I'm sure that, if necessary, I can find a butcher's hook somewhere.

Seriously, of course there are parallels. Mussolini was the guy who wrote the book on how to turn a modern democracy into a fascist dictatorship. Sure, Machiavelli wrote down the basics, but Mussolini was the guy who polished it up. Any other attempt in this time period is going to look a lot like Mussolini's.