Italy was ruled by Benito Mussolini, founder and leader of the National Fascist Party, from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition and imprisonment in 1943. After being briefly liberated by Nazi forces and installed as the head of a puppet government, he was captured and summarily executed by Italian partisans in 1945, as Allied troops marched into Northern Italy.

Between 1925 and 1927, Mussolini gradually removed all institutional limitations on his power, establishing a police state and a legal dictatorship. On Christmas Eve 1925, Mussolini passed a law changing his title from “President of the Council of Ministers” to “Head of Government.” Under the new law, Mussolini no longer had to answer to parliament and could only be removed by the king. Local electoral autonomy was also abolished, with a centrally appointed podestà replacing the local mayor’s office and judiciary.

Confino di polizia was a judicial measure applicable from the 1800s until the 1950s in Italy but put to particularly intensive use during the fascist period. Individuals subject to confino were deported to isolated areas of the country, mostly in the south, and were subject to severe limitations on their movement and constant checks on their whereabouts and activities.