-------------------------------------------------
FASCISM

-------------------------------------------------
Etymology
The term fascismo is derived from the Latin word fasces. The fasces, which consisted of a bundle of rods that were tied around an axe which symbolises strength through unity: a single rod is easily broken, while the bundle is difficult to break.
Moreover, Fasces was 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. The word fascismo also relates to political organizations in Italy known as fasci, groups similar to guilds or syndicates.

Definition
+"Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State" - Mussolini
+The only official definition of Fascism comes from Benito Mussolini, the founder of fascism, in which he outlines three principles of a fascist philosophy.
1."Everything in the state". The Government is supreme and the country is all-encompasing, and all within it must conform to the ruling body, often a dictator.
2."Nothing outside the state". The country must grow and the implied goal of any fascist nation is to rule the world, and have every human submit to the government.
3."Nothing against the state". Any type of questioning the government is not to be tolerated. If you do not see things our way, you are wrong. If you do not agree with the government, you cannot be allowed to live and taint the minds of the rest of the good citizens.
The use of militarism was implied only as a means to accomplish one of the three above principles, mainly to keep the people and rest of the world in line. Fascist countries are known for their harmony and lack of internal strife. There are no conflicting parties or elections in fascist countries.
Nazi Germany was extreme Fascism, better examples of fascist countries were Mussolini's Italy, Iraq, Iran, and many middle eastern countries.

+One common definition of fascism focuses on three groups of ideas: o 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.

+It 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."

=====================================
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.
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.
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."

The Fascist State
Fascism has found adherents in all countries. Its essentially vague and emotional nature facilitates the development of unique national varieties, whose leaders often deny indignantly that they are fascists at all. In its dictatorial methods and in its use of brutal intimidation of the opposition by the militia and the secret police, fascism does not greatly distinguish itself from other despotic and totalitarian regimes. There are particular similarities with the Communist regime in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. However, unlike Communism, fascism abhors the idea of a classless society and sees desirable order only in a state in which each class has its distinct place and function. Representation by classes (i.e., capital, labor, farmers, and professionals) is substituted for representation by parties, and the corporative state is a part of fascist dogma.
Although Mussolini's and Hitler's governments tended to interfere considerably in economic life and to regulate its process, there can be no doubt that despite all restrictions imposed on them, the capitalist and landowning classes were protected by the fascist system, and many favored it as an obstacle to socialization. On the other hand, the state adopted a paternalistic attitude toward labor, improving its conditions in some respects, reducing unemployment through large-scale public works and armament programs, and controlling its leisure time through organized activities.
Many of these features were adopted by the Franco regime in Spain and by quasi-fascist dictators in Latin America (e.g., Juan Perón) and elsewhere. A variation of fascism was the so-called clerico-fascist system set up in Austria under Engelbert Dollfuss. This purported to be based on the social and economic doctrines enunciated by Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI, which, however, were never put into operation.

Cause for the Rise of Fascism in Italy.
In the first place though Italy fought on the side of the victorious Allies in the First World War, she emerged from the war a defeated nation. She was not happy with the terms of peace settlement because she was not given what had been promised to her by the Treaty of London concluded during the war.
At the peace conference as the interests of Italy and Yugoslavia conflicted the Allies preferred to favour Yugoslavia. Naturally Italy felt dissatisfied, disappointed and considerably wounded in her self- esteem. Prof. J. Hampden Jakson has summed up the position thus "Italians felt themselves disgraced in the eyes of the world, swindled by their own politicians. War had cost Italy dear, draining her of money, saddling her with budget deficit of over twelve thousand million lire, forcing up the cost of living."
Secondly, in the wake of war, Italy resorted to demobilization which created serious unemployment and bred discontent. There were wide spread strikes and lock-outs in the country.
Hungry mobs organized a number of uprisings and there were frequent riots. Even the middle classes were greatly impoverished. The existing democratic government was considered to be too feeble to tackle the numerous problems con fronting the country.
In fact there was complete political instability in the country and between 1919 and 1922 six coalition governments were formed in Italy. People thought that under the circumstances only a strong and powerful government could take the country forward.
The situation was fully exploited by the Fascists under the leadership of Mussolini and they fed the people with the idea of providing a strong truly national government.
Thirdly, the Russian revolution was also inspired the Italian leaders. The Italian Socialist leaders tried to fully exploit the extremely bad economic conditions prevailing in the post world war period and tried to transplant the Soviet system in Italy. They organized strikes, lock-outs, riots etc. in Italy and created chaotic conditions in Italy. This was fully exploited by the Fascists.
Fourthly, the faulty system of franchise prevailing in the country also greatly contributed to the rise of Fascism in Italy. Under the existing system of franchise numerous political parties entered the Parliament. The members of these parties often discussed irrevalent issues and did not pay attention to the public welfare. On account of their mutual differences and bickerings these parties could not take any concerted action against the terrorists and thereby greatly contributed to the rise of Fascism in Italy.
Finally, the programme of the Fascists which promised the people of Italy order and glory also greatly attracted the people and they extended willing support to its leaders.
The main principles emphasized by the Fascists were (i) democracy was not suitable for the country because it widens the gulf between the poor and the rich. The country could make progress only under one leader; (ii) the interests of country must get precedence over individual interests; (iii) quality was more important than quantity and the Fascists leaders who embodied the will, sentiments and emotions of people were symbols of nation's pride; (iv) it favoured equal control over all sections of society viz. capitalists, industrialists, labourers, landlords, peasants, artisans and stood for proper guidance to all ; (v) it favoured aggressive foreign policy and regarded war as an instrument of national interest.
Commenting on the circumstances which give rise to Fascism in Italy Gathorne Hardy says, "the circumstances under which Fascism developed in Italy, though in a sense peculiar to that country, confirmed the thesis that this form of autocracy is the product of situation when democratic sentiment proves incompatible with effective parliamentary government."

