Q: 'How far do you agree with this description of Mussolini's role in the years 1924-36?'
Answer:
During Mussolini's role as Dictator, there are various points during 1924-36, which hi-light the 'highs and lows' of Mussolini's career. There are those that illustrate that Mussolini was 'undoubtedly a dictator' and was 'popular with the people', and others that contradict this statement, and this will be shown within the content of this essay.
Mussolini having been made Prime Minister, pre 1924, made it known to Parliament that he saw his main task as stabilising the economy. Whether or not this was the whole truth in the debate: it did however, win him the vote of confidence from Parliament. However he soon used this support, saying in November that he had 300,000 Blackshirts that could abolish the constitution but that 'at least for the present I do not wish to do so'. This intimidated Parliament, and by this intimidation Mussolini was able to get them to grant him emergency powers without having to disclose why he needed them, which to many in the twenty-first century, means that by him getting Parliament to grant him emergency powers it meant that later on in his career he would be able establish his dictatorship.
English: Benito Mussolini and Fascist blackshirts ...
English: Mug shot of the revolutionary socialist B...
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Munich, Germa...These emergency powers obviously gave him, in relation to the size of his party, a disproportionate amount of power, and was the first step towards creating a fascist dictatorship, as it shows his ideas and ways in which he worked, which is an introduction to him becoming a dictator, that enabled him to gain widespread support and shows how Mussolini used manipulation and intimidation to further his dictatorial powers.
A weakness in Mussolini's career was the Matteotti Crisis, which turned the Italian people against him. The brutal murder of Matteotti did not...