Fascism

We explain what fascism is, its origin, ideology, its relationship with Nazism and other characteristics. Also, fascism today.

What is fascism?

Fascism was a mass movement and a political ideology that was born in Italy and dominated different parts of Europe in the first half of the 20th century, especially in the context prior to the Second World War. In addition, it had repercussions in other regions of the world.

fascism promoted a State totalitarian, undemocratic and militaristic supported by the notions of homeland and race, which translated into the oppression and persecution of minorities. The most characteristic examples of a fascist state were the regime of Benito Mussolini in Italy (1922-1945) and the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany (1933-1945).

The exact nature and precise definition of fascism are the subject of debate in political science. This is because the different fascist experiences had points of agreement but also differences. The variety of these regimes often made it difficult to locate a minimum common feature of fascism, which sometimes led to its confusion with any military dictatorship.

In a historical sense, fascism can be characterized as a political and ideological manifestation of the extreme right, anti-liberal and anti-communist, which was based on the idea of ​​the superiority of the collective (homeland, nation or race) over the individual. He proposed a state organization of society and the economy based on the integration between the State and the party and in the construction of a kind of “military citizenship.”

Fascism sought to mobilize society against a real or imaginary enemy (external or internal). However, the specific method and discourse could vary. For example, Nazism emphasized an idea of ​​racial superiority that was not part of the initial discourse of Italian fascism.

In the second half of the 20th century, some minority groups emerged that identified with fascist ideas (such as neo-Nazis).

See also: Totalitarianism

Characteristics of fascism

Fascism usually has the following characteristics:

• It is a nationalist and militarist political and ideological movement combative and violent, which exalts the notions of homeland, nation or race to the detriment of minorities, foreigners and anyone considered different.
• Appeal to values ​​such as patriotism, struggle, sacrifice the predominance of the State over the individual and moral, ideological, national or racial purity.
• He is usually represented as an heir to a glorious past to recover such as the Roman Empire in the case of Italian fascism or German history and mythology in the case of German Nazism, which usually promotes expansionist attitudes.
• Promotes the organization of irregular or parallel armed forces (like the Italian “black shirts”), who are in charge of persecuting their adversaries and subjecting society to a state of fear or threat.
• Proposes a single-party, totalitarian and authoritarian State model which controls all levels of society and is built around the idea of ​​the infallibility of a charismatic leader, who is worshiped through an elaborate propaganda apparatus.
• In ideological terms, it is usually proposed as an alternative to bourgeois liberalism and worker socialism for which it proposes the state regulation of social relations through economic interventionism and, in some cases, corporatism (that is, the state management of relations between employers and workers).

See also: Fascist

Origin of fascism

The origins of fascism date back to the beginning of the 20th century in Italy. Previously, there were various revolutionary movements of diverse ideology that were called fascio (term translatable by beamin the sense of the “bundle of lictors” that was a symbol of republican authority in Ancient Rome, called fasces in Latin).

Benito Mussolini was a socialist leader who during the First World War (1914-1918) adopted a militarist position and was expelled from the party. In 1919, after the end of the war, Mussolini founded the Italian fasci di combattimento (“Italian Combat Fascios”), a political organization that combined militaristic nationalism with a plan for social reforms.

This group carried out a violent street fight against strikers, leftists and other political and social groups considered enemies of the country. One of his impulses was the fear that a proletarian revolution would break out in Italy and other European nations like the one that had broken out in Russia in 1917, which gave rise to a communist regime.

Furthermore, the fascists criticized the liberal Italian politicians for having accepted a “mutilated victory” in the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles with the Allied countries after the First World War, since Italy did not obtain all the territorial claims it had originally demanded.

As Mussolini's movement gained more political importance, was organized to seize power under the name of Partito Nazionale Fascista (“National Fascist Party”). Its militants formed a paramilitary force known as the “black shirts”, which was later called the Voluntary Militia for National Security, dedicated to assault, murder and intimidation of their political opponents.

In 1922 the March on Rome took place, led by the “blackshirts” which forced the king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, to hand over power to Mussolini.

Fascism outside Italy

The rise to power of fascism in Italy inspired various groups and personalities who imitated fascist aesthetics and organization in other European countries and in some American nations.

This is how they emerged, among others:

• The “brownshirts” (Sturmabteilung or SA) of Adolf Hitler in Germany which exercised control functions at Nazi rallies and violence against political opponents, and contributed to the growing power of the Nazi Party.
• The “blue shirts” (as the militants of the Spanish Phalanx) by José Antonio Primo de Rivera in Spain which were inspired by the nationalist, corporatist and anti-communist principles of fascism but also defended the values ​​of Catholicism and supported the military uprising of 1936 that led to the establishment of the Franco dictatorship.

