The "Red Menace" and the Rise of Italian Fascism

Abstract

By stressing that a fear of socialism encouraged the rise offascism in Italy, the literature places a disproportionate emphasis on the reactive nature offascism's popular basis. I apply an interest-based theory to the rise of Italian fascism using data from the first systematic analysis of Fascist electoral strength in the critical 1921 Italian national legislative election. Results support the hypotheses that the growth of the Fascist vote came at the expense of the Socialists and that much of the supportfor Italian fascism can be attributed to voters' rational calculations of their material interests.