Fascism, , is a political ideology that seeks to combine radical and authoritarian nationalism with a corporatist economic system, and which is usually considered to be on the far right of the traditional left-right political spectrum.

Fascists advocate the creation of a single-party state, with the belief that the majority is unsuited to govern itself through democracy and by reaffirming the benefits of inequality. Fascist governments forbid and suppress openness and opposition to the fascist state and the fascist movement. Fascism opposes class conflict, blames capitalism and liberal democracies for its creation and communists for exploiting the concept. Fascism fashioned itself as the "Complete opposite of Marxian socialism..." by rejecting the economic and material conception of history, the fundamental belief of fascism being that human beings are motivated by glory and heroism rather than economic motives, in contrast to the worldview of capitalism and socialism.

In the economic sphere, many fascist leaders have claimed to support a "Third Way" in economic policy, which they believed superior to both the rampant individualism of unrestrained capitalism and the severe control of state socialism. This was to be achieved by establishing significant government control over business and labour (Mussolini called his nation's system "the corporate state"). No common and concise definition exists for fascism and historians and political scientists disagree on what should be in any concise definition.

Following the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II and the publicity surrounding the atrocities committed during the period of fascist governments, the term fascist has been used as a pejorative word.

Etymology

The term fascismo is derived from the Italian word fascio, which means "bundle" or group, and from the Latin word fasces; a fasces was a bundle of sticks used symbolically for the power through unity. The fasces, which consisted of a bundle of rods that were tied around an axe, were an ancient Roman symbol of the authority of the civic magistrate; they were carried by his Lictors and could be used for corporal and capital punishment at his command.

Furthermore, the symbolism of the fasces suggested strength through unity: a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is difficult to break. This is a familiar theme throughout different forms of fascism; for example the Falange symbol is a bunch of arrows joined together by a yoke.

Definitions

Historians, political scientists, and other scholars have engaged in long debates concerning the exact nature of fascism. Since the 1990s, scholars like Stanley Payne, Roger Eatwell, Roger Griffin and Robert O. Paxton have begun to gather a rough consensus on the system's core tenets. Each form of fascism is distinct, leaving many definitions as too wide or too narrow.

Griffin wrote:

[Fascism is] a genuinely revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis, anti-conservative nationalism. As such it is an ideology deeply bound up with modernization and modernity, one which has assumed a considerable variety of external forms to adapt itself to the particular historical and national context in which it appears, and has drawn a wide range of cultural and intellectual currents, both left and right, anti-modern and pro-modern, to articulate itself as a body of ideas, slogans, and doctrine. In the inter-war period it manifested itself primarily in the form of an elite-led "armed party" which attempted, mostly unsuccessfully, to generate a populist mass movement through a liturgical style of politics and a programme of radical policies which promised to overcome a threat posed by international socialism, to end the degeneration affecting the nation under liberalism, and to bring about a radical renewal of its social, political and cultural life as part of what was widely imagined to be the new era being inaugurated in Western civilization. The core mobilizing myth of fascism which conditions its ideology, propaganda, style of politics and actions is the vision of the nation's imminent rebirth from decadence.Roger Griffin, ''[http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/history/staff/griffin/coreoffascism.pdf The palingenetic core of generic fascist ideology]'', Chapter published in Alessandro Campi (ed.), ''Che cos'è il fascismo?'' Interpretazioni e prospettive di ricerche, Ideazione editrice, Roma, 2003, pp. 97–122.

Paxton wrote that fascism is:

a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.

===Position in the political spectrum=== {{POV-section|date=August 2009}} Fascism is normally described as "[[Far right|extreme right]]"Eatwell, Roger: "A Spectral-Syncretic Approach to Fascism", ''The Fascism Reader'', Routledge, 2003, p 79. [http://books.google.com/books?id=tP2wXl5nzboC&pg=PA79], but writers on the subject have often found placing fascism on a conventional [[left (politics)|left]]-right [[political spectrum]] difficult.Turner, Stephen P., Käsler, Dirk: ''Sociology Responds to Fascism'', Routledge. 2004, p 222 There is a scholarly consensus that fascism was influenced by both the left and the right. A number of historians have regarded fascism either as a revolutionary centrist doctrine, as a doctrine which mixes philosophies of the left and the right, or as both of those things. The historians [[Eugen Weber]],Weber, Eugen. ''Varieties of Fascism: Doctrines of Revolution in the Twentieth Century'', New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, [1964] 1982. p. 8. David Renton,Renton, David. ‘’Fascism: Theory and Practice’’, London: Pluto Press, 1999. and Robert SoucyJenkins, Brian (ed)). ‘’France in the Era of Fascism’’, Oxford: Beghahan Books, 2005, p 66. view fascism as on the ideological right. Rod Stackelberg argues that fascism opposes [[egalitarianism]] (particularly racial) and democracy, which according to him are characteristics that make it an extreme right-wing movement.Stackleberg, Roderick: ''Hitler's Germany'', London: Routeledge, 1999, p 17 Stanley Payne states that pre-war fascism found a coherent identity through alliances with right-wing movementsStanley G. Payne, ''Fascism: Comparison and Definition''. University of Wisconsin Press, 1983, p3. [[Roger Griffin]] argues that since the end of [[World War II]], fascist movements have become intertwined with the radical right, describing certain groups as part of a "fascist radical right".Roger Griffin, Interregnum or Endgame?: Radical Right Thought in the ‘Post-fascist’ Era, ''The Journal of Political Ideologies,'' vol. 5, no. 2, July 2000, pp. 163–78‘Non Angeli, sed Angli: the neo-populist foreign policy of the "New" BNP', in Christina Liang (ed.) Europe for the Europeans: the foreign and security policy of the populist radical right (Ashgate, Hampshire,2007).uISBN 0754648516 [[Walter Laqueur]] says that historical fascism "did not belong to the extreme Left, yet defining it as part of the [[Far right|extreme Right]] is not very illuminating either", but that it "was always a coalition between radical, populist ('fascist') elements and others gravitating toward the extreme Right".Laqueur, Walter. ‘’Fascism Past, Present and Future’’, Oxford, OUP, 1997 Payne says "fascists were unique in their hostility to all the main established currents, left right and center", noting that they allied with both left and right, but more often the right.Stanley G. Payne, ''Fascism: Comparison and Definition''. University of Wisconsin Press. 1983. ISBN 9780299080648. p. 8 an 104http://books.google.com/books?id=9wHNrF7nFecC&pg=RA1-PA16&dq=payne However, he contends that German Nazism was closer to Russian communism than to any other non-communist system.Stanley G. Payne. ''Fascism: Comparison and Definition''. University of Wisconsin Press. 1983. ISBN 9780299080648. p. 104 The position that fascism is neither right nor left is regarded as credible by a number of contemporary historians, including [[Seymour Martin Lipset]]Lipset, Seymour. ‘’Political Man’’, New York, Anchor Books, 1960, p 141 and Roger Griffin.Griffin, Roger. ‘’The Nature of Fascism’’, London, Routeledge, 1991 Griffin argued, "Not only does the location of fascism within the right pose taxonomic problems, there are good ground for cutting this particular Gordian knot altogether by placing it in a category of its own "beyond left and right."{{cite book |last=Griffin |first=Roger |title=The Nature of Fascism |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=0312071329 |year=1991}} On economic issues, fascists reject ideas of [[class conflict]] and [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalism]], which are commonly held by [[Marxist]]s and international socialists, in favour of [[class collaboration]] and [[statist]] [[nationalism]].{{cite book |last=Counts|first=George Sylvester|publisher=Ayer Publishing|title=Bolshevism, Fascism, and Capitalism: An Account of the Three Economic Systems|isbn=0836918665 |year=1970}}{{cite book |last=Gregor|first=A. James|publisher=Transaction Pub|title=Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher Of Fascism|isbn=0765805936 |year=2004}} However, Italian fascism also declared its objection to excessive capitalism, which it called [[Supercapitalism (concept in Italian Fascism)|supercapitalism]].Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. ''Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy''. University of California Press, 2000. Pp. 136. [[Zeev Sternhell]] sees fascism as an anti-[[Marxism|Marxist]] form of socialism.Sternhell, Zeev, in Laqueur (ed.), ''Fascism: A Reader's Guide'', Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976, pp. 315–76 A number of fascist movements described themselves as a "third force" that was outside the traditional political spectrum altogether.Mosse, G: "Toward a General Theory of Fascism", ''Fascism'', ed. Griffin, Routeledge, 2003 Mussolini promoted ambiguity about fascism's positions in order to rally as many people to it as possible, saying fascists can be "aristocrats or democrats, revolutionaries and reactionaries, [[proletarians]] and anti-proletarians, pacifists and anti-pacifists".Neocleous, Mark. Fascism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Pp. 54. Mussolini claimed that Italian Fascism's economic system of [[corporatism]] could be identified as either [[state capitalism]] or [[state socialism]], which in either case involved "the bureaucratisation of the economic activities of the nation."Mussolini, Benito; Schnapp, Jeffery Thompson (ed.); Sears, Olivia E. (ed.); Stampino, Maria G. (ed.). "Address to the National Corporative Council (14 November 1933) and Senate Speech on the Bill Establishing the Corporations (abridged; 13 January 1934)". ''A Primer of Italian Fascism''. University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Pp. 158–159. Mussolini described fascism in any language he found useful.[http://books.google.com/books?id=F4AYGALitgsC&pg=PA198] "a final indicator of the amibiguity between left and right extremes is that many militants switch sides, including the very founder of fascism, Benito Mussolini" Terrorism today, Christopher C. Harmon, Routledge, 2000 ISBN 0714649988, 9780714649986 316 pages Spanish Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera was critical of both left-wing and right-wing politics, once saying that "basically the Right stands for the maintenance of an economic structure, albeit an unjust one, while the Left stands for the attempt to subvert that economic structure, even though the subversion thereof would entail the destruction of much that was worthwhile".Neocleous, Mark. Fascism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Pp. 58. Roger Eatwell sees terminology associated with the traditional “left-right” political spectrum as failing to fully capture the complex nature of the ideologyEatwell, Roger: "A Spectral-Syncretic Approach to Fascism", ''The Fascism Reader'', Routledge, 2003, pp 79–80 and many other political scientists have posited multi-dimensional alternatives to the traditional linear left-right spectrum.[http://books.google.com/books?id=aiz8xT-imf8C&pg=PA28] Key concepts in politics, Andrew Heywood, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000 ISBN 0312233817, 9780312233815 281 pages page 28 "various horseshoe shaped and two dimensional spectrums have been developed to offer a more complete picture of ideological positions" In some [[Political spectrum|two dimensional political models]], such as the [[Political Compass]] (where left and right are described in purely economic terms), fascism is ascribed to the economic centre, with its extremism expressing itself on the authoritarianism axis instead.[http://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis2 The Political Compass, Analysis] ===''Fascist'' as epithet=== {{Main|Fascist (epithet)}} Following [[World War II]], the word ''fascist'' has become a slur throughout the [[political spectrum]]. In contemporary political discourse, some adherents of political ideologies on both the left and right wings of the political spectrum associate fascism with their political enemies, or define it as the opposite of their own views. Some argue that the term ''fascist'' has become hopelessly vague over the years and that it is now little more than a pejorative [[epithet]]. [[George Orwell]] wrote in 1944:

The word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, [[Social Credit]], [[corporal punishment]], [[fox-hunting]], [[bull-fighting]], the [[1922 Committee]], the [[1941 Committee]], [[Rudyard Kipling|Kipling]], [[Gandhi]], [[Chiang Kai-Shek]], [[homosexuality]], [[J. B. Priestley|Priestley]]'s broadcasts, [[Youth Hostel]]s, [[astrology]], women, dogs and I do not know what else... almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’.{{ndash}} [[George Orwell]], ''What is Fascism?''. 1944.{{cite news|url=http://orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc|publisher=Orwell.ru|title=George Orwell: ‘What is Fascism?’|date=8 January 2008}}

