Mutsullini and his influence on Italian society

Benito Mussolini established a dictatorship in 1926, 3 years after forming the National Fascist Party. His goal back then was to destroy any political opposition against him and to create a powerful totalitarian state. In Mussolini’s time in politics, he searched for many ways to empower the state because of his fascist beliefs of nationalism. Italians followed his orders because they believed in him and the cult of personality; they believed the Duce was always right. He created new regulations for the National Organization for the Protection of Mother’s and Children on December 10, 1925 (1). Shortly after, in 1927, Mussolini added on to them and introduced a number of policies to increase reproduction in Italy. His Fascist Italy’s population program called for an increase in birth rates and overall population; however, this was later met with opposition from the poor and women, causing Mussolini’s policy to dissipate and end in failure. Mussolini largely supported his new policies over Italy’s reproduction rate and encouraged the mass population to follow them. He saw these policies as a way to strengthen fascist Italy’s standing among the other European countries and become a European superpower. A decree made for the National Organization for the Protection of Mother’s and Children stated that they would protect woman during their pregnancies, help in caring for children in needy families until they were five, protect children with mental and physical disabilities up to age 18, create new scientific methods for caring for children’s health, and build clinics for overseeing pregnant mothers and their infants (1). Mussolini created these policies to show how far the government was willing to aid in increasing the birth rates in Italy. He wanted to prove that giving birth would be a benefit towards the state. Some of the population was still doubtful until A. Molinari, a professor of statistics, found statistics that childbirths would overall benefit the