded by [[Carlo Rosselli]],<ref name=jam/> [[Ferruccio Parri]], who later became [[Prime Minister of Italy]], and [[Sandro Pertini]], who became [[President of Italy]], were among the movement's leaders.<ref>Stanislao G. Pugliese (1999). ''Carlo Rosselli: socialist heretic and antifascist exile''. Harvard University Press. p. 51.</ref> The movement's members held various political beliefs but shared a belief in active, effective opposition to fascism, compared to the older Italian anti-fascist parties. ''Giustizia e Libertà'' also made the international community aware of the realities of fascism in Italy, thanks to the work of [[Gaetano Salvemini]].
Many Italian anti-fascists participated in the [[Spanish Civil War]] with the hope of setting an example of armed resistance to [[Francisco Franco]]'s [[Francoist Spain|dictatorship in Spain]] against Mussolini's regime in Italy; hence their motto: "Today in Spain, tomorrow in Italy".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collettiva.it/rubriche/buona-memoria/2023/05/07/news/_oggi_in_spagna_domani_in_italia_-2984121/|title="Oggi in Spagna, domani in Italia"|access-date=12 May 2023|language=it}}</ref>
Between 1920 and 1943, several anti-fascist movements were active among the [[Slovenes]] and [[Croats]] in the territories annexed to Italy after [[World War I]], known as the [[Julian March]].<ref>[[Milica Kacin Wohinz]], [[Jože Pirjevec]], ''Storia degli sloveni in Italia : 1866–1998'' (Venice: Marsilio, 1998)</ref><ref>Milica Kacin Wohinz, ''Narodnoobrambno gibanje primorskih Slovencev : 1921–1928'' (Trieste: Založništvo tržaškega tiska, 1977)</ref> The most influential was the militant insurgent organization [[TIGR]], which carried out numerous sabotages, as well as attacks on representatives of the Fascist Party and the military.<ref>[[Milica Kacin Wohinz]], ''Prvi antifašizem v Evropi'' (Koper: Lipa, 1990)</ref><ref>Mira Cenčič, ''TIGR : Slovenci pod Italijo in TIGR na okopih v boju za narodni obstoj'' (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1997)</ref> Most of the underground structure of the organization was discovered and dismantled by the [[Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism]] (OVRA) in 1940 and 1941,<ref>Vid Vremec, Pinko Tomažič in drugi tržaški proces 1941 (Trieste: Založništvo tržaškega tiska, 1989)</ref> and after June 1941 most of its former activists joined the [[Slovene Partisans]].
During [[World War II]], many members of the [[Italian resistance]] left their homes and went to live in the mountains, fighting against Italian fascists and [[Nazi Germany|German Nazi]] soldiers during the [[Italian Civil War]]. Many cities in Italy, including [[Turin]], [[Naples]], and [[Milan]], were freed by anti-fascist uprisings.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://darbysrangers.tripod.com/id102.htm |title=Intelligence and Operational Support for the Anti-Nazi Resistance |publisher=Darbysrangers.tripod.com}}</ref>
=== Aftermath of World War II === {{Main|Aftermath of World War II#Italy|Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy|Italian resistance movement}} {{Further|End of World War II in Europe|National Liberation Committee|Post–World War II anti-fascism|Spring 1945 offensive in Italy}} [[File:2013-04-25 Porta san Paolo Roma.jpg|thumb|Anti-fascist demonstration at [[Porta San Paolo]] in [[Rome]], [[Italy]], on the occasion of the [[Liberation Day (Italy)|Liberation Day]] on 25 April 2013]]
The current [[Constitution of Italy|Constitution of the Italian Republic]] was officially ratified and promulgated on 27 December 1947.<ref>{{cite web |title=Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana |url=https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/1947/12/27/047U0001/sg |url-status=live |website=www.gazzettaufficiale.it |location=[[Rome]], Italy |publisher=[[Gazzetta Ufficiale]] |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114205242/https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/1947/12/27/047U0001/sg |archive-date=14 November 2019 |access-date=14 November 2019}}</ref> Following the [[1946 Italian institutional referendum|referendum on the institutional form of the State]] held by [[universal suffrage]] in the [[Kingdom of Italy]] on 2 June 1946,<ref name="Treccani 1949"/> which overthrew [[House of Savoy|the monarchy]] and replaced it with [[republicanism]],<ref name="Treccani 1949"/> the [[Constituent Assembly of Italy]] was formed in the same year by the major political representatives and jurists of all the [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist partisan forces]] that comprised the [[Allies of World War II|Western Allied]] [[Italian resistance movement]], which contributed to the defeat of the Nazi–Fascist regime during the [[Liberation of Italy]] (1943–1945).