Richard Griffiths argued in 2005 that the term fascism is the "most misused, and over-used word of our times".{{cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Richard |title=An Intelligent Person's Guide to Fascism|publisher=Duckworth|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Y668AAAACAAJ&dq=Griffiths,+Richard |isbn=0715629182 |year=2000}} ==Historical causes of the rise of fascism== A variety of views exist on what led to the rise of fascism as an ideology. Common views include that fascism was a response to events during World War I that led to perceived failings of [[democracy]], [[liberalism]], and [[Marxism]] for each having favoured either [[individualism]] or [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalism]] at the expense of nations and [[nationalism]].Griffin, Roger (ed.). Linz, Juan. "Crisis of democracy after the First World War". ''International Fascism: Theories, Causes and the New Consensus''. London: Arnold Publishers, 1998. Pp. 177–178.Turner, Stephen P. (ed.); Käsler, Dirk (ed.). Sociology Responds to Fascism. Routledge. Pp. 128. In Italy, the perceptions of failures of democratic government within the country, Italian liberalism, and the fears of Italian society having been torn apart by Marxism stimulated the creation and popularity of Italian Fascism. Fascism presented itself as a radical nationalist alternative to rising [[Bolshevism]] that came in the Russian [[October Revolution]] of 1917 but it did incorporate government infrastructure aspects of Bolshevism into the ideology, such as the single-party state, the concept of rule by an elite group to represent the masses, and appeals to [[proletarian]] workers.Griffin, Roger (ed.). Linz, Juan. "Crisis of democracy after the First World War". ''International Fascism: Theories, Causes and the New Consensus''. London: Arnold Publishers, 1998. Pp. 176, 180. With economic problems and unemployment facing recently returned veterans of World War I, fascism appealed to [[collectivism]] and honouring soldiers and the military by calling for the end of [[bourgeois]] [[individualism]] while calling for war on Marxism for its [[Anti-nationalism|anti-nationalist]] and perceived anti-patriotic ways. The creation of the [[League of Nations]] after World War I aggravated nationalists in the world, as the League was seen as the imposition of an internationalist political order upon nations.Griffin, Roger (ed.). Linz, Juan. "Crisis of democracy after the First World War". ''International Fascism: Theories, Causes and the New Consensus''. London: Arnold Publishers, 1998. Pp. 180. Fascists saw the League of Nations as only benefiting the wealthy, capitalist democracies. Disillusionment with liberalism deepened with the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the [[Great Depression]] and also created nationalist sentiment in opposition to [[internationalism]].Turner, Stephen P. (ed.); Käsler, Dirk (ed.). Sociology Responds to Fascism. Routledge. Pp. 128, 131. Alfredo Rocco, Benito Mussolini, and Giovanni Gentile stressed that the primary justification for fascism was a need for purpose in a world that only provided absurdity.A. Rocco, The Political Doctrine of Fascism, 1925Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism, 1932Giovanni Gentile, The Philosophic Basis of Fascism, 1928 Mussolini wrote:

Therefore it is a spiritualized conception, itself the result of the general reaction of modern times against the flabby materialistic positivism of the nineteenth century. Anti-positivistic, but positive: not skeptical, nor agnostic, nor pessimistic, nor passively optimistic, as are, in general, the doctrines (all negative) that put the center of life outside man, who with his free will can and must create his own world. Fascism desires an active man, one engaged in activity with all his energies: it desires a man virilely conscious of the difficulties that exist in action and ready to face them. It conceives of life as a struggle, considering that it behooves man to conquer for himself that life truly worthy of him, creating first of all in himself the instrument (physical, moral, intellectual) in order to construct it.Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism, 1932, translated in The Social and Political Doctrines of Contemporary Europe, 1939, ed. Michael Oakeshott, Cambridge University Press

==Core tenets== ===Nationalism=== Fascists see the struggle of nation and race as fundamental in society, in opposition to communism's perception of class struggle.Ebenstein, William. 1964. ''Today's Isms: Communism, Fascism, Capitalism, and Socialism.'' Prentice Hall (original from the University of Michigan). p. 178. [http://books.google.com/books?id=Ym0AAAAAMAAJ&q=fascism+%22corporatism%22&dq=fascism+%22corporatism%22&lr=&pgis=1] In fascism, the nation is considered a single organic entity which binds people together by their ancestry, and is seen as a natural unifying force of people.Oliver Zimmer, Nationalism in Europe, 1890-1940 (London, Palgrave, 2003), chapter 4, pp. 80–107. Fascism seeks to solve existing economic, political, and social problems by achieving a [[Millenarianism|millenarian]] national rebirth, exalting the [[nation]] or [[race (biology)|race]] above all else, and promoting cults of unity, strength and purity.{{cite book |last=Paxton |first=Robert |title=The Anatomy of Fascism |publisher=Vintage Books }}{{cite book |last=Laqueuer |first=Walter |title=Fascism: Past, Present, Future |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=019511793X |year=1997}} p. 223{{cite news |url=http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9117286 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |title=Fascism |date=8 January 2008}}{{cite book |last=Passmore |first=Kevin |title=Fascism: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=EQG0AAAACAAJ&dq=A+Very |isbn=0192801554 |year=2002}} Benito Mussolini stated in 1922, "For us the nation is not just territory but something spiritual... A nation is great when it translates into reality the force of its spirit."Griffen, Roger (ed). ''Fascism''. Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN0192892495. p. 44. [[Eoin O'Duffy]], an Irish national [[corporatist]], stated in 1934,

We must lead the people always; nationally, socially and economically. We must clear up the economic mess and right the glaring social injustices of to-day by the corporative organization of Irish life; but before everything we must give a national lead to our people...The first essential is national unity. We can only have that when the Corporative system is accepted. We shall put our National programme to the people, and it is a programme in which even the most advanced Nationalist can find nothing to disturb him.Griffen, Roger (ed). ''Fascism''. Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN0192892495. p. 183.

[[Joseph Goebbels]] described the Nazis as being affiliated with authoritarian nationalism:

It enables us to see at once why democracy and Bolshevism, which in the eyes of the world are irrevocably opposed to one another, meet again and again on common ground in their joint hatred of and attacks on authoritarian nationalist concepts of State and State systems. For the authoritarian nationalist conception of the State represents something essentially new. In it the French Revolution is superseded."Goebbels on National-Socialism, Bolshevism and Democracy, ''Documents on International Affairs'', vol. II, 1938, pp. 17–19. Accessed from the Jewish Virtual Library on February 5, 2009. [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Goebbels091038.html]Joseph Goebbels describes the Nazis as being allied with countries which had "authoritarian nationalist" ideology and conception of the state.

[[Plínio Salgado]], leader of the Brazilian [[Brazilian Integralism|Integralist Action]] party emphasized the role of the nation:

The best governments in the world cannot succeed in pulling a country out of the quagmire, out of apathy, if they do not express themselves as national energies...Strong governments cannot result either from conspiracies or from military coups, just as they cannot come out of the machinations of parties or the Machiavellian game of political lobbying. They can only be born from the actual roots of the Nation.Griffen, Roger (ed). ''Fascism''. Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN0192892495. p. 236.

====Foreign policy==== Italian fascists described expansionist [[imperialism]] as a necessity. The 1932 ''Italian Encyclopedia'' stated: "For Fascism, the growth of empire, that is to say the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign of decadence."[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html] Similarly, the Nazis promoted territorial expansionism to in their words provide "living space" to the German nation.Kershaw, Ian. 2000. Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 442. [http://books.google.com/books?id=nV-N10gyoFwC&pg=PA442&dq=hitler+expansionism] Fascists oppose [[pacifism]] and believe that a nation must have a warrior mentality.Payne, Stanley G. ''A History of Fascism, 1914-1945.'' Routledge, 1996. pp. 485–486. Benito Mussolini spoke of war idealistically as a source of masculine pride, and spoke of pacifism in negative terms:

War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it. Fascism carries this anti-pacifist struggle into the lives of individuals. It is education for combat...war is to man what maternity is to the woman. I do not believe in perpetual peace; not only do I not believe in it but I find it depressing and a negation of all the fundamental virtues of a man.Bollas, Christopher. 1993. Being a Character: Psychoanalysis and Self-Experience. Routledge. ISBN 0415088151, 9780415088152. p. 205. [http://books.google.com/books?id=n7ZjIeqieRwC&pg=PA205&dq=fascism+anti-pacifist&lr=] Speaks of Italian Fascism supporting war and opposing pacifism.

Joseph Goebbels of the [[Nazi Party]] compared [[World War II]] to childbirth, and described war as a positive transformative experience:

Every birth brings pain. But amid the pain there is already the joy of a new life. It is a sign of sterility to shy away from new life on the account of pain[...] Our age too is an act of historical birth, whose pangs carry with them the joy of richer life to come. The significance of the war has grown as its scale has increased. It is relentlessly at work, shattering old forms and ideas, and directing the eyes of human beings to new, greater objectives.Griffen, Roger (ed). ''Fascism''. Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN0192892495. p. 159.

===Authoritarianism=== All fascist movements advocate the creation of an [[authoritarian]] government that is an [[autocratic]] [[single-party state]] led by a [[charisma]]tic leader with the powers of a [[dictator]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} Many fascist movements support the creation of a [[totalitarian]] state. The Italian ''[[Doctrine 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."Mussolini, Benito. 1935. Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions. Rome: Ardita Publishers. p 14. However [[Italian fascism]] didn't achieve full totalitarian features as in a case of [[German Nazism]] (and [[Soviet communism]]). Some have argued that in spite of Italian fascism's attempt to form a totalitarian state, fascism in Italy devolved rather to an authoritarian cult of personality around Mussolini.Linz, Juan José. 2000. ''Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes: with a major new introduction''. Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 7. [http://books.google.com/books?id=8cYk_ABfMJIC&pg=PA7&dq=fascism+totalitarianism&lr=] However, both proponents and opponents of fascism in Italy claimed that it had a clear intention to establish a totalitarian state.Maier, Hans. Totalitarianism and Political Religions. p. 6.[http://books.google.com/books?id=bwMw17xbyIQC&pg=PA3&dq=fascism+totalitarian&lr=#PPA6,M1] (Explains how Italian Fascism attempted to form a totalitarian state and how both proponents of fascism and opponents saw it as a totalitarian ideology.) Only the Nazi regime in Germany has been described as totalitarian by most scholars and critics.Maier, Hans. Totalitarianism and Political Religions. pp. 10–11.[http://books.google.com/books?id=bwMw17xbyIQC&pg=PA3&dq=fascism+totalitarian&lr=#PPA10,M1] (Explains how Italian Fascism attempted to form a totalitarian state and how both proponents of fascism and opponents saw it as a totalitarian ideology.)Pauley, Bruce F. 2003. Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century. Wheeling: Harlan Davidson, Inc. Political theorist [[Carl Schmitt]], as a Nazi party member, published ''The Legal Basis of the Total State'' in 1935, describing the Nazi regime's intention to form a totalitarian state:

The recognition of the plurality of autonomous life would, however, immediately lead back to a disastrous pluralism tearing the German people apart into discrete classes and religious, ethnic, social, and interest groups if it were not for a strong state which guarantees a totality of political unity transcending all diversity. Every political unity needs a coherent inner logic underlying its institutions and norms. It needs a unified concept which gives shape to every sphere of public life. In this sense there is no normal State which is not a total State.Griffen, Roger (ed). 1995. "The Legal Basis of the Total State" – by Carl Schmitt. ''Fascism''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 72.

