Surrendering Democracy - A New Take on the Fascist Rise in Italy

The centenary of the March on Rome has sparked a renewed interest in the rise of fascism in Italy. Recent works by Weyland (2021) and Acemoglu et al. (2022) have claimed that the fascist takeover occurred due to the threat posed by the extreme left. They further add that, since Mussolini's rise resulted from this unique interwar "red menace", the situation is non-repeatable. In this paper, I will challenge this vision. I claim that the rise of fascism was the consequence of the collaboration between Giolitti's liberals and the extreme right. To do so, I will first show that, for the 1921 elections, Giolitti designed the common electoral lists "National Blocks" to include the fascists wherever he could not add his loyal followers. Then, I will use a geographic regression discontinuity design to maintain that the fascists performed better in the towns in the constituencies where Giolitti places them in high numbers, giving them publicity and legitimacy.