Encouraged popular Italian leader back to motherland (7)
I believe the answer is:
induced
'encouraged' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'popular italian leader back to motherland' is the wordplay.
'popular' becomes 'in' (something that's 'in' is fashionable).
'italian leader' becomes 'duce' (Benito Mussolini was known as Il Duce).
'back to' says to take the final letters.
The final letter of 'motherland' is 'd'.
'in'+'duce'+'d'='INDUCED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for induced that I've seen before include "Persuaded - brought to birth early" , "forced into the world" , "Persuaded or brought forward" .)