<ref>{{cite journal |author-last=McGaw Smyth |author-first=Howard |date=September 1948 |title=Italy: From Fascism to the Republic (1943–1946) |journal=[[The Western Political Quarterly]] |location=[[Thousand Oaks, California]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] on behalf of the [[University of Utah]] |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=205–222 |doi=10.2307/442274 |issn=1938-274X |jstor=442274}}</ref> Originally including 139 articles, the Constitution defined the foundational structure of the republican government of Italy, and had been revised by the Constituent Assembly 170 times before its approval.<ref name="Treccani 1949"/> The Constitution came into force in the newly founded [[Italian Republic]] on 1st January 1948.<ref name="Treccani 1949">{{cite encyclopedia |vauthors=Almagià R, Tommasini G, Dessy L, Longo V, Ducci G, Santoro G, Tremelloni R, Bernabò-Brea L, Salvatorelli L, Torsiello M, Garosci A, Bocelli A, Becatti G, Argan GC, Maltese C, Lavagnino CM |year=1949 |title=Italia |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/italia_res-18acd5fe-87e6-11dc-8e9d-0016357eee51_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |encyclopedia=Enciclopedia Italiana |location=[[Rome]], Italy |publisher=[[Enciclopedia Treccani]] |volume=II Appendice |language=it |access-date=21 April 2026 |quote=''Ordinamento politico e amministrativo''. – Il referendum istituzionale del 2 giugno 1946 ha dato all'Italia un regime repubblicano definitivamente codificato nella costituzione entrata in vigore il 1° gennaio 1948 (v. appresso). Il referendum, su un complesso di 23.437.143 voti validi (93,9% dei votanti) dette 12.718.641 voti (54,3%) favorevoli al regime repubblicano: la percentuale fu del 64,8% nell'Italia settentrionale, 63,5% nella centrale, 32,6% nella meridionale, e 36% nella insulare. [...] La costituzione, prevista ed auspicata dai due decr. legisl. luog. 25 giugno 1944, n. 151 e 16 marzo 1946, n. 98, preceduta dai complessi lavori del Ministero per la costituente, è stata predisposta dalla commissione per la costituzione, nominata il 19 luglio 1946 in seno alla costituente, formata da 75 deputati e presieduta dall'on. M. Ruini. Tale commissione, dopo 362 sedute plenarie e di sottocommissioni, sezioni o comitati, ha presentato il 31 gennaio 1947 all'Assemblea costituente il progetto, seguìto da una dotta relazione dello stesso presidente Ruini. Iniziatone il 4 marzo 1947 l'esame, l'Assemblea costituente, sotto la presidenza di U. Terracini, dopo averlo discusso in 170 sedute, l'ha approvato il 22 dicembre 1947: la costituzione è entrata in vigore il 1° gennaio 1948.}}</ref>
[[Liberation Day (Italy)|Liberation Day]] is a national holiday in [[Italy]] that commemorates the victory of the [[Italian resistance movement]] against [[Nazi Germany]] and the [[Italian Social Republic]] (RSI), a [[puppet state]] of the Nazi Germans and [[rump state]] of the Italian fascists that existed during the [[Italian Civil War]], fought during [[World War II]], which takes place on 25 April 1945. The date was chosen by convention, as it was the day of the year 1945 when the [[National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy]] (CLNAI) officially proclaimed the anti-fascist insurgency in a radio announcement, propounding the seizure of power by the CLNAI and proclaiming the [[Capital punishment|death sentence]] for all Italian fascist leaders and [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborators of the Nazi–Fascist regime]] (including [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]] himself, who was shot three days later by a group of Italian partisans).<ref>{{cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |title=Cronologia dell'insurrezione a Milano – 25 aprile |url=http://www.associazioni.milano.it/isec/ita/cronologia/crono25apr.htm |url-status=dead |website=www.associazioni.milano.it |location=[[Sesto San Giovanni]], Italy |publisher=Fondazione ISEC |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527200809/http://www.associazioni.milano.it/isec/ita/cronologia/crono25apr.htm |archive-date=27 May 2011 |access-date=21 April 2026}}</ref> [[File:ANPI LOGO.svg|thumb|Emblem of the [[ANPI|Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia]] (ANPI)]]
