The Astral Library

Fascism

Defining Qualities:

  • Collectivist
  • Authoritarian
  • Regimentation of economy & society
  • Centralized government
  • Ethnocentric, Nationalism
  • Dictatorial leader
  • Militant
  • Social Heirachy
  • Suppression of individual for the race and nation
  • Merging of corporate and state power

From Italian fascismo, from fascio (“fasces, bundle, group”) + -ismo (“-ism”) with direct reference to Benito Mussolini's fasci di combattimento ("fight clubs"), from Latin fasces, bundles of axes and rods carried before the magistrates of the ancient Roman Republic as representative of their power of life and death. Originally with exclusive reference to Fascist Italy which used the fasces as an emblem, later broadened to describe all of the Axis Powers of World War II, and subsequently used as a general term of opprobrium in English and international political discourse.

  1. Any right-wing, authoritarian, nationalist ideology characterized by centralized, totalitarian governance, strong regimentation of the economy and society, and repression of criticism or opposition.
  2. (by extension, derogatory) Any system of strong autocracy or oligarchy usually to the extent of bending and breaking the law, race-baiting, and/or violence against largely unarmed populations.
  3. (figurative, derogatory) Any extreme reliance on or enforcement of rules and regulations

Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement,123 characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.

Robert O. Paxton finds that even though fascism "maintained the existing regime of property and social hierarchy," it cannot be considered "simply a more muscular form of conservatism" because "fascism in power did carry out some changes profound enough to be called 'revolutionary.'"214 These transformations "often set fascists into conflict with conservatives rooted in families, churches, social rank, and property." Paxton argues that "fascism redrew the frontiers between private and public, sharply diminishing what had once been untouchably private. It changed the practice of citizenship from the enjoyment of constitutional rights and duties to participation in mass ceremonies of affirmation and conformity. It reconfigured relations between the individual and the collectivity, so that an individual had no rights outside community interest. It expanded the powers of the executive—party and state—in a bid for total control. Finally, it unleashed aggressive emotions hitherto known in Europe only during war or social revolution."

Ultranationalism, combined with the myth of national rebirth, is a key foundation of fascism.215 Robert Paxton argues that "a passionate nationalism" is the basis of fascism, combined with "a conspiratorial and Manichean view of history" which holds that "the chosen people have been weakened by political parties, social classes, unassimilable minorities, spoiled rentiers, and rationalist thinkers."216 Roger Griffin identifies the core of fascism as being palingenetic ultranationalism.41

The fascist view of a nation is of a single organic entity that binds people together by their ancestry and is a natural unifying force of people.217 Fascism seeks to solve economic, political and social problems by achieving a millenarian national rebirth, exalting the nation or race above all else and promoting cults of unity, strength and purity.218page needed219page needed220page needed2216 European fascist movements typically espouse a racist conception of non-Europeans being inferior to Europeans.

Fascism promotes the establishment of a totalitarian state.12 It opposes liberal democracy, rejects multi-party systems, and may support a one-party state so that it may synthesize with the nation.13 Mussolini's The Doctrine of Fascism (1932), partly ghostwritten by philosopher Giovanni Gentile,223 who Mussolini described as "the philosopher of Fascism", states: "The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State—a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values—interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people."224 In The Legal Basis of the Total State, Nazi political theorist Carl Schmitt described the Nazi intention to form a "strong state which guarantees a totality of political unity transcending all diversity" in order to avoid a "disastrous pluralism tearing the German people apart."225

Fascist states pursued policies of social indoctrination through propaganda in education and the media, and regulation of the production of educational and media materials.226 Education was designed to glorify the fascist movement and inform students of its historical and political importance to the nation. It attempted to purge ideas that were not consistent with the beliefs of the fascist movement and to teach students to be obedient to the state.227

Fascism presented itself as an alternative to both international socialism and free-market capitalism.228 While fascism opposed mainstream socialism, fascists sometimes regarded their movement as a type of nationalist "socialism" to highlight their commitment to nationalism, describing it as national solidarity and unity.229230 Fascists opposed international free market capitalism, but supported a type of productive capitalism.123page needed231page needed Economic self-sufficiency, known as autarky, was a major goal of most fascist governments.