Japanese fascist [[Nakano Seigo]] described the need for Japan to follow the Italian Fascist and German Nazi regimes as a model for Japanese government and declared that a totalitarian society was more democratic than democracies, saying:

Both Fascism and Nazism are clearly different from the despotism of the old period. They do not represent the conservatism which lags behind democracy, but are a form of more democratic government going beyond democracy. Democracy has lost its spirit and decayed into a mechanism which insists only on numerical superiority without considering the essence of human beings. It says the majority is all good. I do not agree, because it is the majority which is the precise cause of contemporary decadence. Totalitarianism must be based on essentials, superseding the rule of numbers.Griffen, Roger (ed). 1995. "The Need for a Totalitarian Japan" – by Nakano Seigo. ''Fascism''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 239.

Hungarian fascist leader [[Gyula Gömbös]] and his [[Hungarian National Defence Association]] also attempted to form a totalitarian state in Hungary, but that attempt failed after Gömbös' death in 1936.Sugar, Peter F; Hanak, Peter; Frank, Tibor. 1994. A History of Hungary. Indiana University Press. p. 331.[http://books.google.ca/books?id=SKwmGQCT0MAC&pg=PA331&dq=gombos+totalitarian] A key authoritarian element of fascism is its endorsement of a prime national leader, who is often known simply as the "Leader" or a similar title, such as: ''[[Duce]]'' in Italian, ''[[Führer]]'' in German, ''[[Caudillo]]'' in Spanish, [[Poglavnik]] in Croatia, or ''[[Conducător]]'' in Romanian. The fascist movement demands obedience to the leader, and may exhort people worship the leader as an infallible saviour of the people.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} Fascist leaders who ruled countries were not always heads of state, but heads of government, such as Benito Mussolini, who held power under the King of Italy, [[Victor Emmanuel III]]. ===Social Darwinism=== Fascist movements have commonly held [[Social Darwinism|social darwinist]] views of nations, races, and societies. Italian Fascist [[Alfredo Rocco]] shortly after [[World War I]] claimed that conflict was inevitable in society: {{Quote|Conflict is in fact the basic law of life in all social organisms, as it is of all biological ones; societies are formed, gain strength, and move forwards through conflict; the healthiest and most vital of them assert themselves against the weakest and less well adapted through conflict; the natural evolution of nations and races takes place through conflict. ''Alfredo Rocco''Hawkins, Mike. ''Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945: Nature as Model and Nature as Threat''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. p. 285.}} Italian Fascist philosopher [[Giovanni Gentile]] in ''[[The Doctrine of Fascism|The Origins and Doctrine of Fascism]]'' promoted the concept of conflict being an act of progress by stating that "mankind only progresses through division, and progress is achieved through the clash and victory of one side over another". Fascist movements commonly follow the social Darwinist view that in order for nations and races to survive in a world defined by perpetual national and racial conflict, nations and races must purge themselves of socially and biologically weak or [[Degeneration|degenerate]] people while simultaneously promoting the creation of strong people.Griffen, Roger (ed.). Fascism. Oxford University Press, 1995. p. 59. In Germany, the Nazis utilized social Darwinism to promote their [[Racialism|racialist]] concept of the German nation as being part of the [[Aryan race]] and the need for the Aryan race to be strong in order to be victorious in what the Nazis believed was ongoing competition and conflict between different races.Hawkins, Mike. ''Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945: Nature as Model and Nature as Threat''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. pp. 282 and 284. The Nazis attempted to strengthen the Aryan race in Germany by murdering those they regarded as weaker. To this end, the [[T4 project]] was introduced in the late 1930s and organized the murders of around roughly 275,000 handicapped and elderly German civilians using carbon monoxide gas.Hunt, Lynn, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, R. Po-chia Hsia, and Bonnie G. Smith. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. 2nd ed. Vol. C. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2005. p. 1064. ===Social interventionism=== Generally fascist movements endorse [[social interventionism]] dedicated to influencing society to promote the state's interests.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} Some scholars say that one cannot speak of “fascist social policy” as a single concept with logical and internally consistent ideas and common identifiable goals.Rimlinger, G.V. ‘’Social Policy Under German Fascism’’ in [http://books.google.com/books?id=2E24qf2_8hEC&dq Stagnation and Renewal in Social Policy: The Rise and Fall of Policy Regimes] by Martin Rein, Gosta Esping-Andersen, and Lee Rainwater, p. 61, M.E. Sharpe, 1987. Different fascist movements have spoken of creating a "new man" and a "new civilization" as part of their intention to transform society.Gentile, Emilio. The Struggle for Modernity: Nationalism, Futurism, and Fascism. p. 86. [http://books.google.com/books?id=TNmrDDs8lSkC&dq=fascism+nationalism&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&sig=ACfU3U35eQa-qe6OulhpRjWALQGLD36UmA&q=totalitarian+nazi#PPA86,M1] Mussolini promised a “social revolution” for “remaking” the Italian people.Knight, Patricia [http://books.google.com/books?id=UChQ6AkxkpcC&dq Mussolini and Fascism], p. 72, Routledge, 2003. [[Adolf Hitler]] promised to purge Germany of non-Aryan influences on society and create a pure Aryan race through [[eugenics]]. ====Indoctrination==== Fascist states have pursued policies of [[indoctrination]] of society to their fascist movements such as through propaganda deliberately spread through education and media through regulation of the production of education and media material.Pauley, Bruce F. 2003. Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century Italy. Wheeling: Harlan Davidson, Inc. Pauley, p. 117.Payne, Stanley G. 1996. ''A History of Fascism, 1914-1945''. Routledge p. 220. [http://books.google.com/books?id=9wHNrF7nFecC&pg=PA220&dq=fascism+indoctrination] Education was designed to glorify the fascist movement, inform students of it being of major historical and political importance to the nation, attempted to purge education of ideas that were not consistent with the beliefs of the fascist movement, and taught students to be obedient to the fascist movement.Pauley, 2003. 117–119. Thus fascism tends to be [[anti-intellectual]].Griffin, Roger and Matthew Feldma [http://books.google.com/books?id=kne26UnE1wQC&pg=PT477&dq=fascism+anti-intellectualism+griffin&sig=ACfU3U0MKyugOI5gQ2sSK-hN7PdnFTQy5g#PPT478,M1 Fascism: Critical Concepts in Political Science], 2004 Taylor and Francis The Nazis in particular despised intellectuals and university professors. Hitler declared them unreliable, useless and even dangerous.Evans, pg. 299 Hitler said of them: "When I take a look at the intellectual classes we have - unfortunately, I suppose, they are necessary; otherwise one could one day, I don't know, exterminate them or something - but unfortunately they're necessary."Domarus, ''Hitler'' II. 251–252 ====Abortion, eugenics and euthanasia==== The Fascist government in Italy banned literature on [[birth control]] and increased penalties on abortion in 1926, declaring them both crimes against the state.De Grazia, Victoria. 2002. ''How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922-1945''. University of California Press. p. 55. The Nazis decriminalized abortion in cases where fetuses had hereditary defects or were of a race the government disapproved of, while the abortion of healthy "pure" German, "[[Aryan race|Aryan]]" unborn remained strictly forbidden.Henry Friedlander, ''The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution'' (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of Northern Carolina Press, 1995): 30. For non-Aryans, abortion was not only allowed, but often compelled.McLaren, Angus, Twentieth-Century Sexuality, p. 139 Blackwell Publishing 1999 Their [[eugenics]] program stemmed also from the "progressive biomedical model" of [[Weimar Germany]].McLaren, Angus, Twentieth-Century Sexuality p. 139 Blackwell Publishing 1999 In 1935 Nazi Germany expanded the legality of [[history of abortion|abortion]] by amending [[Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring|its eugenics law]], to promote abortion for women who have hereditary disorders.{{cite book |last=Friedlander |first=Henry |title=The origins of Nazi genocide: from euthanasia to the final solution |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |location=[[Chapel Hill, North Carolina]] |year=1995 |page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=gqLDEKVk2nMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA30,M1 30] |isbn=0-8078-4675-9 |oclc=60191622 |accessdate=2008-12-10}} The law allowed abortion if a woman gave her permission, and if the fetus was not yet viable,{{cite book |last=Proctor |first=Robert E. |title=Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |year=1989 |page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=hogbxS2Gp1QC&pg=RA1-PA366 366] |isbn=0-674-74578-7 |oclc=20760638 |quote=This emendation allowed abortion only if the woman granted permission, and only if the fetus was not old enough to survive outside the womb. It is unclear if either of these qualifications was enforced.}}{{cite book |first=Margaret |last=Arnot |coauthors=Cornelie Usborne |title=Gender and Crime in Modern Europe |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[New York City]] |year=1999 |page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=q1BFiRa3KHkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA241,M1 241] |isbn=1-85728-745-2 |oclc=249726924 |accessdate=2008-12-10}} and for purposes of so-called racial hygiene.{{cite book |last=Proctor |first=Robert E. |title=Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |year=1989 |pages=122–123 |isbn=0-674-74578-7 |oclc=20760638 |quote=Abortion, in other words, could be allowed if it was in the interest of racial hygiene… the Nazis did allow (and in some cases even required) abortions for women deemed racially inferior… On November 10, 1938, a Luneberg court declared abortion legal for Jews.}}{{cite book |last=Tierney |first=Helen |title=Women's studies encyclopedia |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |location=[[Westport, Connecticut]] |year=1999 |page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=gQLqRd7hJq0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA589,M1 589] |isbn=0-313-31072-6 |oclc=38504469 |accessdate=2008-12-10 |quote=In 1939, it was announced that Jewish women could seek abortions, but non-Jewish women could not.}} The security chief of the [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazi]] group [[Aryan Nations]] expressed similar views, stating: "I'm just against abortion for the pure white race. For blacks and other mongrelized races, abortion is a good idea."Griffin, Roger and Matthew Feldman [ Fascism: Critical Concepts in Political Science], p. 140, Taylor & Francis, 2004 ====Culture and gender roles==== Fascism tends to promote principles of [[masculine]] heroism, militarism, and discipline; and rejects [[cultural pluralism]] and [[multiculturalism]].Roger Griffin, The `post-fascism' of the Alleanza Nazionale: a case-study in ideological morphology, ''Journal of Political Ideologies'', Vol. 1, No. 2, 1996 Initially [[Italian Fascism]] officially stood in favour of expanding voting rights to women. In 1920 Mussolini declared that "Fascists do not belong to the crowd of the vain and skeptical who undervalue women's social and political importance. Who cares about voting? You will vote!".Gori, Gigliola. ''Italian fascism and the female body: sport, submissive women and strong mothers''. Routledge, 2004. Pp. 58 Women were briefly given the right to vote until 1925 when the Italian Fascist government abolished elections. Benito Mussolini perceived women's primary role as childbearers while men should be warriors, once saying "war is to man what maternity is to the woman".Bollas, Christopher. 