The ''[[ANPI|Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia]]'' (ANPI: "National Association of Italian [[Partisan (military)|Partisans]]") is an association founded in [[Rome]] in 1944<ref name="www.anpi.it">{{cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |title=Chi Siamo |url=http://www.anpi.it/chi-siamo |url-status=dead |website=www.anpi.it |location=[[Rome]], Italy |publisher=[[ANPI|Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia]] |language=it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110502161717/http://www.anpi.it/chi-siamo |archive-date=2 May 2011 |access-date=21 April 2026}}</ref> by participants of the [[Italian resistance movement|Italian resistance against the Nazi–Fascist regime]] and the subsequent [[Operation Achse|Nazi occupation of Northern Italy]] during [[World War II]].<ref name="www.anpi.it"/> ANPI's objectives are the maintenance of the historical role of the Italian partisan groups that fought in the [[Italian Civil War]] by means of research and the collection of archives, historical documents, and personal stories.<ref name="www.anpi.it"/> Its goals are a continued defense of [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] [[republicanism]] against the [[historical revisionism]] of [[Neo-fascism|neo-fascists]] in the [[Italian Republic]],<ref name="Ferraresi 1996"/> along with the ideal and ethical support of [[human rights]], [[Civil and political rights|political freedom]], [[pro-Europeanism]], and [[Parliamentary system|parliamentarian]] [[democracy]] expressed in the [[Constitution of Italy|Constitution of the Italian Republic]] (1948),<ref name="Treccani 1949"/> in which the ideals of the [[Italian resistance movement|Italian resistance]] were collected.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.aclibresciane.it/attivita/riscoprire-i-valori-della-resistenza-nella-costituzione|title=RISCOPRIRE I VALORI DELLA RESISTENZA NELLA COSTITUZIONE|access-date=22 October 2022|language=it}}</ref> Since 2008, every two years ANPI organizes its national festival. During the event, meetings, debates, and musical concerts that focus on anti-fascism, peace, and democracy are organized throughout the country.<ref>{{cite web|title=Festa dell'anpi|url=http://anpifesta.org/|publisher=anpi.it|access-date=22 October 2022|archive-date=24 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100524160027/http://www.anpifesta.org/|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[File: Bella ciao, Representative Orchestra of Serbian Guards (ROG).ogg|thumb|''[[Bella ciao]]'' (instrumental only version performed by the [[Band of the Guard of the Serbian Armed Forces]])]]
''[[Bella ciao]]'' ({{IPA|it|ˈbɛlla ˈtʃaːo}}; "Goodbye beautiful") is an [[Italian folk music|Italian folk song]] modified and adopted as an anthem of the [[Italian resistance movement]] by the partisans who opposed [[Nazism]] and [[fascism]], and fought against the occupying forces of [[Nazi Germany]], who were allied with the fascist and collaborationist [[Italian Social Republic]] (RSI) between 1943 and 1945 during the [[Italian Civil War]]. Versions of this Italian anti-fascist song continue to be sung worldwide as a hymn of freedom and resistance.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://notizie.virgilio.it/bella-ciao-significato-e-testo-perche-la-canzone-della-resistenza-non-appartiene-solo-ai-comunisti-1541819|title=Bella ciao, significato e testo: perché la canzone della Resistenza non appartiene (solo) ai comunisti|date=13 September 2022 |access-date=21 October 2022|language=it}}</ref> As an internationally known hymn of freedom, it was intoned at many historic and revolutionary events. The song originally aligned itself with Italian partisans fighting against Nazi German occupation troops, but has since become to merely stand for the inherent rights of all people to be liberated from tyranny.