Variants of fascism and Nazism also emerged in countries such as Romania, France, England, Canada, Hungary, the United States, Brazil or Argentina, although in many cases they were a minority. Some Latin American governments were inspired by characteristics of fascism (such as Brazil or Argentina in the 1940s).

The triumph of fascism in Italy (1922) and Nazism in Germany (1933) created a fascist political axis in interwar Europe whose military and territorial expansion triggered the Second World War (1939-1945).

ideology of fascism

fascism It is a far-right nationalist ideology opposed to both liberal democracy and bourgeois individualism and communism and the socialist labor movement.

Fascism put into practice ideas associated with different positions on the political and ideological spectrum: state regulation of the economy, the exaltation of traditional values ​​and national identity, the promotion of profit to private companies that cooperated with the regime and the application of social welfare policies and labor legislation.

Some historians consider fascism as a phase of capitalism, capable of stripping rights from vulnerable sectors of the population to exploit them economically and stop the advance of socialism.

Other historians recognize in fascism aspects originating in socialist ideas, such as the nationalization of society and some social reforms, and highlight its totalitarian character and the cult of personality which also characterized Stalinism in the Soviet Union (USSR).

In general, it is simpler to define fascism ideologically by what it opposes. Regimes of this type are usually anti-liberal, anti-Marxist, anti-communist, anti-democratic, anti-intellectual and, in some respects, anti-capitalist. This is complemented by varying degrees of nationalism (feeling of belonging to a nation), chauvinism (extreme and aggressive exaltation of nationalism) and racism (discrimination based on the belief in the superiority of one ethnic group over others).

Fascism and Nazism

Italian fascism and German Nazism were twin movements arising from the dissatisfaction that the result of the First World War unleashed in their populations.

They were mobilized by the charismatic leadership of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, respectively. In the case of Germany, the rise of Nazism to power was also due to the global economic crisis that broke out in 1929 (the Great Depression).

Fascism and Nazism achieved political power, established a dictatorship and reorganized society according to a project that included: state intervention in the economy, the militarization of citizens, political persecution, the annulment of rights and freedoms and the harassment of minorities.

In fascist rhetoric, especially German, minorities were considered “inferior” races or cultures destined for extermination or forced labor, as happened with the Jewish population under the Nazi regime. Hitler's objective was to obtain sufficient “living space” for the German people, considered to be of the “Aryan race” (Lebensraum) to grow and prosper.

These ideas led Nazism to expand militarily towards Eastern Europe and to build concentration and extermination camps for Jewish, Gypsy, Slavic, and dissident populations, among others. Nazism and fascism allied themselves and faced the Allied powers in World War II (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union).

Neither fascism nor Nazism survived the war. Fascism fell under the pressure of the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, when the king of Italy himself ordered the arrest of Mussolini to sign the armistice with the Allies. This forced Nazi Germany to invade Italy, rescue Mussolini and create the Italian Social Republic in the north of the country, a puppet state of the Nazis.

In 1945, northern Italy was invaded by the Allies and Mussolini tried to escape with his lover, Clara Petacci, and other leaders of the fascist regime. However, on the way they were stopped by a patrol of Italian communist partisans and executed.

For its part, the Nazi regime was successful at the beginning of the war but failed in its campaign to annex the territories of the Soviet Union and began to lose ground. In April 1945 the Red Army (Soviet) began attacking Berlin, where Hitler was taking refuge, who finally committed suicide in his bunker a few hours before the fall of Berlin. On May 7 and 8, 1945, Germany signed its unconditional surrender, marking the end of the Nazi regime.

Fascism today

The resurgence of fascism in the second half of the 20th century is often referred to as neo-fascism or neo-Nazism. Several European movements that gained strength in the 1980s and 1990s were linked to this ideology such as the Italian Social Movement or the National Democratic Party of Germany.

In the 1990s, some neo-Nazi groups engaged in street violence against immigrants and other minorities in countries such as Germany and the United States. At the beginning of the 21st century, some far-right parties with anti-immigration speeches achieved important results in elections in countries such as France, Austria and Hungary.

However, current far-right parties tend to ignore any link with fascism and present themselves as moderate and democratic versions of nationalism, although in many cases they share xenophobic discourses.

Continue with: Authoritarianism

References

• Bobbio, N. (2006). Essays on fascism. UNQ/Prometeo Editorial.
• Gentile, E. (2005). The Italian road to totalitarianism. Party and state in the fascist regime. 21st century.
• Paxton, R. O. (2019). What is fascism? CTXT. https://ctxt.es/
• Soucy, R. (2023). fascism Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/