Abstract

In the early 1920s, Italian fascism grew from a marginal group into an organized party capable of challenging incumbent political forces and precipitating democratic backsliding. A key driver of this expansion was the strategic use of violence by squads that moved across municipalities to strike opponents and local institutions. We show that road networks were central to the diffusion of fascist violence: by lowering travel times and facilitating rapid incursions, roads made violence harder to anticipate and more effective. We document that such violence profoundly altered local political institutions, accelerating the consolidation of fascist control within a few years.