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://pstream.lastampa.it.dl1.ipercast.net/lastampa/2015/01/23/d37A1QUG.mp4 |title=ATENE – Comizio di chiusura di Alexis Tsipras |access-date=23 January 2015 |archive-date=20 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420023001/http://pstream.lastampa.it.dl1.ipercast.net/lastampa/2015/01/23/d37A1QUG.mp4 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://video.corriere.it/bella-ciao-tutte-lingue-mondo-cosi-canto-partigiani-diventato-global/24c02342-a38b-11e4-808e-442fa7f91611 |title=Non solo Tsipras: "Bella ciao" cantata in tutte le lingue del mondo Guarda il video – Corriere TV |language=it |trans-title=Not only Tsipras: "Bella ciao" sung in all languages of the world Watch the video – Corriere TV |website=video.corriere.it}}</ref>
== See also == {{div col}} * [[Anti-fascism]] ** [[Post–World War II anti-fascism]] * [[Authoritarian conservatism]] * [[Fascism]] ** [[Clerical fascism]] ** [[Definitions of fascism]] ** [[Economy of Italy under fascism]] ** [[Fascism and ideology]] ** [[Fascist architecture]] ** [[Fascist syndicalism]] ** [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF) ** [[Neo-fascism]] ** [[Republican Fascist Party]] (PFR) ** ''[[Squadrismo]]'' (fascist violence in Italy) * [[Far-right terrorism]] * [[History of the far-right in France]] * [[History of the far-right in Spain]] * [[National conservatism]] * [[Propaganda in Fascist Italy]] ** [[Italian fascism and racism]] ** [[Italian racial laws]] ** [[Model of masculinity under fascist Italy]] * [[Racism in Italy]] ** [[Antisemitism in 21st-century Italy]] * [[Totalitarianism]] {{div col end}}
=== Italian fascist states === * [[Kingdom of Italy#Fascist regime (1922–1943)|Kingdom of Italy]] (1922–1943; as a [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|fascist regime]]) * [[Italian Social Republic]] (1943–1945)
=== Related ideologies === * [[Austrofascism]] (ultra-nationalist Austrian fascism in the [[Federal State of Austria]]) * [[Falangism]] (ultra-nationalist Spanish fascism in [[Francoist Spain]] and [[Falangism in Latin America|Latin America]]) * [[Hindutva]] (ultra-nationalist Hindu fascism in [[India]]) * ''[[Brazilian integralism|Integralismo]]'' (para-fascist Brazilian nationalism during the [[Vargas Era]]) * [[Iron Guard#Ideology|Legionarism]] (ultra-nationalist Romanian fascism in the [[Kingdom of Romania]]) * ''[[Kokkashugi]]'' (State-sponsored fascism in the [[Japanese Empire]]) * [[Nazism]] (ultra-nationalist German fascism in [[Nazi Germany]]) * ''[[Révolution nationale]]'' (State-sponsored fascism in [[Vichy France]]) * [[Ustaše]] (ultra-nationalist Croatian fascism in the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]])
== References == {{reflist}}
== Sources == * {{cite book |author-last=Brennan |author-first=T. Corey |year=2022 |chapter=Constructing Fasces in Mussolini's Italy |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dr-CEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA178 |title=The Fasces: A History of Ancient Rome's Most Dangerous Political Symbol |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford Academic]] |pages=178–197 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197644881.003.0011 |isbn=978-0-19-764488-1}} * {{cite book |author-last=Dutt |author-first=R. Palme |author-link=R. Palme Dutt |date=October 1935 |title=Fascism and Social Revolution |chapter=Chapter V: How Fascism Came In Italy |chapter-url=https://www.marxists.org/archive//dutt/1935/fascism-social-revolution-3.pdf |url-status=live |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[International Publishers]] |edition=3rd Revised |pages=111–126 |isbn=9781434405234 |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260306081313/https://www.marxists.org/archive/dutt/1935/fascism-social-revolution-3.pdf |archive-date=6 March 2026 |access-date=21 April 2026}} * {{cite book |author-last=Falasca-Zamponi |author-first=Simonetta |year=2000 |title=Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1aUwDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |location=[[Oakland, California]] |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-22677-7}} * {{cite magazine |author=[[Grand Council of Fascism]] |date=30 