1993. Being a Character: Psychoanalysis and Self-Experience. Routledge. ISBN 0415088151, 9780415088152. p. 205. The Italian Fascist government during the "Battle for Births" gave financial incentives to women who raised large families as well as policies designed to reduce the number of women employed to allow women to give birth to larger numbers of children.McDonald, Harmish. 1999. ''Mussolini and Italian Fascism''. Nelson Thornes. p. 27. In 1934, Benito Mussolini declared that employment of women was a "major aspect of the thorny problem of unemployment" which Italy was facing at the time and said that women having a habit of working was "incompatible with childbearing".Durham, Martin. ''Women and fascism''. Routledge, 2004. Pp. 15. Mussolini went on to say that the solution to unemployment for men was the "exodus of women from the work force".Durham, Martin. ''Women and fascism''. Routledge, 1998. Pp. 15. Italian Fascism called for women to be honoured as "reproducers of the nation" and the Italian Fascist government held ritual ceremonies to honour women's role within the Italian nation.Mann, Michael. ''Fascists''. Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. 101. In the 1920s, the Italian Fascist government's ''[[Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro]]'' (OND) allowed working women to attend various entertainment and recreation events including sports that in the past had traditionally been played by men.Gori, Gigliola. ''Italian fascism and the female body: sport, submissive women and strong mothers''. Routledge, 2004. Pp. 144–145. The Italian Fascist regime was criticized by the [[Roman Catholic Church]] that claimed that these activities were causing "masculinization" of women.Gori, Gigliola. ''Italian fascism and the female body: sport, submissive women and strong mothers''. Routledge, 2004. Pp. 145. The Italian Fascist regime responded to such criticism by restricting women to only being allowed to take part in "feminine" and "womanly" sports, while forbidding them to be part of sports that were played mostly by men. The [[British Union of Fascists]] believed that it was unnatural for women to have more influence in a relationship with a man.Gottlieb, Julie V., Linehan, Thomas P. ''The Culture of Fascism: Visions of the Far Right in Britain''. p. 93. After [[Oswald Mosley]] was arrested in 1940, during interrogation he declared that the British Fascists were committed to equality of the sexes and commended women's role in the British Fascist movement, claiming that the movement had "been largely built up by the fanaticism of women...Without the women I could not have got a quarter of the way...".Durham, Martin. ''Women and fascism''. Routledge, 1998. Pp. 49. It is believed that women accounted for 20 per cent to one-third of the British Union of Fascists' membership. Nazi policies toward women strongly encouraged them to stay at home to bear children and keep house.Evans, 331–332 This policy was reinforced by bestowing the Cross of Honor of the German Mother on women bearing four or more babies. The unemployment rate was cut substantially, mostly through arms production and sending women home so that men could take their jobs. Nazi propaganda sometimes promoted premarital and extramarital sexual relations, unwed motherhood, and divorce. At other times the Nazis opposed such behaviour.Ann Taylor Allen. [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=36061145897125. Review of Dagmar Herzog, Sex after Fascism: Memory and Morality in Twentieth-Century Germay] H-German, H-Net Reviews, January 2006 The growth of Nazi power, however, was accompanied by a breakdown of traditional sexual morals with regard to extramarital sex and licentiousness. Hau, Michael, Sex after Fascism: Memory and Morality in Twentieth-Century Germany (review) Modernism/modernity – Volume 14, Number 2, April 2007, pp. 378–380, The Johns Hopkins University Press Fascist movements and governments oppose [[homosexuality]]. The Italian Fascist government declared it illegal in Italy in 1931.McDonald, 1999. p. 27. The British Union of Fascists opposed homosexuality and pejoratively questioned their opponents' [[sexual orientation]], especially of male anti-fascists.Gottlieb, Julie V., Linehan, Thomas P. p. 93. The Romanian [[Iron Guard]] opposed homosexuality as undermining society.Volovici, Nationalist Ideology, p. 98, citing N. Cainic, Ortodoxie şi etnocraţie, pp. 162–4.) The Nazis thought homosexuality was degenerate, effeminate, perverted and undermined the masculinity which they promoted, because it did not produce children.Evans, pg. 529 Nevertheless the Nazis considered homosexuality curable through therapy. They explained it though modern [[scientism]] and the study of [[sexology]] which said that homosexuality could be felt by "normal" people and not just an abnormal minority.Ann Taylor Allen. Review of Dagmar Herzog, Sex after Fascism January 2006 Critics have claimed that the Nazis' claim of scientific reasons for their promotion of racism, and hostility to homosexuals is [[pseudoscience]],Baumslag, Naomi; Pellgrino, Edmund D. 2005. ''Murderous medicine: Nazi doctors, human experimentation, and typhus''. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 37. Claims Nazi scientific reasoning for racial policy was pseudoscienceLancaster, Roger N.''The Trouble of Nature: Sex in Science and Popular Culture''. University of California Press. p. 10. Claims that Nazi scientific reasoning for anti-homosexual policy was pseudoscience in that scientific findings were selectively picked that promoted their pre-existing views, while scientific findings opposing those views were rejected and not taken into account. ===Economic policies=== {{POV|date=April 2009}} {{See|Economics of fascism}} Fascists explicitly promoted their ideology as a "[[Third Position]]" between capitalism and [[communism]].Philip Morgan, ''Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945'', Taylor & Francis, 2003, p. 168. Italian Fascism involved corporatism, a political system in which economy is collectively managed by employers, workers and state officials by formal mechanisms at national level.''The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right'' (2002) by Peter Jonathan Davies and Derek Lynch, Routledge (UK), ISBN 0415214947 p.143. Fascists advocated a new national multi-class economic system that is labeled as either national corporatism, national socialism or national syndicalism. The common aim of all fascist movements was elimination of the autonomy or, in some cases, the existence of large-scale capitalism.Payne, Stanley (1996). ''A History of Fascism''. Routledge. ISBN 1857285956 p.10 Fascist governments exercised influence over the economy differently than that of communist-led states, in that individual private property was controlled but not nationalized.Pauley. 2003. pp. 72, 84. Nevertheless, like the [[Soviet Union]], fascist states pursued economic policies to strengthen state power and spread ideology, such as consolidating trade unions to be state or party-controlled.Pauley. 2003. p. 85. Attempts were made by both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to establish "[[autarky]]" (self-sufficiency) through significant economic planning, but both failed to make the two countries self-sufficient.Pauley. 2003. p. 86. ====National corporatism, national socialism and national syndicalism==== While fascists support the unifying of proletariat workers to their cause along corporatistic, socialistic, or syndicalistic lines, fascists specify that they advocate a nationalized form of such economic systems such as [[corporatism]], [[national socialism]], or [[national syndicalism]] which promotes the creation of a strong proletarian nation, but not a proletarian class.Payne, Stanley G. 1996. A History of Fascism, 1914-1945. Routledge. p. 64. Fascists also make clear that they have no hostility to the [[petite bourgeoisie]] (lower middle-class) or to small businesses and promise these groups protection alongside the proletariat from the upper-class bourgeoisie, big business, and Marxism. The promotion of these groups is the source of the term 'extremism of the centre' to describe fascism.Griffen, Roger (editor). Chapter 8: "Extremism of the Centre" – by Seymour Martin Lipset. ''International Fascism: Theories, Causes and the New Consensus.'' Arnold Readers. p. 101. Fascism blames capitalist [[liberal democracies]] for creating class conflict and in turn blames communists for exploiting class conflict. In Italy, the Fascist period presided over the creation of the largest number of state-owned enterprises in [[Western Europe]] such as the nationalization of [[petroleum]] companies in Italy into a single state enterprise called the Italian General Agency for Petroleum (''Azienda Generale Italiani Petroli'', AGIP).Schachter, Gustav; Engelbourg, Saul. 2005. ''Cultural Continuity In Advanced Economies: Britain And The U.S. Versus Continental Europe.'' Published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 302. [http://books.google.com/books?id=4nQj2Ym7OuoC&pg=PA302&dq=mussolini+fascist+nationalized+petroleum+company&lr=&sig=ACfU3U0oCd7BXk0iZbWbELd7J18gDargxw] Fascists made populist appeals to the [[middle class]] (especially the lower middle class) by promising to protect small business and small property owners from communism, and by promising an economy based on competition and profit while pledging to oppose big business. On economic issues, Benito Mussolini in 1933 declared Italian Fascism's opposition to "decadent capitalism" that he claimed prevailed in the world at the time, but did not denounce capitalism entirely. Mussolini claimed that capitalism had degenerated in three stages, starting with dynamic or [[Heroic capitalism (concept in Italian Fascism)|heroic capitalism]] (1830–1870) followed by static capitalism (1870–1914) and then reaching its final form of decadent capitalism, also known as [[Supercapitalism (concept in Italian Fascism)|supercapitalism]] beginning in 1914. Mussolini argued that Italian Fascism was in favour of dynamic and heroic capitalism for its contribution to [[industrialism]] and technical developments but claimed that it did not favour supercapitalism, which he claimed was incompatible with Italy's agricultural sector. Thus Mussolini claimed that Italy under Fascist rule was not capitalist in the modern use of the term which referred to supercapitalism. Mussolini denounced supercapitalism for causing the "standardization of humankind" and for causing excessive consumption.Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. ''Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy''. University of California Press, 2000. Pp. 137. Mussolini claimed that at this stage of supercapitalism "[it] is then that a capitalist enterprise, when difficulties arise, throws itself like a dead weight into the state's arms. It is then that state intervention begins and becomes more necessary. It is then that those who once ignored the state now seek it out anxiously."Mussolini, Benito; Schnapp, Jeffery Thompson (ed.); Sears, Olivia E. (ed.); Stampino, Maria G. (ed.). "Address to the National Corporative Council (14 November 1933) and Senate Speech on the Bill Establishing the Corporations (abridged; 13 January 1934)". ''A Primer of Italian Fascism''. University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Pp. 158. Mussolini went on to claim that Fascism was the next logical step to solve the problems of supercapitalism and claimed that this step could be seen either as a form of capitalism or socialism which involved state intervention, saying "our path would lead inexorably into [[state capitalism]], which is nothing more nor less than [[state socialism]] turned on its head. In either event, [whether the outcome be state capitalism or state socialism] the result is the bureaucratization of the economic activities of the nation." Some fascists were indifferent or hostile to [[corporatism]]. The Nazis initially attempted to form a corporatist economic system like that in Fascist Italy, and created the National Socialist Institute for Corporatism in May 1933, which included many major economists who argued that corporatism was consistent with National Socialism.Neocleous, Mark. Fascism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Pp. 47.Peter Davies, Derek Lynch. The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right. Routledge, 2002. p. 103. In ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', Hitler spoke enthusiastically about the "National Socialist corporative idea" as one which would eventually "take the place of ruinous class warfare"The Fascism Reader by Aristotle A. Kallis. However, the Nazis later believed that corporatism was not beneficial to Germany because they deemed that it institutionalized and legitimized social differences within the German nation and instead the Nazis went on to promote economic organizations that emphasized the biological unity of the German national community.Neocleous, Mark. Fascism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Pp. 49. Hitler had temporarily been interested in corporatism, but later just used it as a propaganda device, as corporatism was not put into place, even though a number of Nazi officials such as [[Walther Darré]], [[Gottfried Feder]], [[Alfred Rosenburg]], and [[Gregor Strasser]] were in favour of a [[Neo-medievalism|neo-medievalist]] form of corporatism, as corporations had been influential in German people's history in the [[medieval]] era.Vincent, Andrew. ''Modern Political Ideologies.'' 