Fascism

What is fascism?

Extreme nationalism + powerful leader + rejection of democracy + violence + promised national rebirth

Ultranationalism

Nation above individual interest

Authoritarianism

Power concentrated in a leader or ruling group

Anti-communism

Opposition to revolutionary socialism and communism

Anti-liberalism

Rejection of liberal democracy and individual political freedoms

Propaganda

Sharing public beliefs through messages, symbols, and media

Cult of personality

Leader presented as heroic, exceptional, and indispensable

Corporatism

State directed representation of employers and workers by economic sector

Imperialism

Expansion of national power over other territories

Why did fascism emerge in Italy?

War disappointment → economic instability → fear of socialism → weak government → Mussolini

The Matteotti crisis

Opposition murdered → political crisis → dictatorship strengthened

How Mussolini controlled Italy

Violence + censorship + secret police + one-party dominance + propaganda + institutions

Paxton’s 5 stages of fascism

1. Create

2. Root

3. Acquire

4. Exercise

5. Radicalize/decline

Paxton vs Falasca-Zamponi

Paxton = political process

Falasca-Zamponi = political performance

Georgi Dimitrov

Fascism as dictatorship serving reactionary finance capital

Seymour Martin Lipset

Fascism as extremism of the centre

Erich Fromm

Psychological desire to escape freedom and insecurity

Ernst Nolte

Fascism as opposition to form of transcendence and emancipation

George Mosse

Political rituals, symbols, myth, and mass culture

Roger Griffin

Palingenetic (rebirth) ultranationalism (extreme devotion to the nations)

Robert Paxton

Fascism as a developing political process