Fascism - Definitions

Definitions

Historians, political scientists and other scholars have long debated the exact nature of fascism. Each form of fascism is distinct, leaving many definitions too wide or narrow.

Roger Griffin describes fascism as "a genus of political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a palingenetic form of populist ultranationalism". Griffin describes the ideology as having three core components: "(i) the rebirth myth, (ii) populist ultra-nationalism and (iii) the myth of decadence". Fascism is "a genuinely revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis, anti-conservative nationalism" built on a complex range of theoretical and cultural influences. He distinguishes an inter-war period in which it manifested itself in elite-led but populist "armed party" politics opposing socialism and liberalism and promising radical politics to rescue the nation from decadence.

Emilio Gentile describes fascism within ten constituent elements:

• "1) a mass movement with multiclass membership in which prevail, among the leaders and the militants, the middle sectors, in large part new to political activity, organized as a party militia, that bases its identity not on social hierarchy or class origin but on a sense of comradeship, believes itself invested with a mission of national regeneration, considers itself in a state of war against political adversaries and aims at conquering a monopoly of political power by using terror, parliamentary politics, and deals with leading groups, to create a new regime that destroys parliamentary democracy;"
• "2) an 'anti-ideological' and pragmatic ideology that proclaims itself antimaterialist, anti-individualist, antiliberal, antidemocratic, anti-Marxist, is populist and anticapitalist in tendency, expresses itself aesthetically more than theoretically by means of a new political style and by myths, rites, and symbols as a lay religion designed to acculturate, socialize, and integrate the faith of the masses with the goal of creating a 'new man';"
• "3) a culture founded on mystical thought and the tragic and activist sense of life conceived of as the manifestation of the will to power, on the myth of youth as artificer of history, and on the exaltation of the militarization of politics as the model of life and collective activity;"
• "4) a totalitarian conception of the primacy of politics, conceived of as an integrating experience to carry out the fusion of the individual and the masses in the organic and mystical unity of the nation as an ethnic and moral community, adopting measures of discrimination and persecution against those considered to be outside this community either as enemies of the regime or members of races considered to be inferior or otherwise dangerous for the integrity of the nation;"
• "5) a civil ethic founded on total dedication to the national community, on discipline, virility, comradeship, and the warrior spirit;"
• "6) a single state party that has the task of providing for the armed defense of the regime, selecting its directing cadres, and organizing the masses within the state in a process of permanent mobilization of emotion and faith;"
• "7) a police apparatus that prevents, controls, and represses dissidence and opposition, even by using organized terror;"
• "8) a political system organized by hierarchy of functions named from the top and crowned by the figure of the 'leader,' invested with a sacred charisma, who commands, directs, and coordinates the activities of the party and the regime;"
• "9) corporative organization of the economy that suppresses trade union liberty, broadens the sphere of state intervention, and seeks to achieve, by principles of technocracy and solidarity, the collaboration of the 'productive sectors' under control of the regime, to achieve its goals of power, yet preserving private property and class divisions;"
• "10) a foreign policy inspired by the myth of national power and greatness, with the goal of imperialist expansion."

Stanley Payne describes fascism within three sectors of characteristics: its ideology and goals, its negations, and its style and organization. They are the following:

• "A. Ideology and Goals:"
  • "Espousal of an idealist, vitalist, and voluntaristic philosophy, normally involving the attempt to realize a new modern, self-determined, and secular culture"
  • "Creation of a new nationalist authoritarian state not based on traditional principles or models"
  • "Organization of a new highly regulated, multiclass, integrated national economic structure, whether called national corporatist, national socialist, or national syndicalist
  • "Positive evaluation and use of, or willingness to use violence and war
  • "The goal of empire, expansion, or a radical change in the nation's relationship with other powers"
• "B. The Fascist Negations:"
  • "Antiliberalism"
  • "Anticommunism"
  • "Anticonservatism (though with the understanding that fascist groups were willing to undertake temporary alliances with other sectors, more commonly with the right)"
• "C. Style and Organization:"
  • "Attempted mass mobilization with militarization of political relationships and style and with the goal of a mass single party militia"
  • "Emphasis on aesthetic structure of meetings, symbols, and political liturgy, stressing emotional and mystical aspects"
  • "Extreme stress on the masculine principle and male dominance, while espousing a strongly organic view of society"
  • "Exaltation of youth above other phases of life, emphasizing the conflict of the generations, at least in effecting the initial political transformation
  • "Specific tentency toward an authoritarian, charismatic, personal style of command, whether or not the command is to some degree initially elective"

Paxton sees fascism as "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."

One common definition of fascism focuses on three groups of ideas:

• The Fascist Negations of anti-liberalism, anti-communism and anti-conservatism.
• Nationalist, authoritarian goals for the creation of a regulated economic structure to transform social relations within a modern, self-determined culture.
• A political aesthetic using romantic symbolism, mass mobilisation, a positive view of violence, promotion of masculinity and youth and charismatic leadership.