Fascism | PSIR Optional for UPSC

PYQs

Comment: “Fascism is the destruction of liberal ideas and institutions in the interest of those who own the instruments of economic power.” (Laski) (08/20)

Introduction

Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement.
Its stated goal is to promote the rights of a supposedly superior people to dominate, while purging society of supposedly inferior elements.
“Fascism is the destruction of liberal ideas and institutions in the interest of those who own the instruments of economic power.” – Laski.
Fascism is a type of dictatorship. There is a supremacy of state. Individuals have no rights against state. Instead of rights, fascism focused on duty and discipline.
Benito Mussolini coined the term “fascism” in 1919 to describe his political movement. This movement dominated many parts of central, southern, and eastern Europe between 1919 and 1945.
There are many variants of fascism. E.g. fascism (Italy), Nazism (Germany), Salazarism (Portugal), Peronism (Argentina). There may be some fundamental variations in these. e.g. fascists emphasized on the primacy of state, and Nazism emphasized on primacy of race.
It is opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, liberalism, socialism and Marxism.

Origin and Evolution

Fascism's origins are complex and include many seemingly contradictory viewpoints, ultimately centered on a mythos of national rebirth from decadence.
Fascism rose to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, before spreading to other European countries, most notably Germany.
In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the Partito Nazionale Fascista (National Fascist Party). He established a dictatorship as il Duce (“the leader”), with no responsibility to parliament.
Mussolini’s success inspired other fascist movements across Europe. E.g. Oswald Mosely in Britain, Francisco Franco in Spain and Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Characteristics of Fascism

Fascism is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.

Absolute power of the state: Fascist states have a strong centralized government. Individuals must give up their private needs and rights to serve the needs of the whole society.
A Dictator’s rule: A single dictator makes all the important decisions. This leader often uses charisma, a magnetic personality, to gain the support of the people.
Fascists Economic System: Fascism is autarky. Autarky means self-sufficient system of economy which has minimum integration with international economy.
Corporatism: Fascism supported the concept of corporate state. As per it, the state has central role in industry. Corporate state acts as a equilibrium builder between the interests of workers and capitalists. Capitalism is tamed by controlling labour and factory owners. Unions, strikes, and other labor actions are illegal. Although private property remains, the state controls the economy.
Extreme Nationalism: State uses national glory and the fear of outside threats to build a new society based on the “common will” of the people.
Superiority of the Nation’s People: Dictators try strengthen the dominant group in a nation while stifling dissent and persecuting minority groups.
Militarism and Imperialism: Fascists believe that great nations show their greatness by conquering and ruling weak nations. They try to prove their military superiority in war.
Contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism.
A belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites.
The desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft, in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation.
Fascists’ Foreign Policy: Fascists glorify war and believed in expansionist foreign policy. According to Mussolini, “war is to men is what maternity to women.” Hitler also wanted ‘greater living space for Germans’. They believe in the ‘lebensraum’, means since state is organic it grows and hence it is natural to expand.

Central Idea of Fascism

The key foundation of fascism is Ultranationalism, combined with the myth of national rebirth. Roger Griffin identifies the core of fascism as being palingenetic ultranationalism.
Fascism seeks to solve economic, political and social problems by achieving a millenarian national rebirth. It exalts the nation or race above all else and promotes cults of unity, strength and purity.
Fascists believed in the survival of the fittest. It argued that society should be led by an elite of the fittest, the strongest and the most heroic.

1. Mussolini’s views

He has written the book on Principles of Fascism.
According to Mussolini, there is nothing above the state, against the state or outside state. He also held that man should sacrifice himself at the altar of state.
He was against democracy. According to Mussolini, democracy is the luxury of rich nations, parliament is a talking shop.

2. Social Principles

Fascism emphasized social solidarity, solidarity with the race.
Hitler described Nazism as creative destruction. Hitler was against the ‘enlightenment’ based social order. He believed that enlightenment has created isolated persons. We have to understand the importance of the volk (community or race).
Since he calls for the destruction of the order, which emerged with modernity, fascism is described as, ‘counter enlightenment’ (conservatism or extreme right).

3. Totalitarianism

Fascism promotes the establishment of a totalitarian state.
It opposes liberal democracy, rejects multi-party systems, and may support a one-party state so that it may synthesize with the nation.
Mussolini's ‘The Doctrine of Fascism’ (1932) states that the Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value.
Fascist states pursued policies of social indoctrination through propaganda in education and the media.

4. Alternative to Capitalism

Fascism presented itself as an alternative to both socialism and free-market capitalism.
They opposed free market capitalism but supported a type of productive capitalism.
Economic self-sufficiency, known as autarky, was a major goal of most fascist governments.
Fascist economics supported a state-controlled economy that accepted a mix of private and public ownership over the means of production.

5. Military values

Fascists favoured military values such as courage, unquestioning obedience to authority, discipline, and physical strength.
Hitler imagined a God who presided over military conflicts and ensured the survival of the fittest.
Mussolini was famous for slogans such as “A minute on the battlefield is worth a lifetime of peace,” and “Nothing has ever been won in history without bloodshed.”
The Japanese War Ministry in 1934 declared: “War is the father of creation and the mother of culture.”

