‘The Acerbo law played a crucial role in strengthening Mussolini’s hold on power by undermining democratic institutions in Italy.’ Examine.

The problem the law solved. After the March on Rome in October 1922 Mussolini was Prime Minister, but the Fascists held only a few dozen of more than five hundred seats in the Chamber. He governed by coalition with Liberals, Nationalists and Popolari, and could be voted out at any time. His power was real on the streets and precarious in Parliament.

The law. Drafted by Giacomo Acerbo and passed in November 1923, it provided that the list winning the largest share of the vote, subject to a minimum of twenty-five per cent, would receive two-thirds of all seats, the remaining third distributed proportionally among the rest. It was the transformation of a plurality into an unassailable majority by statute.

How it undermined democratic institutions.

• It was passed by the institutions it destroyed. Liberals including Giolitti and Salandra voted for it, believing Fascism could be domesticated by giving it a stake in the constitutional order. That misjudgement is the episode's enduring lesson.
• The election of April 1924 was conducted amid squad violence, intimidation and the manipulation of the count. The government listone took roughly two-thirds of the vote, so the bonus was barely needed — but the law had already made the outcome certain in advance.
• Opposition was then destroyed. Giacomo Matteotti detailed the electoral fraud in the Chamber and was abducted and murdered in June 1924. The opposition withdrew in the Aventine Secession, which removed the last parliamentary check by absenting itself.
• The dictatorship followed. On 3 January 1925 Mussolini accepted political responsibility for the violence and defied the Chamber to act; the leggi fascistissime of 1925-26 then abolished opposition parties, free press and elected local government.

Assessment. The Acerbo Law is the clearest case study in constitutional self-destruction: a legally enacted measure, supported by liberals for tactical reasons, that converted an unrepresentative movement into a legitimate majority and made everything afterwards a matter of form.