What exactly is fascism?

[M3some]

Hi everyone

I'm have been lurking here at DU for a year now, ever since the war began, and I just want to say what a wonderful resource DU is and reassuring it is to know that there are so many others here who are dedicated to progressive and liberal causes. I have learned so much from you all and it is a pleasure to be among a community of such intelligent and passionate people. (okay, enough brown nosing! :) )

What exactly is the definition of fascism? I have heard that term used more and more lately and associate it with regime's such as Franco in Spain, or Mussolini, or even Nazi Germany. I have a general idea, but don't have a concrete definition and since I have been hearing that term more and more applied to the US, I think it would be good for me to fully understand what it means. Could someone enlighten me?

Thanks!

[mr715]

1. The deal

Fascism is basically a government of very strong nationalism where the individual serves the state. The state represents not what is best for the people, but rather, people will do what is best for the state.

Citizenship is of primary importance in a fascist state because citizens of the state are often perceived as superior to non-citizens (because they are participating in the engine of the government).

They are highly authoritarian, bordering in Nazi Germany on totalitarian. Economic policy does not come into a government paradigm.


M

[blurp]

27. I agree. I don't understand where this supposed link with capitalism comes

from.

One thing I see with regard to Fascism economics is the idea that Fascism is the opposite of the Marxist conception of history. Not the opposite of communism, but opposite the idea that economics controls people like "puppets".

It's also very anti-individualistic. That would seem to suggest that it is somewhat the opposite of capitalism, since capitalism is the private ownership of the means of production. Mussolini also says that "this will be the century of collectivism and hence the century of the State".

I've always seen capitalism on the opposite side of collectivism.

Anyway, from the horses mouth:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) over the course of his lifetime went from Socialism - he was editor of Avanti, a socialist newspaper - to the leadership of a new political movement called "fascism" .

Mussolini came to power after the "March on Rome" in 1922, and was appointed Prime Minister by King Victor Emmanuel.

In 1932 Mussolini wrote (with the help of Giovanni Gentile) and entry for the Italian Encyclopedia on the definition of fascism.


Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism -- born of a renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have courage to meet it. All other trials are substitutes, which never really put men into the position where they have to make the great decision -- the alternative of life or death....

...The Fascist accepts life and loves it, knowing nothing of and despising suicide: he rather conceives of life as duty and struggle and conquest, but above all for others -- those who are at hand and those who are far distant, contemporaries, and those who will come after...

...Fascism the complete opposite of…Marxian Socialism, the materialist conception of history of human civilization can be explained simply through the conflict of interests among the various social groups and by the change and development in the means and instruments of production.... Fascism, now and always, believes in holiness and in heroism; that is to say, in actions influenced by no economic motive, direct or indirect. And if the economic conception of history be denied, according to which theory men are no more than puppets, carried to and fro by the waves of chance, while the real directing forces are quite out of their control, it follows that the existence of an unchangeable and unchanging class-war is also denied - the natural progeny of the economic conception of history. And above all Fascism denies that class-war can be the preponderant force in the transformation of society....

After Socialism, Fascism combats the whole complex system of democratic ideology, and repudiates it, whether in its theoretical premises or in its practical application. Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society; it denies that numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation, and it affirms the immutable, beneficial, and fruitful inequality of mankind, which can never be permanently leveled through the mere operation of a mechanical process such as universal suffrage....

...Fascism denies, in democracy, the absur conventional untruth of political equality dressed out in the garb of collective irresponsibility, and the myth of "happiness" and indefinite progress....

...iven that the nineteenth century was the century of Socialism, of Liberalism, and of Democracy, it does not necessarily follow that the twentieth century must also be a century of Socialism, Liberalism and Democracy: political doctrines pass, but humanity remains, and it may rather be expected that this will be a century of authority...a century of Fascism. For if the nineteenth century was a century of individualism it may be expected that this will be the century of collectivism and hence the century of the State....

