Fascism PDF

# Political Science ## 5. Fascism Dr. AbdelRahman Mohamed Sayed ## Fascism - A form of radical, right-wing, authoritarian ultranationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy, which came to prominence in ear...

# Political Science ## 5. Fascism Dr. AbdelRahman Mohamed Sayed ## Fascism - A form of radical, right-wing, authoritarian ultranationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy, which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I before it spread to other European countries. - Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) and Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) advocated fascism as a response to what they identified as twentieth-century political problems. Fascism, they promised, would rescue countries from economic disorder, national weakness, and moral decline—societal maladies exacerbated, they contended, by the failures of liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and, more generally, by democracy itself. - The philosophical ideas of socialism, liberalism, and democracy were attacked directly in fascist writings; conservative ideas were more implicitly critiqued. - Fascism's appeal to antisocialist constituencies was evident in, for example, the Italian elections of 1921, when support for fascism was linked to opposition to socialist candidates. That is, studies of these elections reveal that a vote for fascism was perceived by many as a vote against socialism. ## Fascism - In Nazi Germany, socialist ideas and socialist and communist parties and individuals were especially targeted by the Nazis for repression and persecution; indeed, some of the earliest concentration camps in Nazi Germany were used to imprison socialists and communists. - Thus, in terms of both ideology and political practice, fascism, from its early twentieth-century beginnings, defined itself as a rejection of the ideologies. More particularly, fascism during these years put itself forward as a categorical and generally vituperative expression of antisocialism/anticommunism. ## Fascism - Many scholars describe fascism as having an antitheoretical tendency. That is, fascism is said to have consisted not so much of core political ideas accepted universally by fascists in varied settings as of improvised, culture-specific positions taken by self-avowed fascists. - Indeed, as early as 1927, Italian historian Gaetano Salvemini pointed out that fascism's lack of theoretical clarity meant that fascists could often confuse both supporters and opponents. Neither necessarily knew what to expect from newly installed fascist regimes, Salvemini asserted. - Exiled from Italy 3 years after Mussolini's assumption of power, Salvemini came to conclude that fascists could be understood by their actions, if not by their ideological propositions. Analyses such as those offered by Salvemini suggest that fascism, in practice, becomes a system of glorified violence directed at those too weak to resist successfully, a system concentrating power in an authoritarian leader, and a system stabilized by the lack of opposition to these state actions from established, influential sectors in society. ## Fascism - Fascists have sometimes embraced a strategy of explaining their ideology by describing what it is not. In Mussolini's Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions, this approach is followed. Specific arguments of fascism are delineated through a series of contrasts that highlight fascist alternatives to rival political perspectives. For example, fascism is presented as an ideology that opposes pacifism. - Pacifism rests on the notion that countries can and should coexist peacefully and resolve disputes by nonviolent means. Pacifism is peace seeking and peace building. - Mussolini's work explains why fascism rejects such thinking. Fascism regards peace seeking as consigning a country to weakness, as excusing cowardice, and as abandoning the very risk taking that might propel a country into a position of greater strength. Pacifists avoid conflict, Mussolini writes, yet conflict can become an occasion for winning against a competitor. Conflict can become an opportunity for territorial expansion. Conflict can become a means of taking power over government. Conflict can become a means of demonstrating superiority. ## Fascism - Both peace and freedom of speech seem illegitimate, from a fascist perspective, because both threaten to hijack the decision-making process that should reside in the nation acting for itself and place it in the hands of interlopers (internationalists and individualists). Both peace and freedom of speech would constitute misspecifications of that which should be pursued through fascist politics. - Italian fascists coined the word *totalitarian* to describe the proper boundaries of state authority. Any and all activities needed for the creation of a powerful nation should be directed by the state. Thus, one finds in the historical record of fascism ideological support for the regulation of economic, cultural, and political life. ## Fascism - In upholding the totalistic state, fascists denied that states should limit their own powers in order to maximize individual freedom and insisted, instead, that individuals acknowledge the superior authority of the state. - Unlike traditional conservatism, fascism opposed civil institutions strong enough to exist independently of and in potential opposition to the government. Fascists asserted that the state should be the ultimate source of morality, and civil institutions should defer to state decisions. - Indeed, being a part of the fascist state—through obedience to its decrees and participation in its activities—would