3rd edition. John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Pp. 158–159. Spanish Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera did not believe that corporatism was effective and denounced it as a propaganda ploy, saying "This stuff about the corporative state is another piece of windbaggery".Vincent, Andrew. ''Modern Political Ideologies.'' 3rd edition. John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Pp. 160. ====Economic planning==== Fascists opposed [[laissez-faire]] economic policies dominant in the era prior to the [[Great Depression]].David Baker, "The political economy of fascism: Myth or reality, or myth and reality?", ''New Political Economy'', Volume 11, Issue 2 June 2006 , pages 227–250. After the Great Depression began, many people from across the [[political spectrum]] blamed laissez-faire capitalism for the Great Depression, and fascists promoted their ideology as a "[[Third Position|third way]]" between capitalism and [[communism]].Philip Morgan, ''Fascism in Europe, 1919-1945'', Taylor & Francis, 2003, p. 168. Fascists declared their opposition to [[finance capitalism]], [[interest]] charging, and profiteering.Frank Bealey & others. Elements of Political Science. Edinburgh University Press, 1999, p. 202 [[Nazism|Nazis]] and other anti-Semitic fascists, considered finance capitalism a "[[Parasitism|parasitic]]" "[[anti-Semitism|Jewish conspiracy]]".[[Moishe Postone|Postone, Moishe]]. 1986. "Anti-Semitism and National Socialism." ''Germans & Jews Since the Holocaust: The Changing Situation in West Germany'', ed. Anson Rabinbach and Jack Zipes. New York: Homes & Meier. Fascist governments [[Nationalization|nationalized]] some key industries, managed their [[Currency|currencies]] and made some massive state investments.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} Fascist governments introduced [[Incomes policy|price controls]], wage controls and other types of [[Economic interventionism|economic interventionist]] measures.Stanislav Andreski, Wars, Revolutions, Dictatorships, Routledge 1992, page 64 Other than nationalization of certain industries, private [[property]] was allowed, but property rights and private initiative were contingent upon service to the state.James A. Gregor, The Search for Neofascism: The Use and Abuse of Social Science, Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 7 For example, "an owner of agricultural land may be compelled to raise wheat instead of sheep and employ more labour than he would find profitable."Herbert Kitschelt, Anthony J. McGann. The Radical Right in Western Europe: a comparative analysis. 1996 University of Michigan Press. p. 30 According to historian Tibor Ivan Berend, ''[[dirigisme]]'' was an inherent aspect of fascist economies.Tibor Ivan Berend, ''An Economic History of Twentieth-Century Europe'', Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 93 The [[Labour Charter of 1927]], promulgated by the [[Grand Council of Fascism]], stated in article 7: "The corporative State considers private initiative, in the field of production, as the most efficient and useful instrument of the Nation", then goes on to say in article 9: "State intervention in economic production may take place only where private initiative is lacking or is insufficient, or when are at stakes the political interest of the State. This intervention may take the form of control, encouragement or direct management." Italian: ''Lo Stato corporativo considera l’iniziativa privata, nel campo della produzione, come lo strumento più utile ed efficiente della Nazione.'' Fascists thought that private property should be regulated to ensure that "benefit to the community precedes benefit to the individual."Richard Allen Epstein, ''Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty With the Common Good'', De Capo Press 2002, p. 168 They also introduced [[Incomes policy|price controls]] and other types of [[Economic interventionism|economic planning]] measures. Fascism had [[Social Darwinism|Social Darwinist]] views of human relations and promoted "superior" individuals and saw people who were weak as being inferior.Alexander J. De Grand, ''Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany'', Routledge, 1995. p. 47. In terms of economic practice, this meant promoting the interests of successful businesses while banning [[trade union]]s and other workers' organizations.De Grand, ''Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany'', pp. 48–51. Benito Mussolini in his English autobiography in one section focused on the economy of the United States where he stated that he agreed with the capitalist notion held by Americans that profit should not be taken away from those who produced it from their own labour for any purpose, saying "I do not respect—I even hate—those men that leech a tenth of the riches produced by others".Benito Mussolini, Richard Washburn Child, Max Ascoli, Richard Lamb. ''My rise and fall''. Da Capo Press, 1998. p. 26. ====Social welfare==== Benito Mussolini promised a "social revolution" that would "remake" the [[Italian people]], which was only achieved in part.Knight, Patricia, Mussolini and Fascism, p. 72, Routledge, 2003. The people who primarily benefited from Italian fascist social policies were members of the [[middle class|middle]] and [[lower-middle class]]es, who filled jobs in the vastly expanding government workforce, which grew from about 500,000 to a million jobs in 1930. Health and welfare spending grew dramatically under Italian fascism, with welfare rising from seven percent of the budget in 1930 to 20% in 1940. Pollard, John Francis, The Fascist Experience in Italy, p. 80 Routledge 1998 A major success in social welfare policy in Fascist Italy was the creation of the ''[[Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro]]'' (OND) or "National After-work Program" in 1925. The OND was the state's largest recreational organizations for adults.Pauley, p113 The ''Dopolavoro'' was responsible for establishing and maintaining 11,000 sports grounds, over 6,400 libraries, 800 movie houses, 1,200 theatres, and over 2,000 orchestras. Membership in the ''Dopolavoro'' was voluntary but had high participation because of its nonpolitical nature. It is estimated that by 1936 the OND had organized 80 percent of salaried workers. de Grazia, Victoria. ''The Culture of Consent: Mass Organizations of Leisure in Fascist Italy.'' Cambridge, 1981. Nearly 40 percent of the industrial workforce had been recruited into the Dopolavoro by 1939 and the sports activities proved popular with large numbers of workers. The OND had the largest membership of any of the mass Fascist organizations in Italy. Kallis, Aristotle, ed. (2003). ''The Fascism Reader,'' London: Routledge, pages 391–395. The enormous success of the ''Dopolavoro'' in Fascist Italy was the key factor in Nazi Germany creating its own version of the ''Dopolavoro'', the ''[[Kraft durch Freude]]'' (KdF) or "Strength through Joy" program of the Nazi government's [[German Labour Front]], which was even more successful than the ''Dopolavoro''.Pauley, p113–114 KdF provided government-subsidized holidays for German workers.''Social Policy in the Third Reich. The Working Class and the 'National Community'' – Mason, T.W., Oxford: Berg. 1993, Page 160 KdF was also responsible for the creation of the original [[Volkswagen]] ("People's Car") that was a state-made automobile that was meant to be cheap enough to allow all German citizens to be able to own one. While fascists promote social welfare for ameliorating negative economic conditions that are affecting their nation or race as whole, they do not support social welfare for [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]] reasons. Fascists abhor egalitarianism for preserving the weak; they promote [[Social Darwinism|social Darwinist]] views and claim that nations and races must preserve and promote their strengths to ensure survival in a world that is in a perpetual state of national and/or racial conflict and competition.Griffen, Roger; Feldman, Matthew. Fascism: Critical Concepts. p. 353. "When the Russian revolution occurred in 1917 and the 'Democratic' revolution spread after the First World War, anti-[[bolshevism]] and anti-egalitarianism rose as very strong "restoration movements" on the European scene. However, by the turn of that century no one could predict that fascism would become such a concrete, political reaction..."Hawkins, Mike. ''Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945: Nature as Model and Nature as Threat''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. p. 285. "Conflict is in fact the basic law of life in all social organisms, as it is of all biological ones; societies are formed, gain strength, and move forwards through conflict; the healthiest and most vital of them assert themselves against the weakest ans less well adapted through conflict; the natural evolution of nations and races takes place through conflict." Alfredo Rocco, Italian Fascist.Davies, Peter; Lynch, Derek. ''The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right''. Routledge, 2004. pp. 103–104. "Fascist ideologies were also collectivist. individual freedom could only have meaning through the community or the nation."Griffen, Roger (ed.). ''Fascism''. Oxford University Press, 1995. p. 59. [When the] city dies, the nation—deprived of the young life—blood of new generations—is now made up of people who are old and degenerate and cannot defend itself against a younger people which launches an attack on the now unguarded frontiers[...] This will happen, and not just to cities and nations, but on an infinitely greater scale: the whole White race, the Western race can be submerged by other coloured races which are multiplying at a rate unknown in our race. – Benito Mussolini, 1928. Adolf Hitler was opposed to egalitarian and universal social welfare because, in his view, it encouraged the preservation of the degenerate and feeble.Adolf Hitler, ''Mein Kampf'', pgs. 27–28 While in power, the Nazis created social welfare programs to deal with the large numbers of unemployed. However, those programs were neither egalitarian nor universal, but instead residual, as they excluded multiple minority groups and certain other people whom they felt were incapable of helping themselves, and who would pose a threat to the future health of the German people.Evans, pgs. 491–492 ==Racism and racialism== Fascists are not unified on the issues of [[racism]] and [[racialism]]. Mussolini, in a 1919 speech to denounce [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]], claimed that Jewish bankers in [[London]] and [[New York City]] were bound by the chains of [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]] to [[Moscow]], and claimed that 80 percent of the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] leaders were Jews.Neocleous, Mark. Fascism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Pp. 35. In his 1920 autobiography, he said: "Race and soil are strong influences upon us all", and said of [[World War I]]: "There were seers who saw in the European conflict not only national advantages but the possibility of a supremacy of race".Benito Mussolini, Richard Washburn Child, Max Ascoli, Richard Lamb. ''My rise and fall''. Da Capo Press, 1998. pp. 2, 38. In a 1921 speech in [[Bologna]], Mussolini stated that "Fascism was born... out of a profound, perennial need of this our [[Aryan]] and [[Mediterranean race]]". He said in 1928:

[When the] city dies, the nation — deprived of the young life — blood of new generations — is now made up of people who are old and degenerate and cannot defend itself against a younger people which launches an attack on the now unguarded frontiers[...] This will happen, and not just to cities and nations, but on an infinitely greater scale: the whole White race, the Western race can be submerged by other coloured races which are multiplying at a rate unknown in our race.Griffen, Roger (ed.). ''Fascism''. Oxford University Press, 1995. p. 59.

Many Italian fascists held [[Anti-Slavism|anti-Slavist]] views, especially against neighbouring [[Yugoslavs|Yugoslav]] nations, whom the Italian fascists saw as being in competition with Italy, which had claims on territories of [[Yugoslavia]], particularly [[Dalmatia]].Benito Mussolini, Richard Washburn Child, Max Ascoli, Richard Lamb. ''My rise and fall''. Da Capo Press, 1998. p. 106. Mussolini claimed that Yugoslavs posed a threat after Italy did not receive the territory along the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]] coast at the end of World War I, as promised by the 1915 [[Treaty of London]]. He said: "The danger of seeing the Jugo-Slavians settle along the whole Adriatic shore had caused a bringing together in Rome of the cream of our unhappy regions. Students, professors, workmen, citizens—representative men—were entreating the ministers and the professional politicians.Benito Mussolini, Richard Washburn Child, Max Ascoli, Richard Lamb. ''My rise and fall''. Da Capo Press, 1998. pp. 105–106. Italian fascists accused [[Serbs]] of having "[[Atavism|atavistic]] impulses", and of being part of a "[[Social democracy|social democratic]], [[Freemasonry|masonic]] [[Jew]]ish internationalist plot".[[H. James Burgwyn|Burgwyn, H. James]]. Italian foreign policy in the interwar period, 1918-1940. p. 43. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997. The fascists accused Yugoslavs of conspiring together on behalf of "Grand [[Orient]] masonry and its funds". In 1933, Mussolini contradicted his earlier statements on race, saying: "Race! It is a feeling, not a reality: ninety-five percent, at least, is a feeling. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today. ... National pride has no need of the delirium of race."{{cite book | last = Montagu | first =Ashley | title =Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race| publisher = Rowman Altamira| url =http://books.google.com/books?id=tkHqP3vgYi4C&pg=PA187&lpg=PA187&dq=%22+Nothing+will+ever+make+me+believe+that+biologically+pure+races+can+be+shown+to+exist+today%22&source=web&ots=ao7O_J0vr8&sig=22zZBSKlbcxbrBF1PXP3_PJygj0&hl=en | isbn =0803946481 | year = 1997}} ==Relation to religion== The attitude of fascism toward religion has run the gamut from persecution, to denunciation, to cooperation,Laqueur, Walter, Fascism: Past, Present, Future] p. 41 1996 Oxford University Press.] to embrace.''Turban for the Crown : The Islamic Revolution in Iran'' by Said Amir Arjomand. pp. 204–9. Stanley Payne notes that fundamental to fascism was the foundation of a purely materialistic "civic religion" that would "displace preceding structures of belief and relegate supernatural religion to a secondary role, or to none at all", and that "though there were specific examples of religious or would-be '[[Christian]] fascists,' fascism presupposed a post-Christian, post-religious, [[secularism|secular]], and immanent frame of reference."Payne, Stanley, A History of Fascism, 1914-1945], p. 9, Routledge 1996. According to Payne, such "would be" religious fascists only gain hold where traditional belief is weakened or absent, as fascism seeks to create new non-rationalist myth structures for those who no longer hold a traditional view.Payne, Stanley [http://books.google.com/books?id=9wHNrF7nFecC&dq A History of Fascism, 1914-1945], p. 9, Routledge 1996. The rise of modern secularism in Europe and Latin America, and the incursion and large-scale adoption of western secular culture in the mid-east leave a void where this modern secular ideology, sometimes under a religious veneer, can take hold. Many fascists were [[anti-clerical]] in both private and public life.Laqueur, Walter; Fascism: Past, Present, Future] p. 42 1996 Oxford University Press.] Although both Hitler and Mussolini were anti-clerical, they both understood that it would be rash to begin their [[Kulturkampf]]s prematurely, such a clash, possibly inevitable in the future, being put off while they dealt with other enemies.Laqueur, Walter, Fascism: Past, Present, Future pp. 31, 42, 1996 Oxford University Press.] Hitler had a general plan, even before the Nazis' rise to power, to destroy Christianity within the Reich.SHARKEY, JOE [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0DB1F39F930A25752C0A9649C8B63 Word for Word/The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity], New York Times, January 13, 2002 [http://www.lawandreligion.com/nurinst1.shtml The Nazi Master Plan: The Persecution of the Christian Churches], Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, Winter 2001, publishing evidence compiled by the O.S.S. for the Nuremberg war-crimes trials of 1945 and 1946[http://www.adherents.com/people/ph/Adolf_Hitler.html The Religious Affiliation of Adolf Hitler] Adherents.com The leader of the [[Hitler Youth]] stated "the destruction of Christianity was explicitly recognized as a purpose of the National Socialist movement" from the start, but "considerations of expedience made it impossible" publicly to express this extreme position. In [[Mexico]], the [[Red Shirts (Mexico)|Red Shirts]] were vehemently [[atheist]], renounced religion, killed priests, and on one occasion gunned down Catholics as they left [[Mass]].Krauze, Enrique, THE TROUBLING ROOTS OF MEXICO'S LÓPEZ OBRADOR: Tropical Messiah, The New Republic June 19, 2006.Parsons, Wilfrid, Mexican Martyrdom], p. 238, 2003 Kessinger Publishing "Garrido Canabal, Tomás". ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'' Sixth Edition (2005).The New International Yearbook] p. 442, Dodd, Mead and Co. 1966.Millan, Verna Carleton, Mexico Reborn, p. 101, 1939 Riverside Press. According to a biographer of Mussolini, "Initially, fascism was fiercely [[anti-Catholic]]" — the Church being a competitor for dominion of the people's hearts.Farrell, Nicholas, Mussolini: A New Life p. 5 2004 Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. Mussolini, originally an [[atheist]], published anti-Catholic writings and planned for the confiscation of Church property, but eventually moved to accommodation. Mussolini endorsed the Roman Catholic Church for political legitimacy, as during the [[Lateran Treaty]] talks, Fascist Party officials engaged in bitter arguments with [[Vatican]] officials and put pressure on them to accept the terms that the regime deemed acceptable.Pollard, John F. (1985). ''The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929-32.'' Cambridge, USA: Cambridge University Press. p. 53. [[Protestantism]] in Italy was not as significant as Catholicism, and the Protestant minority was persecuted.ROCHAT Giorgio, Regime fascista e chiese evangeliche, Torino, Claudiana, 1990. Mussolini's sub-secretary of Interior, Bufferini-Guidi issued a memo closing all houses of worship of the Italian Pentecostals and [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], and imprisoned their leaders.BRACCO, Roberto. ''Persecuzione in Italia ''. Rome, n.d. In some instances, people were killed because of their faith.ROCHAT, Giorgio. ''Regime fascista e chiese evangeliche''. Torino: Claudiana, 1990. The [[Ustaše]] in [[Croatia]] had strong Catholic overtones, with some clerics in positions of power.Laqueur, Walter, Fascism: Past, Present, Future p. 148 1996 Oxford University Press.] The fascist movement in Romania, known as the [[Iron Guard]] or the Legion of Archangel Michael, preceded its meetings with a church service, and their demonstrations were usually led by priests carrying icons and religious flags.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} The Romanian fascist movement promoted a cult of "suffering, sacrifice and martyrdom."source: Weber, E. "Rumania" in H. Rogger and E. Weber, eds., ''The European Right: A Historical Profile.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965.Nagy-Talavera, N. M. ''The Green Shirts and the Others. A History of Fascism in Hungary and Rumania''. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1970; pp. 247, 266–70. In [[Latin America]], the most notable fascist movement was [[Plinio Salgado]]'s [[Brazil]]ian [[Integralism]]. Built on a network of lay religious associations, its vision was of an integral state that "comes from [[Christ]], is inspired in Christ, acts for Christ, and goes toward Christ."''Turban for the Crown : The Islamic Revolution in Iran'' by Said Amir Arjomand. pp. 208–9.Hilton, S. "Acao Integralista Brasiliera: Fascism in Brazil, 1932-38" ''Lusa Brazilian Review'', v.9, n.2, 1972: 12.Williams, M.T. "Integralism and the Brazilian Catholic Church." ''Hispanic American Historical Review'', v.54, n.3, 1974: pp. 436–40. Salgado, however, criticised the "dangerous [[pagan]] tendencies of Hitlerism".Payne, Stanley [http://books.google.com/books?id=9wHNrF7nFecC&dq A History of Fascism, 1914-1945], pp. 345–346, Routledge 1996. Hitler and the Nazi regime attempted to found their own version of Christianity called [[Positive Christianity]] which made major changes in its interpretation of the [[Bible]] which said that [[Jesus Christ]] was the son of God, but was not a Jew; they further claimed that Christ despised Jews, and that the Jews were the ones solely responsible for his death.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} By 1940, however, it was public knowledge that Hitler had abandoned even the [[syncretism|syncretist]] idea of a positive Christianty.Poewe, Karla O, [http://books.google.com/books?id=rsR_Mrh2QSkC&dq New Religions and the Nazis], p. 30, Routledge 2006 The Catholic Church was particularly suppressed by Nazis in [[Poland]]. In addition to the deaths of some 3 million [[Polish Jew]]s, 2 million Polish Catholics were killed.Craughwell, Thomas J., [http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=472 The Gentile Holocaust] Catholic Culture, Accessed July 18, 2008 Between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 3,000 polish clergy (18 percent) were murdered; of these, 1,992 died in [[concentration camp]]s.Craughwell, Thomas J., [http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=472 The Gentile Holocaust] Catholic Culture, Accessed July 18, 2008 In the annexed territory of ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' it was even harsher than elsewhere. Churches were systematically closed, and most priests were either killed, imprisoned, or deported to the [[General Government]]. The Germans also closed [[seminary|seminaries]] and [[convent]]s persecuting monks and nuns throughout Poland. Eighty percent of the Catholic clergy and five of the bishops of [[Warthegau]] were sent to concentration camps in 1939; in [[Chełmno]], 48 percent. Of those murdered by the Nazi regime, 108 are regarded as blessed martyrs. Among them, [[Maximilian Kolbe]] was [[canonization|canonized]] as a saint. Not only in Poland were Christians persecuted by the Nazis. In the [[Dachau concentration camp]] alone, 2,600 Catholic priests from 24 different countries were killed. One theory is that religion and fascism could never have a lasting connection because both are a "holistic weltanschauung" claiming the whole of the person. Along these lines, [[Yale]] political scientist, [[Juan Linz]] and others have noted that secularization had created a void which could be filled by a total ideology, making totalitarianism possibleGriffin, Roger, Fascism, Totalitarianism and Political Religion, p. 7 2005RoutledgeMaier, Hans and Jodi Bruhn [http://books.google.com/books?id=Wozo1W7giZQC&dq Totalitarianism and Political Religions], p. 108, 2004 Routledge, and Roger Griffin has characterized fascism as a type of anti-religious [[political religion]].Eatwell, Roger [http://people.bath.ac.uk/mlsre/EWE1&2.htm The Nature of Fascism: or Essentialism by Another Name?] 2004 Such political religions vie with existing religions, and try, if possible, to replace or eradicate them. ==Variations and subforms== {{See also|European fascist ideologies}} Movements identified by scholars as fascist hold a variety of views, and what qualifies as fascism is often a hotly contested subject. The original movement which self-identified as Fascist was that of [[Benito Mussolini]] and his [[National Fascist Party]]. Intellectuals such as [[Giovanni Gentile]] produced [[The Doctrine of Fascism]] and founded the ideology. The majority of strains which emerged after the original fascism, but are sometimes placed under the wider usage of the term, self-identified their parties with different names. Major examples include; [[Falangism]], [[Integralism]], [[Iron Guard]] and [[Nazism]] as well as various other designations.{{cite book | last = Mühlberger | first =Detlef | title =The Social Basis of European Fascist Movements| publisher =Routledge| url =http://books.google.com/books?id=suENAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Falangism,+National+Syndicalism,+Integralism+and+National+Socialism&sig=ACfU3U33n_xq_eKDOGwFVLuXPKSGZOYFuA | isbn =0709935854 | year = 1987}} ===Italian Fascism=== {{Main|Italian Fascism}} {{See also|The Doctrine of Fascism|Actual Idealism|March on Rome}} [[Image:Mussolini biografia.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Benito Mussolini]] Fascism was born during a period of social and political unrest following [[World War I]]. The war had seen Italy begin to feel a sense of nationalism, rather than its historic regionalism.{{cite news|url=http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch12.htm|publisher=FSmitha.com|title=Mussolini and Fascism in Italy|date=8 January 2008}} Despite being an [[Allies of World War I|Allied Power]], Italy was given what nationalists considered an unfair deal at the [[Treaty of Versailles]]. When the other allies told Italy to hand over the city of [[Fiume]] at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]], war veteran [[Gabriele d'Annunzio]] declared the independent state there, the [[Italian Regency of Carnaro]].{{cite book |last=Macdonald |first=Hamish |title=Mussolini and Italian Fascism|publisher=Nelson Thornes|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=221W9vKkWrcC&pg=PT16&dq=Gabriele+d%27Annunzio+paris+peace&sig=ACfU3U1BTr2IQkCU7gfZKyLAg2TRbp6a8g |isbn=0748733868 |year=1999}} He named himself ''Duce'' of the nation and declared a [[constitution]], the ''[[Charter of Carnaro]]'', which was highly influential to early Fascism, though he himself never became a fascist. [[Image:Italian Fascist flag 1930s-1940s.svg|left|thumb|220px|Flag of the [[National Fascist Party]].]] [[Benito Mussolini]] founded Italian fascism as the [[Fasci italiani di combattimento]] after he returned from World War I, and published a [[Fascist manifesto]]. The birth of the Fascist movement can be traced to a meeting he held in the Piazza San Sepolcro in [[Milan]] on March 23, 1919, which declared the original principles of the Fascists through a series of declarations.Mediterranean Fascism, 1919-1945, Edited by Charles F. Delzell copyright 1970 p. 7. These included a dedication to Italian war veterans,Mediterranean Fascism, 1919-1945, Edited by Charles F. Delzell copyright 1970 p. 8. a declaration of the fascists' loyalty to Italy and its opposition to foreign aggressors, a pronouncment that the fascists would fight against other political factions and a declaration of opposition to [[bolshevism]] and [[socialism]], particularly the socialism of the [[Italian Socialist Party]]. They also declared their intention to seize power and their opposition to the multiparty [[representative democracy]] in Italy. The fascists took a moderate stance on the economy, effectively declaring that they favoured [[class collaboration]] while opposing excessive state intervention into the economy, and calling for pressure on industrialists and workers to be cooperative and constructive, saying: "As for economic democracy, we favour [[national syndicalism]] and reject State intervention whenever it aims at throttling the creation of wealth."Mediterranean Fascism, 1919-1945, Edited by Charles F. Delzell copyright 1970 p. 9. Mussolini and the fascists were simultaneously [[revolutionary]] and [[tradition]]alist.{{cite news|url=http://www.jstor.org/pss/1852268|publisher=Roland Sarti|title=Fascist Modernization in Italy: Traditional or Revolutionary|date=8 January 2008}}{{cite news|url=http://www.appstate.edu/~brantzrw/history3134/mussolini.html|publisher=Appstate.edu|title=Mussolini's Italy|date=8 January 2008}} because this was vastly different from anything else in the political climate of the time, it is sometimes described as "The Third Way".{{cite book |last=Macdonald|first=Hamish |title=Mussolini and Italian Fascism|publisher=Nelson Thornes|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=221W9vKkWrcC&pg=PT17&lpg=PT17&dq=%22third+way%22+mussolini&source=web&ots=YG16x28rgN&sig=u7p19AE4Zlv483mg003WWDKP8S4&hl=en|isbn=0748733868 |year=1999}} The Fascisti, led by one of Mussolini's close confidants, [[Dino Grandi]], formed armed squads of war veterans called [[Blackshirts]] (or ''squadristi'') with the goal of restoring order. The blackshirts clashed with [[Communism|communists]], socialists and [[Anarchism|anarchists]] at parades and demonstrations. The government rarely interfered with the blackshirts' actions, due in part to a widespread fear of a Communist revolution. The Fascisti grew so rapidly that within two years, it transformed itself into the [[National Fascist Party]] at a congress in [[Rome]]. Also in 1921, Mussolini was elected to the [[Italian Chamber of Deputies|Chamber of Deputies]] for the first time and was later appointed as [[Prime Minister]] by the King in 1922. He then went on to install a [[dictatorship]] after 10 June 1924 assassination of [[anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] writer [[Giacomo Matteotti]] by agents of the Mussolini's ''Ceka'' secret police. Mussolini's [[colonialism]] reached further into [[Africa]] in an attempt to compete with [[British Empire|British]] and [[French colonial empire|French]] colonial empires.{{cite book |last=Copinger|first=Stewart |title=The rise and fall of Western colonialism|publisher=F.A.Praeger|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8tZBAAAAIAAJ&q=italian+empire+colonial+british+french&dq=italian+empire+colonial+british+french&pgis=1}} Mussolini spoke of making Italy a nation that was "great, respected and feared" throughout Europe, and indeed the world. An early example was his bombardment of [[Corfu]] in 1923. Soon after he succeeded in setting up a [[puppet state|puppet regime]] in [[Albania]] and forcibly ended a rebellion in [[Libya]], which had been a colony (loosely) since 1912. It was his dream to make the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] ''mare nostrum'' ("our sea" in [[Latin]]). ===Nazism (National Socialism, Germany)=== {{Main|Nazism}} [[Image:Flag of Germany 1933.svg|thumb|200px|right|Flag of the German [[Nazi Party]]]] The National Socialist German Workers’ Party ([[Nazi Party]]) ruled [[Germany]] from 1933 until 1945. After Benito Mussolini's successful [[March on Rome]] in 1922, German Nazi leader [[Adolf Hitler]] grew to admire him, and soon the Nazis presented themselves as a German version of Italian Fascism.Fulda, Bernhard. ''Press and Politics in the Weimar Republic''. Oxford University Press, 2009. p. 65.Carlsten, F.L. The Rise of Fascism. 2nd ed. University of California Press, 1982. p. 80. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's chief [[Nazi propaganda|propagandist]], credited Italian Fascism with starting a conflict against [[liberal democracy]], saying:

The march on Rome was a signal, a sign of storm for liberal-democracy. It is the first attempt to destroy the world of the liberal-democratic spirit[...] which started in 1789 with the storm on the Bastille and conquered one country after another in violent revolutionary upheavals, to let... the nations go under in Marxism, democracy, anarchy and class warfare...

Following the Italians' example, the Nazis attempted a "March on Berlin" to topple the Weimar Republic, which they characterised as "Marxist" (in reality, it was social democratic). A month after Mussolini had risen to power, amid claims by the Nazis that they were equivalent to the Italian fascists, Hitler's popularity in Germany began to grow, and large crowds began to attend Nazi rallies. The newspaper Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger featured a front page article about Hitler, saying "There are a lot of people who believe him to be the German Mussolini".

Adolf Hitler, German Nazi leader

In private, Mussolini expressed dislike of Hitler and the Nazis, seeing them as mere imitators of Italian Fascism. When Mussolini met with the Italian Consul in Munich prior to the Nazis' failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, he stated that the Nazis were "buffoons".

The Nazis gained political power in Germany's government through a democratic election in 1932. Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany following the 1933 election, subsequently putting into place the Enabling Act of 1933, which effectively gave him the power of a dictator, except over the German Roman Catholic Church, which was under the Vatican. The Nazis announced a national rebirth, in the form of the Third Reich, nicknamed the Thousand Year Empire, promoted as a successor to the Holy Roman Empire and the German Empire.

Although the modern consensus sees Nazism as a type of generic fascism, some scholars, including Gilbert Allardyce, Zeev Sternhell, Karl Dietrich Bracher and A.F.K. Organski, argue that Nazism is not fascism either because it is different in character or because they believe fascism cannot be generically defined. Nazism differed from Italian fascism in that it had a stronger emphasis on race, religion, and ethnicity, especially exhibited as antisemitism. Roger Griffin, a leading exponent of the generic fascism theory, wrote:

It might well be claimed that Nazism and Italian fascism were separate species within the same genus, without any implicit assumption that the two species ought to be well-nigh identical.

Ernst Nolte has stated that the differences could be easily reconciled by employing a term such as 'radical fascism' for Nazism.

...

The establishment of fundamental generic characteristics linking Nazism to movements in other parts of Europe allows further consideration on a comparative basis of the reasons why such movements were able to become a real political danger and gain power in Italy and Germany, whereas in other European countries they remained an unpleasant, but transitory irritant...

Sternhell views Nazism as separate from fascism:

Fascism can in no way be identified with Nazism.

Undoubtedly the two ideologies, the two movements, and the two regimes had common characteristics.

They often ran parallel to one another or overlapped, but they differed on one fundamental point: the criterion of German national socialism was biological determination.

The basis of Nazism was a racism in its most extreme sense, and the fight against Jews, against 'inferior' races, played a more preponderant role in it than the struggle against communism.

Iron Guard (Romania)

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu

Symbol of the Iron Guard .

The Iron Guard was a fascist movement and political party in Romania from 1927 to 1941. It was briefly in power from September 14, 1940 until January 21, 1941. It was founded by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu on 24 July 1927 as the "Legion of the Archangel Michael" (Legiunea Arhanghelul Mihail), and it was led by him until his death in 1938.

Adherents to the movement continued to be widely referred to as "legionnaires" (sometimes "legionaries"; ) and the organization as the "Legion" or the "Legionary Movement" (Mişcarea Legionară), despite various changes of the (intermittently banned) organization's name.

It was strongly anti-Semitic, promoting the idea that "Rabbinical aggression against the Christian world" in "unexpected 'protean forms': Freemasonry, Freudianism, homosexuality, atheism, Marxism, Bolshevism, the civil war in Spain, and social democracy" were undermining society.

The Iron Guard "inserted strong elements of Orthodox Christianity into its political doctrine to the point of becoming one of the rare modern European political movements with a religious ideological structure."

Falangism (Spain)

Falangism was a form of fascism founded by José Antonio Primo de Rivera in 1934, emerging during the Second Spanish Republic. Primo de Rivera was the son of Spain's former dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera. Following the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic Spain went from a kingdom into a republic dominated by left wing politicians almost overnight.

Primo de Rivera, inspired by Mussolini, founded the Falange Española party, which merged a year later with the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista party of Ramiro Ledesma and Onésimo Redondo. The party and Primo de Rivera presented the Falange Manifesto in November 1934; it promoted nationalism, unity, glorification of the Spanish Empire and dedication to the national syndicalism economic policy, inspired by integralism in which there is class collaboration. The manifesto supported agrarianism, to improve the standard of living for the peasants of the rural areas, anti-capitalism and anti-Marxism. The Falange participated in the Spanish general election, 1936 with low results compared to the far-left Popular Front, but soon after increased in membership rapidly.

Flag of the FET y de las JONS party.

Primo de Rivera was captured by Republicans on 6 July 1936 and held in captivity at Alicante. The Spanish Civil War broke out on 17 July 1936 between the Republicans and the Nationalists, with the Falangistas fighting for Nationalist cause. Despite his incarceration Primo de Rivera was a strong symbol of the cause, referred to as El Ausente, meaning "the Absent One". He was summarily executed on 20 November after a trial by socialists.

General Francisco Franco, already the leader of the rebel Nationalists, took over the leadership of the Falangists. Franco's focus was on victory in the war, and ensuring important flows of material from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, so he was less ideological than his predecessor.

A merger between the Falange and the Carlists took place in 1937, creating the FET y de las JONS, a more traditionalist, conservative party than the original Falagnists, and one which is described by some "authentic" Falangists as a move away from the party's original fascist principles. Franco balanced several different interests of elements in his party, in an effort to keep them united, especially in regard to the question of monarchy.

Franco's traditionalist, conservative stance means the Francoist regime is not generally considered to be fascist, as it lacked any revolutionary, transformative aspect. Stanley Payne, the preeminent scholar on fascism and Spain notes: "scarcely any of the serious historians and analysts of Franco consider the generalissimo to be a core fascist."

The ideas of Falangism were also exported, mainly to parts of the Hispanosphere, especially in South America. In some countries these movements were obscure, in others they had some impact. The Bolivian Socialist Falange under Óscar Únzaga provided significant competition to the ruling government during the 1950s until the 1970s.

In Peru, Catholic activist Luis Fernando Figari attempted to promote the ideals of Falangism, creating the youth Catholic association Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, in which, during the 70's, future members were educated in the official social doctrine of the Church as well in the Falangismo. Falangism was significant in Lebanon through the Kataeb Party and its founder Pierre Gemayel, fighting for national independence which was won in 1943.

Integralism (Brazil)

Integralist Flag

Brazilian Integralism (Ação Integralista Brasileira) was a form of fascism founded by Plinio Salgado in Brazil in October 1932. It is considered by many historians as the best, and maybe one of the only adaptations of fascist ideals in Latin America. From his magazine, Hierarquía directly inspired on “Gerarchia” from Italy, they persuade a great number of intellectuals to enter the group. 400,000 members were gained in the first two years alone, and by 1937 they were one of the most important parties in Latin America with around one million members.

They took many ideals from fascism instead of the “Italianità” and “Romanità”, in Italy they took the "Brasilianidade". Their principles included Corporativism, Catholicism, and like other fascist movements exhbitied forms of an anti-capitalist, and anti-communist agenda . They also took up and formed armed squads, nicknamed Greenshirts.

Para-fascism

Some states and movements have certain characteristics of fascism, but scholars generally agree they are not fascist. Such putatively fascist groups are generally anti-liberal, anti-communist and use similar political or paramilitary methods to fascists, but lack fascism's revolutionary goal to create a new national character. Para-fascism is a term used to describe authoritarian regimes with aspects that differentiate them from true fascist states or movements.

Para-fascists typically eschewed radical change and some viewed genuine fascists as a threat. Para-fascist states were often the home of genuine fascist movements, which were sometimes suppressed or co-opted, sometimes collaborated with.

Austrian Fatherland Front

Flag of the Fatherland Front of Austria.

"Austrofascism" is a controversial category encompassing various para-fascist and semi-fascist movements in Austria in the 1930s. In particular it refers to the Fatherland Front, which became Austria's sole legal political party in 1934. It had an ideology of the "community of the people" (Volksgemeinschaft) that was different from that of the Nazis.

They were similar in that both served to attack the idea of a class struggle, accusing the left of destroying individuality. The leader of the Fatherland Front, Engelbert Dollfuß, claimed he wanted to "out-Hitler" (überhitlern) Nazism.