The foundation of Fascism is the conception of the State, its character, its duty, and its aim. Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived of in their relation to the State. The conception of the Liberal State is not that of a directing force, guiding the play and development, both material and spiritual, of a collective body, but merely a force limited to the function of recording results: on the other hand, the Fascist State is itself conscious and has itself a will and a personality -- thus it may be called the "ethic" State....

...The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone....

...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. Peoples which are rising, or rising again after a period of decadence, are always imperialist; and renunciation is a sign of decay and of death. Fascism is the doctrine best adapted to represent the tendencies and the aspirations of a people, like the people of Italy, who are rising again after many centuries of abasement and foreign servitude. But empire demands discipline, the coordination of all forces and a deeply felt sense of duty and sacrifice: this fact explains many aspects of the practical working of the regime, the character of many forces in the State, and the necessarily severe measures which must be taken against those who would oppose this spontaneous and inevitable movement of Italy in the twentieth century, and would oppose it by recalling the outworn ideology of the nineteenth century - repudiated wheresoever there has been the courage to undertake great experiments of social and political transformation; for never before has the nation stood more in need of authority, of direction and order. If every age has its own characteristic doctrine, there are a thousand signs which point to Fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our time. For if a doctrine must be a living thing, this is proved by the fact that Fascism has created a living faith; and that this faith is very powerful in the minds of men is demonstrated by those who have suffered and died for it.

[zmannxx]

2. hello

1. Fascism
1. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
2. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.

[madmax]

3. Here ya go

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook42.html

I didn't know what fascism was either but, the word kept nagging at me during campaign 2000.

[skooooo]

4. Mussolini said....

...that "corporatism" (the marriage of government and corporations) was a very accurate definition of fascism. I'm sure there are longer and more complex definitions, but keep that one in mind.

[leftofthedial]

5. fascism

1. Fascism
a. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
b. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.

2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.

It is worth noting that in Nazi Germany, it was also characterized by a close partnership between corporations and the fascist government.

[quinnox]

6. From the Columbia encyclopedia

fascism


a totalitarian philosophy of government that glorifies the state and nation and assigns to the state control over every aspect of national life. The name was first used by the party started by Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 until the Italian defeat in World War II. However, it has also been applied to similar ideologies in other countries, e.g., to National Socialism in Germany and to the regime of Francisco Franco in Spain. The term is derived from the Latin fasces.

Characteristics of Fascist Philosophy

Fascism, especially in its early stages, is obliged to be antitheoretical and frankly opportunistic in order to appeal to many diverse groups. Nevertheless, a few key concepts are basic to it. First and most important is the glorification of the state and the total subordination of the individual to it. The state is defined as an organic whole into which individuals must be absorbed for their own and the state’s benefit. This “total state” is absolute in its methods and unlimited by law in its control and direction of its citizens. 2
A second ruling concept of fascism is embodied in the theory of social Darwinism. The doctrine of survival of the fittest and the necessity of struggle for life is applied by fascists to the life of a nation-state. Peaceful, complacent nations are seen as doomed to fall before more dynamic ones, making struggle and aggressive militarism a leading characteristic of the fascist state. Imperialism is the logical outcome of this dogma.
3
Another element of fascism is its elitism. Salvation from rule by the mob and the destruction of the existing social order can be effected only by an authoritarian leader who embodies the highest ideals of the nation. This concept of the leader as hero or superman, borrowed in part from the romanticism of Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Carlyle, and Richard Wagner, is closely linked with fascism’s rejection of reason and intelligence and its emphasis on vision, creativeness, and “the will.”

[skooooo]

7. This hits home...

"A second ruling concept of fascism is embodied in the theory of social Darwinism. The doctrine of survival of the fittest and the necessity of struggle for life is applied by fascists to the life of a nation-state."
========

Cause we all know the people who are poor are poor because they deserve to be, right??

[quinnox]

8. Yea, I think many of today's right wing republicans

would readily agree with the social darwin philosophy as stated here.

