- Acerbo Law
The Acerbo Law was a Italian electoral law proposed by Baron
Giacomo Acerbo and forced through theItalian Parliament in 1923. It was conceived to givefascism a grip on Italian politics.Terms of the Law
The Acerbo Law stated that the party gaining the "largest share" of the votesndash provided they had gained at least 25 percent of the votesndash gained "two-thirds of the seats" in parliament. The remaining third was shared amongst the other parties proportionally. [cite paper
author = Boffa, Federico | title = Italy and the Antitrust Law: an Efficient Delay? | date = 2004-02-01 | url = http://129.3.20.41/eps/eh/papers/0402/0402001.pdf
format =PDF | accessdate = 2008-10-05 ]Impact
The Law gave the
National Fascist Party and its leaderBenito Mussolini a major advantage during the 1924 election. The Fascists gained over 66% of the vote and thereby were given two-thirds of the seats in parliament. This allowed Mussolini to create adictatorship . [cite book | last = DeGrand | first = Alexander | authorlink = | title = Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany | publisher = Routledge | date = 1995 | location = New York, New York | pages = 26 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=9QVL9LcEfjUC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=Acerbo+Law&source=web&ots=vlowX_Rtbf&sig=agUQBK3IpC0Bk-mMmLPnBY1pvzw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result | isbn = 0-415-10598-6 ]Socialists rejection
The
Italian Socialist Party would not recognize this law and did not participate in the governmentndash which arguably gave the Fascists even more room for manoeuvre. Its action became known as the Aventine Secession.Subsequently, socialist leaders such as
Giacomo Matteotti were assassinated by Fascist agents, includingAmerigo Dumini .References
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