Unlike the ethnic nationalism promoted by Italian Fascists and Nazis, the Fatherland Front focused entirely on cultural nationalism such as Austrian identity and distinction from Germany, extolling Austria's ties to the Roman Catholic Church. The notion of the Fatherland Front being fascist is usually based on the regime's support for and ideological similarities with of Fascist Italy, but its intensely conservative nationalism is often distinguished from revolutionary fascism.

Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Japan)

The Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Taisei Yokusankai) was a coalition of fascist and nationalist political movements of Japan such as the Imperial Way Faction (Kōdōha) and the Society of the East (Tōhōkai). It was formed under the guidance of Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe who was seeking to unify competing Japanese fascist and nationalist groups to reduce political friction and strengthen relations with the fascist regimes in Germany and Italy. Prior to creation of the IRAA, Konoe had already effectively nationalized strategic industries, the news media, and labour unions, in preparation for total war with China.

Konoe's successor, Hideki Tōjō entrenched the IRAA as the country's ruling political movement, and attempted to establish himself as the absolute leader, or Shogun, of Japan. In contrast to European fascism, though, the cult of personality for the movement focused not on the head of government, but on the Emperor of Japan.

The IRAA created Tonarigumi (Neighbourhood Association) and youth organisations, in which participation was mandatory. After the 1942 general election, all members of the Japanese parliament were forced to become members of the IRAA, making Japan a single-party state.

The IRAA government promoted Japanese expansionism and imperialism, declaring that Japan would form and lead a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere".

References

Notes

1. Girvin, Brian. The Right in the Twentieth Century. Pinter, 1994. Pp. 83. Describes fascism as an "anti-liberal radical authoritarian nationalist movement".
2. Turner, Henry Ashby. Reappraisals of Fascism. New Viewpoints, 1975. Pp. 162. States fascism's "goals of radical and authoritarian nationalism".
3. Payne, Stanley. Fascism in Spain, 1923-1977. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1992. Pp. 43. Payne describes Spanish fascist José Antonio Primo de Rivera's objectives, saying "Young José Antonio's primary political passion was and would long remain the vindication of his father's work, which he was now trying to conceptualize in a radical, authoritarian nationalist form."
4. Larsen, Stein Ugelvik; Hagtvet, Bernt; Myklebust, Jan Petter. Who were the Fascists: social roots of European Fascism. Pp. 424. This reference calls fascism an "organized form of integrative radical nationalist authoritarianism"
5. E.g. Noel O'Sullivan's five major themes of fascism are: corporatism, revolution, the leader principle, messianic faith, and autarky. The Fascism Reader by Aristotle A. Kallis says, "1. Corporatism. The most important claim made by fascism was that it alone could offer the creative prospect of a 'third way' between capitalism and socialism. Adolf Hitler, in Mein Kampf, spoke enthusiastically about the 'National Socialist corporative idea' as one which would eventually 'take the place of ruinous class warfare'; whilst Benito Mussolini, in typically extravagant fashion, declared that 'the Corporative System is destined to become the civilization of the twentieth century.'"
6. Griffin, Roger: "The Palingenetic Core of Fascism", Che cos'è il fascismo? Interpretazioni e prospettive di ricerche, Ideazione editrice, Rome, 2003 [1]
7. Stackleberg, Rodney: Hitler's Germany, Routeledge, 1999, p 3
8. Eatwell, Roger: "A 'Spectral-Syncretic Approach to Fascism', The Fascism Reader, Routledge, 2003 pp 71–80 [2]
9. Lipset, Seymour: "Fascism as Extremism of the Middle Class", The Fascism Reader, Routledge, 2003, pp 112–116
10. De Grand, Alexander. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany: the "fascist" style of rule. Routledge, 2004. Pp. 28.
11. http://marxists.org/reference/archive/mussolini/works/fascism.htm
12. Kent, Allen; Lancour, Harold; Nasri, William Z. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science: Volume 62 - Supplement 25 - Automated Discourse Generation to the User-Centered Revolution: 1970-1995. CRC Press, 1998. ISBN 0824720628, 9780824720629. p. 69.
13. Welch, David. Modern European History, 1871-2000. p. 57. [3] (Speaks of fascism opposing capitalism for creating class conflict and communism for exploiting class conflict).
14. http://marxists.org/reference/archive/mussolini/works/fascism.htm
15. http://marxists.org/reference/archive/mussolini/works/fascism.htm
16. Peter Davies, Derek Lynch. The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right. Routledge, 2002. p. 146
17. Heywood, Andrew. Key Concepts in Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, 2000. p. 78
18. Rao, B. V. History of Modern Europe Ad 1789-2002. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 2006. p. 215
19. E.g. Noel O'Sullivan's five major themes of fascism are: corporatism, revolution, the leader principle, messianic faith, and autarky. The Fascism Reader by Aristotle A. Kallis says, "1. Corporatism. The most important claim made by fascism was that it alone could offer the creative prospect of a 'third way' between capitalism and socialism. Hitler, in Mein Kampf, spoke enthusiastically about the 'National Socialist corporative idea' as one which would eventually 'take the place of ruinous class warfare'; whilst Mussolini, in typically extravagant fashion, declared that 'the Corporative System is destined to become the civilization of the twentieth century.'"
20. Corporatism and fascism and ots
21. Gregor, Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought, Princeton University Press, 2005 ISBN 0691120099 282 pages, page 4
22. Carlsten, 1982. p. 80.
23. Carlsten, 1982. p. 81.
24. Griffin, Roger and Matthew Feldman Fascism: Critical Concepts in Political Science p. 8, 2004 Taylor and Francis.
25. Spicer, Kevin P. 2007. Antisemitism, Christian ambivalence, and the Holocaust. Indiana University Press on behalf of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. p. 142.[4] (Describes the Romanian Iron Guard as a totalitarian nationalist and anti-Semitic movement.
26. Volovici, Nationalist Ideology, p. 98, citing N. Cainic, Ortodoxie şi etnocraţie, pp. 162–4.)
27. Ioanid, "The Sacralised Politics of the Romanian Iron Guard".
28. Laqueur, Walter Fascism: Past, Present, Future p. 13 1996 Oxford University Press]
29. De Menses, Filipe Ribeiro Franco and the Spanish Civil War, p. 87, Routledge
30. Gilmour, David, The Transformation of Spain: From Franco to the Constitutional Monarchy, p. 7 1985 Quartet Books
31. Payne, Stanley Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977, p. 476 1999 Univ. of Wisconsin Press
32. Payne, Stanley Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977, p. 347, 476 1999 Univ. of Wisconsin Press
33. Laqueur, Walter Fascism: Past, Present, Future, p. 13, 1997 Oxford University Press US
34. Griffin, Roger and Matthew Feldman Fascism: Critical Concepts in Political Science p.8, 2004 Taylor and Francis
35. Davies, Peter Jonathan and Derek Lynch The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right. p. 3, 2002 Routledge
36. Davies, Peter Jonathan and Derek Lynch The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right. p. 326, 2002 Routledge
37. Davies, Peter Jonathan and Derek Lynch The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right. p. 255, 2002 Routledge
38. Tsuzuki, Chushichi. The Pursuit of Power in Japan 1825-1995. Oxford University Press, 2000. P. 244.
39. Nish, Ian. Japanese Foreign Policy. Routledge, 2001. P. 234.
40. Tsuzuki, Chushichi. The Pursuit of Power in Japan 1825-1995. Oxford University Press, 2000. P. 245.

Primary sources

• Gentile, Giovanni. 1932. The Doctrine of Fascism. Enciclopedia Italiana.
• de Oliveira Salazar, António. 1939. Doctrine and Action: Internal and Foreign Policy of the New Portugal, 1928-1939. Faber and Faber.
• Mosley, Sir Oswald. 1968. My Life. Nelson Publications.
• de Rivera, José Antonio Primo. 1971. Textos de Doctrina Politica. Madrid.
• Mussolini, Benito. 1998. My Rise And Fall . Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306808641
• Ciano, Galezzo. 2001. The Ciano Diaries, 1939—1943. Simon Publications. ISBN 1931313741
• Mussolini, Benito. 2006. My Autobiography: With "The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism". Dover Publications. ISBN 0486447774

Secondary sources

• Evans, Richard J, The Third Reich in Power: 1933-1939, The Penguin Press HC, 2005
• De Felice, Renzo. 1976. Fascism: An Informal Introduction to Its Theory and Practice. Transaction Books. ISBN 0878556192
• De Felice, Renzo. 1977. Interpretations of Fascism. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674459628.
• Kitsikis, Dimitri. 2005. Pour une étude scientifique du fascisme. Ars Magna Editions. ISBN 2-912164-11-7.
• Kitsikis, Dimitri. 2006. Jean-Jacques Rousseau et les origines françaises du fascisme. Ars Magna Editions. ISBN 2-912164-46-X.
• Ben-Am, Shlomo. 1983. Fascism from Above: The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in Spain, 1923-1930. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198225962
• Payne, Stanley G. 1987. The Franco Regime, 1936-1975. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299110702
• Vatikiotis, Panayiotis J. 1988. Popular Autocracy in Greece, 1936-1941: A Political Biography of General Ioannis Metaxas. Routledge. ISBN 0714648698
• Payne, Stanley G. 1995. A History of Fascism, 1914-45. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299148742
• Costa Pinto, António. 1995. Salazar's Dictatorship and European Fascism: Problems of Interpretation. Social Science Monographs. ISBN 0880339683
• Griffiths, Richard. 2001. An Intelligent Person's Guide to Fascism. Duckworth. ISBN 0715629182
• Lewis, Paul H. 2002. Latin Fascist Elites: The Mussolini, Franco, and Salazar Regimes. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 027597880X
• Payne, Stanley G. 2003. Falange: A History of Spanish Fascism. Textbook Publishers. ISBN 0758134452
• Paxton, Robert O. 2005. The Anatomy of Fascism. Vintage Books. ISBN 1400033918

• Eatwell, Roger. 1996. Fascism: A History. New York: Allen Lane.
• Nolte, Ernst The Three Faces Of Fascism: Action Française, Italian Fascism, National Socialism, translated from the German by Leila Vennewitz, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965.
• Reich, Wilhelm. 1970. The Mass Psychology of Fascism. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
• Seldes, George. 1935. Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fascism. New York and London: Harper and Brothers.
• Alfred Sohn-Rethel Economy and Class Structure of German Fascism, London, CSE Bks, 1978 ISBN 0906336007
• Kallis, Aristotle A. ," To Expand or Not to Expand? Territory, Generic Fascism and the Quest for an 'Ideal Fatherland'" Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 38, No. 2. (Apr., 2003), pp. 237–260.
• Fritzsche, Peter. 1990. Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505780-5
• Griffin, Roger. 2000. "Revolution from the Right: Fascism," chapter in David Parker (ed.) Revolutions and the Revolutionary Tradition in the West 1560-1991, Routledge, London.
• Laqueur, Walter. 1966. Fascism: Past, Present, Future, New York: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-511793-X
• Sauer, Wolfgang "National Socialism: totalitarianism or fascism?" pages 404–424 from The American Historical Review, Volume 73, Issue #2, December 1967.
• Sternhell, Zeev with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri. [1989] 1994. The Birth of Fascist Ideology, From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution., Trans. David Maisei. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Baker, David. "The political economy of fascism: Myth or reality, or myth and reality?" New Political Economy, Volume 11, Issue 2 June 2006 , pages 227 – 250
• Griffin, Roger. 1991. The Nature of Fascism. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Weber, Eugen. [1964] 1985. Varieties of Fascism: Doctrines of Revolution in the Twentieth Century, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, (Contains chapters on fascist movements in different countries.)

External links

• The Doctrine of Fascism
• Readings on Fascism and National Socialism by Various - Project Gutenberg