[skooooo]

11. Absolutely...the poor are lazy...

...the addicted are morally flawed and they are all somehow inferior to the rich. Disgusting. The issue is, how do you point these things out without using the word "fascism", because as soon as you bring it up, all reason goes out the door?? Or, maybe the word shouldn't be avoided?

[M3some]

10. social darwinism

I have a couple of real good friends, close friends, who are more apolictical than anything, but if pushed, will lean pretty far right and they put a lot of faith in social darwinism. That life is hard, that humans will always fight, that you must look out for number one. In response to that, I replied that in a modern, enlightened society, you can look out for number one, but have enough left over to look out for others too. They can't understand why I am progressive and volunteer and such. I suppose its just different ways of looking at the world and the relationships between people.

Thanks for all the definitions. They are all very close to what I though fascism is. Unfortunately, I can see some aspects of that in our current political and national scene.

[skooooo]

16. You should point out..

..that the purpose of law and civilization is to elevate people above the rule of the jungle, that humans are supposed to be humane, that the ultimate realization of their darwanistic beliefs were embodied by the fascist movements in Germany and Italy in WW2.

[M3some]

20. absolutely

You are so correct. Its funny, because one of them is one of my closest friends and he is so generous and has such a good heart. He truly is a great friend and a great person. But he will say things like "we should bomb Iraq, we need the oil" and "humans will always fight each other, so why not kill them for their oil" etc......

I don't think its so much that he believes that, more than he just does not care, like a lot of other Americans. He just wants to save up for his next car, his next motorcycle...etc. I think it is that disconnect from the realities of the world which make it easy for him to say the things above. I find such cynicism a litttle disheartening, but it also strenghtens me to continue to try and inform him about things.

I have gotten him to not vote for Bush this year, so I guess that is a start.

[skooooo]

21. "Disconnect" may be the key word...

...Americans in general are very disconnected from our actions abroad. Futhermore, most of us have never experienced hard times. It ought to lead people to think about why there are so many more socialists and pacifists in Europe. They've lived through war in a real way on their own soil as well as fascism, and they know better. Unfortunately, we don't.

[pinto]

18. my sense of fascism is that it forges state, coorporations and military

to meet a political goal. Subsumes the rights of the individual to the needs of the state. Can also have religious overtones (see the 3rd Reich).

As an aside, the PNAC theorists, who are the godfathers of our recent global enterprise, come from a Trotskyite background, which is kind of fascism with a socialism veneer. The essence of Bait and Switch.

[Ms. Clio]

22. That is not Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism is the belief that the rich, or white people, are inherently (genetically and morally) superior those those who are not white and not rich.

Maybe you should look some of this stuff up on the Web, or read some books.

[Toots]

24. This one sentence is what is the most terrifying to me

"fascism’s rejection of reason and intelligence and its emphasis on vision, creativeness, and “the will.”"
This sums it all up. Why Surviver and American Idol are the most watched TV shows and why Rush is so popular. How do we fight this "dumbing down of America"?

[DBoon]

9. No simple definition

Narrowly, a political movement in Europe between WWI and WWII, in opposition to both liberal democracy and socialism, which emphasized the "natural" role of elites in governing (anti-egalitarian), a state-guided economy supporting capitalist profit motives, extreme nationalism, and the complete supression of all opposition by violent means.

More broadly, any nationalistic, right-wing dictatorship that supresses opposition by force. Pinochet in Chile.

Fascism may or may not involve military agression, racism, appeals to historical myths, or an organized mass movement. Mussolini, while nationalistic did not invoke the racism of the Nazis. The Nazis constituted a mass movement, while Franco's Falange didn't so much. Some Nazis saw themselves as a revolutionary movement to remake society, while other Fascists were extreme traditionalists having the support of the Church and aristocracy. Some fascist movements were explicitly Christian, others were anti-Christian.

[skooooo]

13. Other definitions highlight the "negative" aspects..

..of fascism. Fascists are anti-liberal, anti-conservative, anti-socialists, etc.

