The fate of Italy

I am curious to think what course Italy would take, had Mussolini remained a Socialist?

I don't know much about the Italian Socialist Party, but I think their popularity wouldn't be on par with the Fascists, despite the fact they marched upon Rome.

SO I could see Mussolini maybe leading a socialist revolution or it fails and Italy goes off in a different direction.
 
I doubt Italy would've become anarchist or socialist, but the brief appearance of a short lived anarchist/socialist regime somewhere in the North, à la Paris Commune, wouldn't be ASB. There'd be plenty of revolts and plenty of repression, but the House of Savoy would've remained in charge nonetheless. On the other hand, OTL Mussolini was a major ideological influence on much of the far right in western Europe at the time, up to and including a certain painter from Braunau am Inn; Germany would've probably become an authoritarian regime in spite of said nail, but not a totalitarian one - it'd be a 20th century version of Orbàn's Hungary or Putin's Russia, and not much more than that. There was no Alexander Waltz in Germany back then, after all... :p
 
First it need a serious pod to make Benny don't break up with the socialist due to his stance on the war.

If he remain a socialist, ironically the liberal states will be much more safe.
The fascist will not have an unifying figure and will remain more occupied to fight among them that to pose a serious danger to the state; maybe they will be used as strikebreakers or to soften up the socialist.
Note: sure there is D'Annunzio, but he lack the capacity and the will for the day to day politicking and administration to be the effective leader of a political movement.

If Benny try a socialist march on ROme it's very probable that the King and goverment will give the order to use the force agaisnt them.
 
Mussolini's evolution has started before the Great War, even if he was anti-imperialist during the Italian conquest of Libya. But he could have drifted towards some native brand of bolshevism just as well. It just would have suited better his impetuous and militant character than the more doctrinary and conciliatory social democracy of the age.

And then, Italy is just as weak a link as Russia: it has the same inequal development, inadequate infrastructure (outside the industrial North), underequipped and underfed armed forces, its industrial proletariat is outweighed by the impoverished and ignorant peasantry, its industrial growth is depending on foreign investments...

Soviet Italy, anyone?
 
Soviet Italy, anyone?

naaa...there is a crucial difference between Italy and Russia the army was clear on the side of the King and will have shoot the rebels.
Frankly in the end and with hindsight, it was a much overblow fear of a socialist revolution that frighten enough the enstablishment to give in to Benny; in reality the socialist were too weak and divided to be a real menace.
 
Where go the Veterans?

Benny's muscle came from veterans. Would they have flocked to a socialist party? Without the blackshirted squads, no march on Rome.

Could a Mussolini who didn't break with the other socialists have brought in the Mafia? I read somewhere the Mafia started out in resistance to oppression. (True or not, I haven't enough knowledge, but it would be interesting.)
 
naaa...there is a crucial difference between Italy and Russia the army was clear on the side of the King and will have shoot the rebels.
Frankly in the end and with hindsight, it was a much overblow fear of a socialist revolution that frighten enough the enstablishment to give in to Benny; in reality the socialist were too weak and divided to be a real menace.

In 1919 the socialists weren't divided. With a more radical government, there could not even be a split between the socialists and the communists and they might very well take power if a full blown revolution start (and no, no foreign power would intervene given that they are already on the verge of falling themselves [for example the main reason for the end of the french intervention in Russia were mutinies in the french navy]).

And there was plenty of veterans among the socialists ranks.
 
In 1919 the socialists weren't divided. With a more radical government, there could not even be a split between the socialists and the communists and they might very well take power if a full blown revolution start (and no, no foreign power would intervene given that they are already on the verge of falling themselves [for example the main reason for the end of the french intervention in Russia were mutinies in the french navy]).

The socialist/communist have always been divided, in peacetime, in wartime and in the first post-war...even during their exile. This is the real reason the fascist won, Mussolini acted as the effective leader of a patchwork movement and kept it together for 20 years; the socialist? There is none with such capacity and such will.
More radical goverment? Who? At the helm they put Giolitti...and radical it's not really his forte, the others are inefective non-entity or don't have the political capacity to last long.
Benny not forming his group for whatever reason and remaining a socialist, mean only that he will clash with other leaders or wannabe, by 1919 there were already a lot of important division in the socialist, division that the war kept at bay.

And there was plenty of veterans among the socialists ranks.

There were also plenty of veterans in the fascist movement and in the army, so... that don't really count that much if they don't have the weapon to back up.
 
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