I've said here many times that the idea of Mussolini as an oafish fool was created by Allied propaganda. There are a number of good biographies of him, most notably Denis Mack Smith's.

In short, Mussolini was absolutely not a figurehead. He had a stranglehold on the Italian government, eliminating his opponents ruthlessly. He had a reputation for what we would call micromanaging, and insisted on being privy to all goings-on at every level. He was also a propaganda master who deliberately manipulated the media to create a mythic version of himself that would keep the Italian people in his thrall.