What is Fascism?

Most of us have heard people accusing politicians of being ‘fascists’ or ‘Nazis’, but what do we really mean? Is it a legitimate accusation, or is it just another term we throw out with the intention of offending or labelling.

 Well quite clearly some of these accusations do not stand the test of analysis if we carefully analyse what we mean by the term ‘fascist’ or ‘fascism’.

 Opponents of fascism usually tend to categorise it as a ‘far right ideology, yet this is something that adherents would violently oppose. Indeed, Paxton (2004 p.) has argued:

“The ultimate fascist response to the Right-Left political map was to claim that they had made it obsolete by being ‘neither Right nor Left’, transcending such outdated divisions and uniting the nation.”

 

Furthermore, Jackson (2018) complicated matters even further by pointing out how any defining fascism is inexorably obfuscated by the fact that any interpretation will be tainted by the analysts own worldview. Thus, for example, a Marxist might see fascism as a creation of modernity that identified how capitalism was in a state of crisis and offered a violent response to fend off a true workers’ revolution. Alternatively, psychologists have argued fascism is either an adolescent rebellion (Erikson) or an alienation of man in the modern world (Fromm).

 

	British Union of Fascists	PNF – Italian Fascist Party	Swastika – symbol of the NSDAP – Nazi Party (Germany
Symbols of Fascist Organisations

 While interesting, none of this fully explains what is fascism and what underpins it ideologically. In an attempt to address this, Paxton (1998) argued several mobilising passions needed to be present for a movement to be described as ‘fascist’. These included:

• The primacy of the group toward which one has duties, superior to every right whether universal or individual;
• The belief that one’s group is a victim and that action again those enemies (both internal and external is justified);
•  A dread that because of liberalism, one’s group is sliding into a state of decadence;
• Closer integration of the group into a ‘brotherhood’ to protect its purity is critical even if this includes exclusionary violence;
• The authority of natural chiefs (always male) culminating in a national leader who will guide the group’s identity;
• The beauty of violence when it is devoted to the success of the group in a Darwinian struggle.

 Meanwhile, Finchelstein (2008) argued:

“Fascism is a political ideology that encompassed totalitarianism, state terrorism, imperialism, racism and, in the German case, the most radical genocide of the last century: the Holocaust.”

 While Griffin saw fascism as:

“Fascism should be seen as a revolutionary form of nationalism guided by the myth of the imminent rebirth of the nation in decadence.” 

 Other theorists have seen it as an expression of lower middle-class resentments (Lipset, 1963) while a multitude of observers have seen fascism as a sub-species of totalitarianism.

Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists

Clearly, we can see from all this there is no universal agreement on what is meant by the term. However, for our purposes and for future understanding of all posts that will follow in this blog, the following elements will generally be assumed to exist within the ideology of what is generally termed ‘fascism’. While far from definitive, it offers a starting point for future discussion:

1. A closed ideological system that places the state and the nation at the centre of all human life;
2. A rejection of political and cultural liberalism;
3. Opposition to the democratic process including parliamentary democracy;
4.  A total opposition to Marxist/ Communist ideology;
5. A belief in the notion of the Corporate State as defined by Gentile and Mussolini;
6. Totalitarian or authoritarian ambition;
7. The leader principle - the belief that the party and the state should have a single leader with absolute power;
8. Mass mobilisation of the population;
9. The creation of “the new man” - transforming the ordinary man into the “new man,” a “virile” being who would put decadent bourgeoisie, cerebral Marxists, and “feminine” liberals to shame;
10. A sense of victimhood - despite claims of superiority, fascists tends to claim the nation group has been victimized by others;
11. Ultra-nationalism that seeks to expand the nation's influence and power;
12. Racial scapegoating - exclusion of certain groups, often through violence;
13. Sexism and misogyny - women are urged to perform their traditional gender roles as wives and mothers and to bear many children for the nation;
14. Anti-intellectualism;

 What does this mean?

Even a superficial reading of the above clearly shows that the term “fascism” is frequently misused and often reduced to a term of abuse. The trouble with this approach is that it leads to a dead end. If we allow this continue, where does it lead and, more importantly, what terms can we then adopt when we need to actually describe genuine fascist movements. Indeed, in the coming weeks, I will hopefully demonstrate that in the last thirty years, we often describe extreme, or far right groups as ‘fascist’, when in fact they may be nothing of the sort, even though many of their views may be repugnant to decent minded people.

 Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post and do feel free to comment. In the meantime, have a great weekend.

 

References:

Finchelstein, F.  (2008) On Fascist Ideology Constellations. 15(3) 320 – 331

Griffin, R. (2002) Cruces gamadas y caminos bifurcados: las dinámicas fascistas del Tercer Reich” in Mellón, J.A. (ed.): Orden, Jerarquía y Comunidad. Fascismos, Dictaduras y  Postfascismos en la Europa Contemporánea, Madrid, Tecnos, p.103-149.

Jackson, P. 2018) Colin Jordan and Britain’s Neo-Nazi Movement – Hitler’s Echo. Bloomsbury, London.

Lipset, S.M. (1963) Political Man. Doubleday. New York

Paxton, R.O. (1998) The five stages of Fascism. Journal of Modern History. 70(1) 1 – 23.

Paxton, R.O (2004) The Anatomy of Fascism. Penguin. London