April 1927 |title=Carta del Lavoro |url=https://archive.org/details/carta-del-lavoro/page/1794/mode/2up |url-status=live |magazine=[[Gazzetta Ufficiale]] |issue=100 |location=[[Rome]], [[Kingdom of Italy]] |publisher=[[Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato]] |language=it |via=[[Internet Archive]] |access-date=9 April 2026}} * {{cite book |author-last=Gregor |author-first=A. James |year=2005 |title=Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gVqXffoJaiMC&printsec=frontcover |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey]] and [[Woodstock, Oxfordshire]] |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |doi=10.2307/j.ctt7ss3x |isbn=978-1-4008-2634-6 |lccn=2004049133}} * {{cite encyclopedia |author1-last=Marpicati |author1-first=Arturo |author2-last=Mussolini |author2-first=Benito |author2-link=Benito Mussolini |author3-last=Volpe |author3-first=Gioacchino |year=1932 |title=Fascismo |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/fascismo_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |encyclopedia=Enciclopedia Italiana |location=[[Rome]], [[Kingdom of Italy]] |publisher=[[Enciclopedia Treccani]] |language=it |access-date=21 April 2026}} * {{cite book |author-last=Mussolini |author-first=Benito |author-link=Benito Mussolini |year=2006 |orig-year=1928 |title=My Autobiography: With "The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism" |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=McMsAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |translator-last=Child |translator-first=Richard W. |location=[[Garden City, New York]] |publisher=[[Dover Publications]] |isbn=978-0-486-44777-3}} * {{cite book |author-last=Paxton |author-first=Robert O. |author-link=Robert Paxton |year=2004 |title=[[The Anatomy of Fascism]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] |edition=1st |isbn=978-1-4000-4094-0}} * {{cite book |editor-last=Jennings |editor-first=Jeremy |author-last=Sorel |author-first=Georges |author-link=Georges Sorel |year=2004 |orig-year=1908 |title=Reflections on Violence |url=https://files.libcom.org/files/Sorel-Reflections-on-Violence-ed-Jennings.pdf |url-status=live |location=[[Cambridge]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |series=Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought |isbn=9780511815614 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260126094116/https://files.libcom.org/files/Sorel-Reflections-on-Violence-ed-Jennings.pdf |archive-date=26 January 2026 |access-date=21 April 2026}}
== Further reading == === General === * Acemoglu, Daron; De Feo, Giuseppe; De Luca, Giacomo; Russo, Gianluca. 2022. "[[doi:10.1093/qje/qjac001|War, Socialism, and the Rise of Fascism: An Empirical Exploration]]". ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' * [[Renzo De Felice|De Felice, Renzo]]. 1977. ''Interpretations of Fascism'', translated by Brenda Huff Everett, Cambridge; London: Harvard University Press {{ISBN|0674459628}}. * Eatwell, Roger. 1996. ''Fascism: A History.'' New York: Allen Lane. * Hughes, H. Stuart. 1953. ''The United States and Italy.'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. * {{cite book|last=Kertzer|first=David I.|author-link=David Kertzer|title=The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe|year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xc3QAgAAQBAJ|isbn=978-0198716167}} * Mack Smith, Denis. "Mussolini, Artist in Propaganda: The Downfall of Fascism". ''History Today'' (Apr 1959) 9#4 pp. 223–232. * [[Robert Paxton|Paxton, Robert O.]] 2004. ''[[The Anatomy of Fascism]]''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, {{ISBN|1400040949}}. * Payne, Stanley G. 1995. ''A History of Fascism, 1914–45''. Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press {{ISBN|0299148742}}. * Reich, Wilhelm. 1970. ''The Mass Psychology of Fascism''. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. * [[George Seldes|Seldes, George]]. 1935. ''Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fascism''. New York and London: Harper and Brothers. * [[Alfred Sohn-Rethel]]. ''Economy and Class Structure of German Fascism'', London, CSE Bks, 1978 {{ISBN|0906336007}}. * Adler, Frank, and Danilo Breschi, eds. ''Special Issue on Italian Fascism'', ''[[Telos (journal)|Telos]]'' 133 (Winter 2005).