lift people out of their isolated, petty, limited individual lives and attach them to something bigger, something heroic. Submission to the fascist state was thus presented as ennobling. ## Fascism - Historically, fascist governments have repressed dissent and banned or severely restricted any groups or institutions that could challenge the state's authority. - For example, by 1925, Mussolini had effectively destroyed parliamentary rivals to his authority in Italy. Specifically, he gave himself the power to issue decrees without consulting parliament, and he oversaw the enactment of a law prohibiting parliament from debating public issues. By 1926, Mussolini had destroyed the authority of local governmental authorities as well. - Similarly, in Germany, in 1933 Hitler declared his Nazi Party to be the only legal political party in the country and announced that anyone attempting to organize another party would be subject to a penalty of at least 3 years in prison. ## Fascism - Fascism also opposed the concepts of natural and civil equality and supported, instead, the idea of elitism. - According to fascism, individuals are not equal by birth (or nature) and should not be equal under the laws. To the contrary, individuals are divided by natural abilities and social worth, and society should be arranged hierarchically to reflect the differences between “naturally superior” and “naturally inferior” groups. Naturally superior individuals constitute the elite, who should be accorded the highest ranking within the social hierarchy. - Different fascist leaders have offered varied opinions on who is to be designated the elite and who is not; scholars have noted that fascists have targeted different populations within their respective countries as nonelites. Thus, any group can become vulnerable to this labeling. Hitler added a psychosadistic element to fascist elitist ideology by proclaiming that the average person not only had an obligation to submit to the elites but actually desired to be dominated by them. Nonelites achieved gratification from being ruled by domineering masters, Hitler maintained. ## Fascism - Mussolini and the Italian fascists were primarily nationalistic elitists, whereas Hitler and the Nazis were both nationalistic and racist in their elitism. - With respect to Italy, fascists espoused nationalism from the earliest days of Mussolini's rule; however, not until the late 1930s did Mussolini add a racist and anti-Semitic dimension to this nationalism. - In contrast, from the very beginning of Hitler's regime, Nazism proclaimed a belief in Germany's superiority as a nation and the Aryans' superiority as a race. - The totalistic state was used to promote the power of the “natural elites” and was used to eliminate the “inferiors” as well as any potential source of opposition to the fascist system. ## Fascism - Following World War II, fascist parties were banned in Italy and Germany, but fascist ideology endured. - A number of European political parties and movements have ideological ties to fascism. These groups have either espoused fascist principles or explicitly appealed to constituencies supportive of those principles. - None of these groups is strong enough to operate as a dominant power within its own country; however, each group has successfully placed candidates in office in recent years. ## Fascism - U.S. Fascism: The Ku Klux Klan - Some scholars regard the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as an early expression of fascism. Formed as a white supremacist social group in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866, by 1867 the KKK had become a paramilitary organization. - The KKK espoused a number of arguments that, taken together, resemble what will later be termed fascist: advocacy and use of violence in support of elitism/racism by a governing group seeking to place national supremacy above individualism. - The KKK saw itself as the governing organization to enforce this supremacy and rejected the post-Civil War Reconstruction governments in the southern United States. The KKK declined in the 1870s. ## Fascism - U.S. Fascism: The Ku Klux Klan - A second Klan came into being in the United States during the 1920s. The message of the KKK of the 1920s was similar to arguments made by recent neofascists. - The second Klan attacked immigration, immigrant rights, and those it perceived as immigrants and/or 'foreign'. - Like Mussolini and Hitler, the second Klan was virulently antisocialist and anticommunist. It promoted “Americanism” as its nationalistic ideology. What “Americanism” meant in this context, according to the Klan, was patriotism and love of the nation of America, opposition to "foreigners" and "foreign ideas and ways," and working to defeat godless socialism. - Calling on its members to be “good Americans' by doing these things, the KKK was often allowed by white Protestant churches to meet on their premises, was often urged on by white Protestant ministers, and even had help burning crosses from various white Protestant congregations. ## Fascism - In Brief: - Argues in favor of a totalitarian state that regulates any and all parts of life deemed to be relevant to politics, as determined by state officials. - Asserts that the state is more important than the individual. - Rejects the idea that civil institutions should have an important role in limiting the power of states and in criticizing laws of the state. - Affirms that individuals are to gain a sense of purpose by psychologically identifying with a totalistic state and devoting themselves to service to that state. - Rejects the concept of equality. - Advocates nationalism and/or racism. ## Fascism - Thank You