6. Volksgemeinschaft

Hitler envisioned the ideal German society as a Volksgemeinschaft.
It is a racially unified and hierarchically organized body in which the interests of individuals would be strictly subordinate to those of the nation, or Volk.
Like a military battalion, the people’s community would be permanently prepared for war.
Its Japanese version was known as “family-system principle,”. It maintained that the nation is like a family and people should obey their leaders in the same way children obey their parents.

7. Mass mobilization

Fascists attempted to win popular support and consolidate their power by mobilizing the population in mass meetings, parades, and other gatherings.
They appealed to the audience’s emotions rather than to its reasoning.
Example: Mussolini’s regime in Italy and Salazar’s government in Portugal held government-organized mass rallies.

8. The leadership principle

Fascists defended the Fuhrerprinzip (“leadership principle”).
It is a belief that the party and the state should have a single leader with absolute power.
Hitler was the Fuhrer and Mussolini the Duce, both words for the “leader” who gave the orders that everyone else had to obey.
The authority of the leader was often enhanced by his personal charisma.

9. Corporatism

The fascist economic theory is corporatism.
It was enacted in fascist states in mid-20th century Europe, and meant to be an alternative to both free market economies and socialist economies.
This theory calls for the control of a state or organization by large interest groups.
It calls for the state- or management-controlled trade unions and employer associations, or “corporations”.
Each of these corporations represent the general interests of their professions in a larger assembly of corporations.
In practice, fascist corporatism was used to destroy labour movements and suppress political dissent. For example: The Salazar regime in Portugal outlawed the Trade Union Federation and all leftist unions.

Thinkers’ Perspective

Fascism is "a genus of political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a palingenetic form of populist ultranationalism." - Roger Griffin
Liberal or capitalist view: They link fascism with socialism or communism. e.g. Karl Popper and Hannah Arendt considered fascism and communism are the varieties of the totalitarianism of 20th century.
Anti-capitalists view: They see fascism as a philosophy of capitalism. Capitalism is liberal and democratic in normal situations. It becomes authoritarian when it faces crisis. As per Laski, ‘fascism is the last attempt by capitalism to protect itself.’
Jose Ortega Gasset views that fascism represents ‘revolt of masses’. Thus, fascism is considered as democracy turning into mobocracy. Since the support for fascist rulers came from the lower middle class, it is also called as the ideology of ‘center right’.
Roger Eatwell defines fascism as "an ideology that strives to forge social rebirth based on a holistic-national radical Third Way".
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”- Benito Mussolini
“Behind every fascism there is a failed revolution.” - Walter Benjamin
Payne's definition of fascism focuses on three concepts:

1. "Fascist negations" – anti-liberalism, anti-communism, and anti-conservatism.
2. "Fascist goals" – the creation of a nationalist dictatorship to regulate economic structure, and the expansion of the nation into an empire.
3. "Fascist style" – a political aesthetic of romantic symbolism, mass mobilization, a positive view of violence, and promotion of the charismatic authoritarian leadership.

Thomas Hobbes in his work Leviathan (1651) created the ideology of absolutism that advocated an all-powerful absolute monarchy to maintain order within a state.
Historian John Lukacs argues that there is no such thing as generic fascism. He claims that Nazism and communism are essentially manifestations of populism.
Gaetano Mosca in his work The Ruling Class (1896) developed the theory that claims that in all societies, an "organized minority" will dominate and rule over the "disorganized majority".

What is Neo-Fascism?

Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism.
Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration sentiment.
It opposes liberal democracy, social democracy, parliamentarianism, liberalism, Marxism, neoliberalism, communism, and socialism.
As with classical fascism, it proposes a Third Position as an alternative to market capitalism.
Post-fascism is a label that has been applied to several European political parties which initiate an ideological revision by rejecting authoritarianism and participate in constitutional politics.

Relationship with other ideologies

It strongly opposed liberalism, communism, anarchism, and democratic socialism.

Capitalism

Fascists aimed to promote what they considered the national interests of their countries. They supported the right to own private property and the profit motive.
They commonly sought to eliminate the autonomy of large-scale business interests from the state.
There were both pro-capitalist and anti-capitalist elements in fascist thought.
Capitalism as a Positive force: which promotes economic efficiency and is necessary for the prosperity of the nation.
Capitalism as a Negative force: which promotes decadence and disloyalty to the nation – remained in uneasy coexistence within most fascist movements.

Conservatism

Conservatives and fascists both reject the liberal and Marxist views.
Fascism's emphasis on order, discipline, hierarchy, military virtues and preservation of private property appealed to conservatives.
Fascists made tactical alliances with traditional conservative forces to achieve and maintain power.
Unlike conservatism, fascism specifically presents itself as a modern ideology that is willing to break free from the moral and political constraints of traditional society.

