Mussolini's Rise to Power

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Mussolini taking office in 1922 sought to increase his own personal power and create a dictatorship through various means of social and ideological change to stir up support and also through the means of violence to crush any opposition.Mussolini's expansion of control from 1924 can be analysed in two interlinked categories.The first which is on the emphasis of his control and whether it was actually as cemented as he may have thought it to be and thus if this cemented control actually spread across the whole nation and all government and state institutions or if it was simply centralised in a specific section of the nation or Govt.Through this we can conclude whether mussolini's policies before and after 1924 did in fact cement his personal power in Italy or were actually cementing fascist power and the possible illusion of a true dictatorship. The first sign of the personal political power of mussolini was emphasised by the 1924 election victory which saw the Fascist party secure 66% of the popular vote and thus increase their seats in the House Of Deputies to 374,securing a clear majority.This was a significant point in the move towards total power as this gave mussolini a mandate and a right to implement radical change as he could now claim that he was 'democratically legitimate' in doing so despite the intimidation,ballot-rigging and Acerbo law that had all added to his advantage and so he would now be able to pass any law without hinderance as the fascist party which was organised in to the Grand council of fascism was filled with 'yes men' who were loyal to mussolini and thus would always vote with him.This significtanly left the role of parliament impotent.To add to this what would have been scene as a crisis by others added to mussolini extending the extent of his personal power.The 'Matteoti crisis' allowed mussolini to finally set up his dictatorship as
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