[Cronus Protagonist]

12. Fascism? We Report, You Decide.

http://cronus.com/fascism

http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

[DBoon]

14. Quoting Mussolini himself

From : http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html

...It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism -- born of a renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have courage to meet it....

...Fascism denies, in democracy, the absur conventional untruth of political equality dressed out in the garb of collective irresponsibility, and the myth of "happiness" and indefinite progress....

...The foundation of Fascism is the conception of the State, its character, its duty, and its aim. Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived of in their relation to the State...

......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...

[proud patriot]

15. Welcome Underground M3some

Great Question , I'm still learning as I go
and I have 30,000 posts . I hope you learn
lots and enjoy Democratic Underground :hi:

[doni_georgia]

17. Technical definition according to the dictionary

fascism: "A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism."


With a capital F it refers to the government of Italy under Mussolini. According to the Encyclopedia Italiano: "Facism is
a system in which the State not only is authority which governs and molds individual wills with laws and values of spiritual life, but it is also power which makes its will prevail abroad. ...For the Fascist, everything is within the State and ... neither individuals or groups are outside the State. ...For Fascism, the State is an absolute, before which individuals or groups are only relative."

[betweenwars]

19. Ur-Fascism

Umberto Eco tried to distill fascism's major compoents--as contradictory as they can be--in his essay or "Ur-fascism." Here's a link to the essay, though I've found the piece on other sites as well.

http://archive.8m.net/eco.htm

Cheers,
Mitch G.

[Daisey Mae]

23. Mussolini said that " the word corporatism could be

another word for fascism...." In other words with intense Nationalism and intense Militarism a Dictatorship ( or one party government ) takes over, the corporations win primary favor of the government.... The people are in essence ruled by the VERY RICH and WELL CONNECTED ( lobbyists and etc.) , and the CORPORATIONS .....Essentially a dictatorship or one party government in which the " People Serve the Rich AND Well connected, and the Corporations.... The common people have NO representation but they DO have plenty of taxation...Sombody HAS to pay the Taxes and those in charge of things and corporations WON'T........THEREFORE THE COST OF REQUIRED THINGS like Airports, Highways, and Hospitals are shifted to the common working people. It destroys the middle class....We are left with VERY VERY RICH CLASS and EXTREME POVERTY......Therefore no middle class. ...... It is easier for them to stay in power with an uninformed public... so NO EDUCATION ..... Sound Familiar?

[librechik]

25. The Beast Reawakens

good reading
http://www.publiceye.org/lee/beast_intro.html

snip
"The abracadabra of fascism casts a spell over people by diverting economic and social resentments toward national and racial preoccupations. Proclaiming the need for a new spirit and a new man, fascist demagogues have extolled action for its own sake and romanticized violence as regenerative and therapeutic. Although many of their ideas are a by-product of the Enlightenment, they vehemently reject egalitarian social theories that formed the basis of the French Revolution in 1789. The "anti" dimensions of fascism are manifold and well-known: anti-democratic, anti-Marxist, anticapitalist, antimaterialist, anti-cosmopolitan, antibourgeois, antiliberal, antifeminist, and so on.

But fascism was always more than just a negative crusade. Its eclectic style incorporated elements of competing ideologies that fascist rhetoric ostensibly repudiated. Herein lay the essential paradox of fascism: its ability to embody social and political opposites, to be at once elitist and populist, traditionalist and avant-garde. ("I am a reactionary and a revolutionary," Mussolini boasted.) Within the fascist milieu, there has always been a nostalgia for preindustrial societies and an attraction to modern technology, a pathos for uncontrolled brutality and a fetish for obedience and order. Promising the remedy the malaise and anomie of modern life, fascist leaders manipulated seep-seated longings for a better society. The skewed utopian impulse of fascism was the basis for part of its magnetism as a political movement, which appealed to all social strata--urban and rural, young and old, poor and wealthy, the intelligentsia and the uneducated.

