The Dictator's Playbook

(demonstrators chanting in foreign language) -

Narrator

Europe, 2018. From Austria to Sweden, Hungary to Greece, ultranationalism is on the rise. (demonstrators yelling in foreign language) (smoke hisses) Fueled by xenophobia and a promise to fight for the rights of white Europeans, extremist groups are emerging from the fringes and onto the public stage. It's a jarring sight, but the world has been here before.

(crowd shouting) The ideologies that drive these groups can be traced back almost 100 years to one man, Italy's Benito Mussolini. (crowd cheering) (dramatic music) Mussolini has been dismissed as a buffoon, a small-time tyrant who ruled in the shadow of Hitler and Stalin. But he was no one's disciple. We heard for years that Hitler taught Mussolini everything he knew.

In fact, it's the opposite. (boots pounding) -

Narrator

Years before the Third Reich, Mussolini was the architect of a movement that would plunge the continent into darkness. He called it fascism. (crowd chanting in foreign language) From undermining judges to indoctrinating children, Mussolini pioneered tactics that other dictators would use to seize power. Mussolini absolutely wrote the blueprint for how to destroy a democracy.

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Narrator

How did this son of a blacksmith come to write key chapters of the dictator's playbook and turn himself into a modern Caesar? -

Woman

Dictatorships have had an incredible impact in the past century. -

Woman

These dictators ended up learning from one another. -

Man

They're all different. But many used the same tactics. -

Woman

The use of terror. -

Man

Propaganda. -

Woman

Control the elites. -

Woman

Create an enemy. -

Woman

Cult of personality. -

Man

Use violence. -

Man

These are tools that dictators use to stay in power. (dramatic music)