Well, Fascist Italy *could* have fared rather well and become a Major Power with a lot of influence, though "Global Leading" is a bit of an overstatement. It could just as easily self-destruct.
While Fascist Italy had a great worldwide rep in the 30s, a lot of this was from bluff. The military was a paper tiger. The illusion of Corporative Unity was undermined by continued regionalism, factionalism, and Mussie's encouragement of interservice and inter-underling rivalries as insurance for his own power. Italy's economy and industry were and remain limited despite the best efforts of the Liberal, Fascist, and Modern Republican governments. Italy simply lacks the necessary raw materials and agricultural potential. It is doomed to severe trade deficit unless something of value appears to offset this. Empire will help here. Libyan oil (very unlikely to be discovered before the 50s and will even then need US drilling expertise to get) will be a big factor. Ethiopian diamonds and coffee...and potential Somali oil can help too.
To live, Fascist Italy needs to survive WWII, which means it needs to avoid shackling itself to Germany. Neutrality or joining the Allies late in the war could be the ticket, assuming the war doesn't collapse the Italian economy and government anyway.
If they make it past WWII, they have hope by appealing to anti-communist sentiment or playing the superpowers off of each other, though the latter is a dangerous game. Italy also needs to avoid stupid foreign adventurism, which was Mussie's achilles heel from the start.
Now, with oil to offset the trade imbalance and tacit US support (the trade lifeline is doomed if the US Navy opposes them) they could conceivably be a second-tier power of some influence, but still far behind the US and USSR, a little behind the UK, quickly losing ground to Japan and possibly *NATO-side Germany, quickly supplanting dwindling France.
Without oil, they may become a Francoist Spain analog, holding on to a crumbling power base and bloated bureaucracy in relative stagnant isolation.
Or, the internal differences could quickly tear it apart into civil war as Fascist power wains post-war.
That said, in typical self-pimpin' GK style, read my
Viva Balbo TL (follow first sig link to the "Technoyurt" for link to TL) for a developing more competent Fascist Italy under Italo Balbo.
