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Last week marked 80 years since Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was killed in an Italian village towards the end of the Second World War in 1945. The following day, his body was publicly desecrated in Milan. Benito Mussolini wearing military uniform with braid on shoulders, medals and chain with medallion on chest, fur hat.
Given the scale of Hitler's atrocities, our image of fascism today has largely been shaped by Nazism. Yet, Mussolini preceded Hitler. Il Duce, as Mussolini was known, was Hitler's inspiration. Today, as commentators, bloggers and scholars are debating whether the governments of US President Donald Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin are "fascist", we can learn from Il Duce's career about how democracies fail and dictators consolidate autocratic rule.
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