Final answer:
Benito Mussolini viewed majority rule and equality as detrimental to his fascist vision for Italy, favoring total state control and authoritarian leadership. Democracy and political plurality were dismantled, replaced by a focus on national unity and loyalty to Mussolini as the supreme authority, Il Duce.
Step-by-step explanation:
How did Mussolini view majority rule and equality? Benito Mussolini's views on majority rule and equality were shaped by his totalitarian ideology of fascism, which he believed was the only path to revitalizing Italy's past grandeur. Mussolini viewed the concept of majority rule as ineffective and saw equality as a hindrance to the greatness of the state. Under his regime, starting with the March on Rome, Mussolini worked to dismantle democratic institutions, emphasizing the need for order, stability, and the authority of the leader above all else.
Mussolini declared himself Il Duce (the leader) and pursued a state-controlled system known as state corporatism. In this system, the idea of individual rights, majority rule, and political equality were disregarded, and instead, loyalty to the nation and obeisance to its leader were mandated. Control of social and economic aspects of life through state corporatism, which retained the facade of private ownership, aimed to unify the Italian people under a common nationalistic and militaristic goal, with Mussolini as the absolute authority.
Consequently, Mussolini's fascist ideology involved the eradication of traditional democratic values which rest on majority rule and political equality. Instead, a new social order was imposed, one that sought unity and totalitarian control within the framework of the state. His view was that these traditional concepts of governance were inferior and would be replaced by a regime that could ensure national success and suppress any dissenting voices.