The massive defeat they suffered during World War II did not refute the innermost convictions of many fascists, who kept pining for the day when they might again inflict their twisted dream of a new order on much of the world. Within the neofascist scene, there has always been a residual subculture of nostalgics who clung to the heritage of the Third Reich and the Mussolini regime. Holocaust-denial literature and other racialist screeds have circulated like political pornography among the deeply devoted who cluster in small marginalized groups and clandestine cells. Others showed more resiliency as they tried to adapt to the changing realities of the postwar era. But the East-West conflict, which initially afforded a means of survival for these ideological miscreants, also stranded many of them on the farther shores of politics. They realized that sooner or later the binary logjam of the Cold War would have to be broken for revisionist forms of fascism to take hold..."

more

[librechik]

26. Here's another excellent one: The Nazi Hydra in America

http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/noon.html

snip:

"Regulation of businesses or corporations by itself is not socialism. It is this writer's opinion that a business entity has no rights other than what privileges a society wishes to grant it. People have rights; a paper creation of a society such as a corporation has no inherent rights. This writer takes the opinion that business entities such as corporations only have conditional privileges based upon providing for the common good. All such paper creations do have an obligation to serve the society, which created it, failing at that it has lost any right for its continuing existence. It is the right nay, the obligation of that society to restrict the rights of such entities to promote equality for all and to prevent a ruling aristocracy from developing. This view is hardly socialism or radical, unless one wishes to label Thomas Jefferson as a radical socialist as his words below show.

"I hope we shall take warning from the example of England and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our Government to trial, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."3

. Perhaps one of the better definitions of fascism comes from Heywood Broun, a noted American columnist in the 1930s:

"Fascism, is a dictatorship from the extreme right or to put it a little more closely into our local idiom, a government which is run by a small group of large industrialists and financial lords...I think it is not unfair to say that any businessman in America, or public leader, who goes out to break unions is laying the foundations for fascism"

snip

With its pro-business agenda, and the fascist views of the leaders of corporate America, the Republican Party soon became laden with fascists. Even before Hitler and the Nazis seized power in Germany, the Nazis were already actively involved in American politics and elections. Shockingly, the Nazis did not have to infiltrate the party; many were employed at high levels in the national or state Republican Party organizations.

In October 1928, Edmond Furholzer, a pro-Nazi publisher from Germantown, NY presented the New York State Republican Committee with an offer that for twenty thousand dollars he would deliver the German vote to Hoover. With Hoover's chances looking good, and it being late in the campaign, Furholzer's offer was turned down.

Furholzer was hardly an obscure Nazi, and was a leading figure in the hard right of Yorkville (a heavily German neighborhood of Manhattan). The Republican State Committee adopted many of Furholzer's proposals in 1928, and four years later, when Hoover's chances were dismal, Furholzer's help was gladly accepted. In fact, during the 1932 campaign, Furholzer worked endlessly for the Republican National Committee, campaigning tirelessly for Hoover in New York State. He smeared Roosevelt as the new Wilson, the man that had destroyed Germany.92 In 1933, Furholzer returned to Germany.

By 1934, the Nazis had only been in power for less than a year, but already were active in placing their agents or pro-Nazis into positions of power. On February 22, 1934, the Republican Party merged their Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees into a single organization independent of the Republican National Committee..."

more

re: the above--you know how certain people say the Republican party has been highjacked? Looks like it's not the first time...

[HereSince1628]

28. Don't look for a checklist of essential elements...

rather realize that the underlying concept is the bundling together of an entire society's effort's to serve a national interest.

The word fascism is based on the concept of bundling or binding together.

It seems rather likely that the general idea of unity of purpose will be popular (the fasces was symbolized on the American dime in the 19-teens) at various times. Each time it emerges it will be different, set within the political and economic realities of the time.

Of course such unity can be used for good or ill.

Currently the US seems to be caught up in the bundling of national interest into protections for the investor class and the corporations they invest in.

Is this good or is it ill?

Is it "fascism?"

Maybe.