Benito Mussolini Research Paper

Fascist Italy was an entirely different type of dictatorial regime when it came to the treatment of artists and the tolerance of artistic expression. Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini consistently “maintained an open attitude toward various artistic tendencies.” Mussolini was, entirely unlike Hitler, very open to avant-garde and modern styles of artistic expression. He, in a manner strikingly different from his totalitarian counterpart Hitler, “pursued a deliberate policy of inclusion that fostered cultural pluralism”. He took the opposite approach to how artistic expression could benefit his regime. The Italian government would never actually establish a formal war art program. When Mussolini was appointed as prime minister of Italy

Due to Mussolini’s acceptance and encouragement of their art, many Italian artists actually found themselves to be supportive of Mussolini and his leadership style. Mussolini sought to create a resurgence of Italian cultural supremacy, trying to simultaneously bring Italy’s culture back to the glory days of Rome while also propelling it into the future through new modernist styles. Mussolini explained at one point that Rome was to be the reference point for all cultural production. He wanted Italy to be a Roman Italy, and believed that Fascism was a way of bringing Roman Italy back to life. However, the modernist and avant-garde work that was often produced in Fascist Italy was far sleeker and more forward thinking than the traditional Roman styles of art has

However, as the years passed, Mussolini’s political tactics would become more similar to Hitler’s and this would greatly affect Italy’s cultural climate. Mussolini and Hitler had a complicated relationship throughout the entire course of their respective times in power. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Mussolini maintained a cautious courting of sorts of Hitler to keep him as a kind of ally and partner in trade. Mussolini in many ways admired and emulated Hitler as a ruler and simultaneously felt the need to prove to Hitler that Italy was the superior Fascist power in Europe. Mussolini’s government would actually at one point consult with the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. This meeting would result in Mussolini’s Press Office being changed to the Under-Secretariat for Press and Propaganda, then becoming the Ministry of Press and Propaganda, and finally becoming named the Ministry of Popular Culture. This was Mussolini’s first major attempt to make all forms of Italian culture and medium under government regulation and control. However, much unlike Hitler’s policies and political control on the same subject, Mussolini’s control effort was not very successful as it was not taken