Fascism’s electoral strength rested on absorbing bourgeois strata and Vatican support

Evidence

In the spring of 1924, the P.C.I. prepared to fight a general election—under a new weighted electoral code and in a climate of terror and electoral fraud. Fascism had succeeded in absorbing broad strata of the bourgeoisie and petite bourgeoisie behind its electoral list, and by now had won the support of the Vatican (provoking a split in the Popular Party—see note 14 on p. 62 ); it was backed by the decisive centres of financial and industrial capital. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 158

Categorization

• XREF: Connects forward to Gramsci’s hegemony theory: fascism’s rule rested on a bloc of classes, not mere coercion.