ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 examines the first steps taken by the Fascist government. It shows that by October 1922 Italy was already a dictatorship which quashed all opposition and aimed to establish a new institutional order, of a very different sort from the one ensured by liberal institutions. This reflection is carried out through an analysis of the Fascist use of violence and public order, of the transformation of important institutional areas (from the King’s role as head of the armed forces to the electoral law), and of the awareness of what was taking place both among Fascists and anti-Fascists in the first year of the Fascist rule.
