Fascism

Fascism Definition

Fascism may be defined as a 20th-century form of totalitarian dictatorship that sought to create a viable society by strict regimentation of national and individual lives; conflicting interests would be adjusted by total subordination to the service of the state and unquestioning loyalty to its leader.

Fascism emphasized nationalism, but its appeal was international. It flourished between 1919 and 1945 in several countries, mainly Italy, Germany, Spain, and Japan. Fascist regimes also existed for varying lengths of time in Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, Romania, Hungary, Finland, Norway, and Argentina. Even such liberal democracies as France and England had important Fascist movements.

Origins

Before World War I, several writers, among them Gabriele D’Annunzio, an Italian, and Georges Sorel, Maurice Barr?s, Charles Maurras, and Comte Joseph de Gobineau, all French, had expressed Fascist ideas, but it took postwar economic dislocation, the threat of communism arising from the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Great Depression of the 1930s to transform fascism into a serious political force.

The term fascism was first used by Benito Mussolini in 1919 and referred to the ancient Roman symbol of power, the fasces, a bundle of sticks bound to an ax, which represented civic unity and the authority of Roman officials to punish wrongdoers. Mussolini, the founder of fascism in Italy, began his political career as a Marxist. In 1912, as the editor of Italy’s leading socialist newspaper, Avanti!, he opposed both capitalism and militarism. By 1914, however, he had changed his attitude, calling on Italy to enter World War I and moving toward an accommodation with the political right. Influenced by the ideas of Sorel and the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, he glorified “action”and “vitality” and denounced antiwar Marxists for their lack of “pragmatism.”

After the war, when a series of socialist-backed strikes broke out in Italy—both workers’ strikes in the cities and peasants’ strikes in the country—Mussolini put his movement at the service of conservative business and landlord interests that, together with the Roman Catholic church and the army, wanted to check the “red wave.”Mussolini’s about-face brought him the political and financial backing he needed, and his own considerable oratorical powers did the rest (like Hitler in Germany, he was a highly effective demagogue).

Italy Under Fascism

In 1922 Mussolini seized control of the Italian government and established a dictatorship. All political parties except the Fascist Party, were banned, and Mussolini became Il Duce—the leader of the party. Labor unions were abolished, strikes were forbidden, and political opponents were silenced. See more about fascism in Italy and Mussolini here.

Fascist Methods

Like Communists, Fascists employed totalitarian methods, but for conservative rather than socialist ends. Far more totalitarian toward the left than toward the right, Italian Fascists crushed the labor movement but allowed big business to run its affairs with a minimum of government interference. Cartels flourished in Fascist Italy at the expense of small business and the consumer, despite Mussolini’s earlier promises that he would protect the latter. His anticapitalist rhetoric was contradicted by his policies, such as reducing taxes on big business, when he came to power. Eventually, however, corruption in the Fascist bureaucracy and the need to increase taxes, even on the rich, to support military spending alienated some conservatives from the regime.

From the beginning, the philosophy of Italian fascism heralded the virtues of war. Not only was military conquest seen as the way to solve the nation’s economic problems, but military values were praised as good for their own sake. Among the favorite slogans of the regime were “Nothing has ever been won in history without blood-shed!””A minute on the battlefield is worth a lifetime of peace!”Mussolini himself was to be obeyed in a military manner: “Believe! Obey! Fight!””Mussolini is always right!”The Fascist male was to be Darwinian, not humanitarian; tough, not soft; masculine, not feminine. Concerned with the moral health of society, Fascists denounced “decadence”in all its forms: hedonism, materialism, individualism, democracy, and sexual laxity.

In 1929 Mussolini signed the Lateran Accords with the Vatican, naming Roman Catholicism the “only state religion.”Tension developed later between the state and the church over which of the two was to control Italian education.

Fascism Elsewhere

Fascism in other countries differed from the Italian variety in certain respects. For instance, in Germany (see National Socialism) it was more racist; in Romania it was allied with the Orthodox church rather than the Roman Catholic church. In Spain, the radical Fascist Falange was originally hostile to the Roman Catholic church, although later, on the direction of dictator Francisco Franco, it merged with a reactionary and pro-Catholic group. Fascism in Japan was closely akin to that of Nazi Germany. Led by the military, it emphasized the traditional warrior virtues and an absolute dedication to the divine emperor. Like their German counterparts, Japanese Fascists also launched a fanatic drive for expansion by military conquest.

In France fascism was divided into several movements. Whereas fascism in most cases flourished in countries that were economically backward or marked by strong authoritarian political traditions, French fascism made headway in one of Europe’s most established democracies. In 1934 an estimated 370,000 people belonged to the various French Fascist organizations, such as the Jeunesses Patriotes, the “Solidarité Francaise”, the “Croix de Feu”, the “Action Francaise”, and the Francistes. More than 100,000 of these were concentrated in Paris. Many prominent intellectuals and thousands of university students were attracted to Fascist ideals during the 1920s and ’30s, in France and England as well as in Italy and Germany.

Source: “Fascism”Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia

See Also

Absolutism
Aristocracy
Oligarchy
Plebiscite
Nationalism
History of the Church and State Relationship

Hierarchical Display of Fascism

Politics > Political framework > Political ideology
Politics > Political party > Political tendency > Extreme right

Fascism

Concept of Fascism

See the dictionary definition of Fascism.

Characteristics of Fascism

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Resources

Translation of Fascism

• Spanish: Fascismo
• French: Fascisme
• German: Faschismus
• Italian: Fascismo
• Portuguese: Fascismo
• Polish: Faszyzm

Thesaurus of Fascism

Politics > Political framework > Political ideology > Fascism
Politics > Political party > Political tendency > Extreme right > Fascism

See also

• Extreme right

• Neo-Fascism