=== Fascist ideology === * [[Renzo De Felice|De Felice, Renzo]]. 1976. ''Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice: An Interview with Michael Ledeen'', New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books {{ISBN|0878551905}}. * Fritzsche, Peter. 1990. ''Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0195057805}}. * [[A. James Gregor|Gregor, A. James]] "Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought". Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0691127903}}. * [[Roger Griffin|Griffin, Roger]]. 2000. "Revolution from the Right: Fascism", chapter in David Parker (ed.) ''Revolutions and the Revolutionary Tradition in the West 1560–1991'', Routledge, London. * [[Walter Laqueur|Laqueur, Walter]]. 1966. ''Fascism: Past, Present, Future,'' New York: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. * [[J. Salwyn Schapiro|Schapiro, J. Salwyn]]. 1949. ''Liberalism and The Challenge of Fascism, Social Forces in England and France (1815–1870).'' New York: McGraw-Hill. * Laclau, Ernesto. 1977. ''Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory: Capitalism, Fascism, Populism.'' London: NLB/Atlantic Highlands Humanities Press. * [[Zeev Sternhell|Sternhell, Zeev]] with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri. [1989] 1994. ''The Birth of Fascist Ideology, From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution.'' Trans. David Maisei. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
=== International fascism === * {{Cite book |last=Coogan |first=Kevin |author-link=Kevin Coogan |title=Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International |title-link=Dreamer of the Day |publisher=[[Autonomedia]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-57027-039-0 |location=Brooklyn |language=en}} * Gregor, A. James. 2006. "The Search for Neofascism: The Use and Abuse of Social Science". New York: Cambridge University Press. * Griffin, Roger. 1991. ''The Nature of Fascism''. New York: St. Martin's Press. * Paxton, Robert O. 2004. ''The Anatomy of Fascism''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. * [[Eugen Weber|Weber, Eugen]]. [1964] 1985. ''Varieties of Fascism: Doctrines of Revolution in the Twentieth Century,'' New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, contains chapters on fascist movements in different countries. * Wallace, Henry. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080610175131/http://newdeal.feri.org/wallace/haw23.htm "The Dangers of American Fascism"]. ''[[The New York Times]]'', Sunday, 9 April 1944. * [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky, Leon]]. 1944. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm "Fascism, What it is and how to fight it"] Pioneer Publishers (pamphlet).
== External links == {{Commons category|Italian Fascism}} * [http://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/video-lectures/fascist-italy "Fascist Italy and the Jews: Myth versus Reality"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227174114/http://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/video-lectures/fascist-italy |date=27 February 2017 }}, an online lecture by Iael Nidam-Orvieto of [[Yad Vashem]]. * [http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/understanding_fascism.htm "Fascism Part I – Understanding Fascism and Anti-Semitism"]. * [https://archive.today/20121209090900/http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=15029 "The Functions of Fascism"], a radio lecture by [[Michael Parenti]]. * [http://media.wix.com/ugd/927b40_c1ee26114a4d480cb048f5f96a4cc68f.pdf "The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism"] (1933), authorized translation. * [http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/tol/tol-ita.html "Italian Fascism"].
{{Italy topics}} {{Fascism}} {{Subject bar|voy=no|species=no|d=Q747081|v=WikiJournal Preprints/Fascism and Italy|n=no|s=no|c=Category:History|wikt=Fascism|portal1=History|portal2=Italy|portal3=Politics}}
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