Liberalism

Fascism is strongly opposed to the individualism found in classical liberalism.
Fascists accuse liberalism of de-spiritualizing human beings and transforming them into materialistic beings whose highest ideal is moneymaking.
Fascists believe that the liberal emphasis on individual freedom produces national divisiveness.
However, Fascists and Nazis support a type of hierarchical individualism in the form of Social Darwinism because they believe it promotes "superior individuals" and weeds out "the weak".
Although Fascism had tentatively adopted the economic elements of liberalism, but completely denied its philosophical principles and the intellectual and moral heritage of modernity.

Socialism and communism

Fascism is historically strongly opposed to socialism and communism, due to their support of class revolution, egalitarianism and collectivism.
Marxism calls for class struggle by the working class against the ruling class, while fascism calls for collaboration between the classes to achieve national rejuvenation.
When Hitler came to power, he sent hundreds of Marxists to concentration camps.
For French fascists, Marxism was the main enemy. For example, Valois declared that the guiding principle of his organization was “the elimination of socialism and everything resembling it.”
Fascists saw themselves as building a new aristocracy, a "warrior race or nation", based on purity of blood, heroism and virility.

Merits of Fascism

Prioritizes the welfare of the country: Fascism focuses on the improvement of the country as a whole. Government funds will be spent on increasing the nation’s defenses.
Promotes socio-economic equality: Fascism aims to unite the people by getting rid of socio-economic classes and creating equality among everybody. Government can demand that the rich give up their wealth so it can be distributed among the poor.
Speeds up the decision-making process: The dictator can make a decision about a certain aspect of government and his decision will be implemented right away.
Promotes national pride: Fascism led to a feeling of national pride wherever it was practiced. For example, Italians were proud to belong to their nation so one can conclude that fascism encourages national pride.
In terms of economics, fascism incorporates elements of both capitalism and socialism. Fascist economists advocate for self-sufficiency and individual profit, but promote government subsidies of corporations.

Demerits/ Criticisms

As per Joseph Dunner, Fascism rejects equality and substitutes it with the principle of hierarchy. It culminates in a supreme leader or dictator whose will is law.
Anti-democratic and tyrannical: The most common criticism of fascism is tyranny. It is deliberately and entirely non-democratic and anti-democratic.
Harold J. Laski, in his State in Theory and Practice (1935), Fascism in one form or another, has entrusted unlimited political power to those who own and control the means of production.
The fascist state requires complete conformity, rigid discipline, and unquestioning obedience. The force is legitimate which conduces to these ends.
Opposition to political and cultural liberalism:
- Fascists condemned the doctrine of political liberalism for placing the rights of the individual above the needs of the nation.
- Fascism repudiates individualism and asserts that all values are derived from the state, against which the individual possesses no rights such as true liberty.
The fascists brought the press, the wireless, the publishing trade, the cinema and the theater directly under government control.
Critics argue that Fascism embraced only certain principles, a variety of unrelated principles woven into an incoherent whole, designed to meet political exigencies. Fascism never developed a coherent political philosophy. It only developed into a movement achieving temporary success in Italy.

Applicability

Fascism in contemporary times can be seen in many instances such as:

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022

According to Alexander J. Motyl, Russian fascism has the following characteristics:

An undemocratic political system, different from both traditional authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
Statism and hyper nationalism.
A hypermasculine cult of the supreme leader.
General popular support for the regime and its leader.

Great Recession and economic crisis in Greece (2007-2009)

A movement known as the Golden Dawn, widely considered a neo-Nazi party, soared in support out of obscurity and won seats in Greece's parliament.
The party adopted a staunch hostility towards minorities, illegal immigrants and refugees.

Hindutva Movement in India

As per the Leftist views, this movement has emerged, in a classical sense, Fascist in ideology, in its programme and in its class support.
There is an attempt to unify the majority under the following things:
- A homogenized concept, ‘the Hindus’.
- A sense of grievance against alleged injustices done to this group in the past by the homogenous minority.

Evaluation

Fascism is not regarded as ideology, but as ‘propaganda’. It is not a coherent and systematic school of thought, but a poor mix of convenient ideologies. Hence it is a type of political opportunism.
According to Gandhi, fascism is the worst manifestation of modernity, the so-called Machiavellianism. It is a complete disregard of ethics and seeks to achieve pure power politics. Gandhi made no difference in Fascism, Hitler’s Nazism and British imperialism.
According to Karl Mannheim, every theory has its social base. If liberalism is an ideology of the middle class, socialism is an ideology of workers, fascism is an ideology of elite class.
‘Fascism’ has become a ‘negative word’. In politics, fascism is used against the opponents, nobody prefers to be known as fascists.

Conclusion

It tends to maintain the exploitative character of the capitalist patterns of production in the name of national interest, national unity etc.
To conclude we can say that “fascism seeks to avert the transformation of the capitalist system into a democratic welfare state or service-state”.
In the words of Laski, “Fascism is the destruction of liberal ideas and institutions in the interest of those who own the instruments of economic power.”