The colonial administration of the liberal era went to great lengths to reach out to Libyan notables, an approach known as the ‘politica dei capi’. This approach culminated in 1919 with the passage of the Libyan Statutes that extended Italian citizenship and afforded a measure of political representation to ‘native’ élites, though identifying who was ‘native’ in the Libyan territories was open to the interpretations of those taking census data, often with little knowledge concerning the ethnicities and identities of peoples in the region (Dumasy 2004–2005, 11–34).

Critics condemned this approach as expensive and ineffectual since it placed individuals with questionable influence on the Italian payroll while limiting direct state control to a few urban centres on the coast. Following Mussolini’s 1922 March on Rome, the colonial administration rejected conciliatory approaches and denounced previous treaties with regional élites in favour of military action to increase the territory under direct control of the [Fascist] state.

(Emphasis added. Source herein.)