In Germany at about the same time a fascist movement similar to that in Italy steadily gathered strength; it called itself the National Socialist German Workers' party (Nazi party). Its leader, Adolf Hitler, won support from a middle class ruined by inflation, from certain elements of the working class, especially the unemployed, and from discontented war veterans; he also gained the backing of powerful financial interests, to whom he symbolized stability and order. However, it was not until 1933 that Hitler could carry through his plans for making Germany a fascist state and the National Socialists the sole legal party in the country.
The military aggression so inherent in fascist philosophy exploded in the Italian invasion (1935) of Ethiopia, the attack (1936) of the Spanish fascists (Falangists) on their republican government (see Spanish civil war), and Nazi Germany's systematic aggression in Central and Eastern Europe, which finally precipitated (1939) World War II.
-------------------------------------------------

(This is not to be included in the ppt. Just for a better understanding)
-------------------------------------------------
Reasons for the rise of the Fascists (1920-22) * Disgust in Italy at the terms of the peace treaties, Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. (didn’t obtain A.H. territory) * The Fascists represented a means to stop the socialists and the communists (in the eyes of conservative politicians, who sought to moderate and control Fascism to their purposes) * Mussolini was backed by wealthy industrialists and landowners (b/c of their fear of socialist reforms) * Support from Pope Pius XI and the Vatican (who saw the Fascists as an opportunity to normalize State-Church relationships) * Lack of faith in Italy’s institutions (failures of WWI, post-war violence, high U…) * After the March on Rome (October 22) the King offered the post of Prime Minister to Mussolini * The violence of the Fascists (i.e.: blackshirts) intimidated opponents * The complicity of the police and the army (who didn’t suppress Fascist violence)
=================================

CRITICISM
Fascism as anti-democratic and as a form of tyranny
One of the most common and strongest criticisms of fascism is that it is a tyranny in practice.[216]
Fascism is commonly regarded as deliberately and entirely non-democratic and anti-democratic.[217][218][219] Scholar on democracy, Anthony Arblaster has recorded fascists' policy claim about the ideology supporting a form of democracy, but Arblaster regards the claim as a deliberate lie and empty rhetoric, claiming that fascism never intended to put such claims of democracy into practice, and thus he categorizes fascism as non-democratic and anti-democratic in practice.[220]
However, some scholars have rebuked this common critical view. Walter Laqueur says that fascists "would not necessarily accept the label of 'anti-democratic'. In fact many of them argued that they were fighting for a purer and more genuine democracy in which the participation of the individual in politics would not be mediated by professional politicians, clerical influences, the availability of the mass media, but through personal, almost full time involvement in a political movement and through identification with the leader who would represent the feelings and sentiments of the whole people."[221]
Dylan J. Riley has investigated the possibility of fascism being an authoritarian democracy, a term used by Italian Fascist theorist and policymaker Giovanni Gentile to describe fascism.[222]Gentile explicitly rejected the conventional form of democracy, parliamentary democracy for being based on majority rule and thus an inherent assumption of the equality of citizens, while fascism rejects the concept of universal egalitarianism.[220] But Gentile claimed that fascism supported what he called authoritarian democracy.[220] Riley in analysis accepts that fascism can be identified as an authoritarian democracy, and claims that in particular the fascist and quasi-fascist regimes in Italy, Spain, and Romania, replaced multi-party based democracy with corporatistrepresentation of state-sanctioned corporate groups.[222] It was claimed that this system would unite people into interest groups to address the state that would act in the interest of the general will of the nation and thus exercise an orderly form of popular rule.[222] Riley notes that fascists argued that this authoritarian democracy is capable of representing the different interests of society that advise the state and the state acts in the interest of the nation.[223] Riley also notes that in contrast, fascists denounced liberal democracy for not being a true democracy but in fact being un-democratic because from the fascist perspective, elections and parliaments are unable to represent the interests of the nation because it lumps together individuals who have little in common into geographical districts to vote for an array of parties to represent them that results in little unanimity in terms of interests, projects, or intentions, and that liberal democracy's multi-party elections merely serve as a means to legitimize elite rule without addressing the interests of the general will of the nation.[223]
Unprincipled opportunism[edit]
A common criticism of the original version of fascism, Italian Fascism, has been the accusation that much of the ideology was merely a by-product of unprincipled opportunism by Mussolini, whom they claimed changed his political stances merely to bolster his personal ambitions while he disguised them as being purposeful to the public.[224] The American ambassador to ItalyRichard Washburn Child who became a personal friend and admirer of Mussolini and worked with Mussolini to translate and write an English language autobiography; directly addressed the issue of opportunism in Mussolini's behaviour in the preface of the English language autobiography of Mussolini.[225] Child said "Opportunist is a term of reproach used to brand men who fit themselves to conditions for the reasons of self-interest. Mussolini, as I have learned to know him, is an opportunist in the sense that he believed that mankind itself must be fitted to changing conditions rather than to fixed theories, no matter how many hopes and prayers have been expended on theories and programmes.".[225] Child quoted Mussolini as saying, "The sanctity of an ism is not in the ism; it has no sanctity beyond its power to do, to work, to succeed in practice. It may have succeeded yesterday and fail to-morrow. Failed yesterday and succeed to-morrow. The machine first of all must run!".[225]
Mussolini's actions at the time of the outbreak of World War I were then, and have since, been commonly criticized for being completely opportunist for allegedly suddenly abandoning Marxist egalitarian internationalism he had formerly held in favour of non-egalitarian nationalism. Furthermore such criticisms have noted that upon Mussolini endorsing Italy's intervention in the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary, that he and the new Fascist movement received financial support from foreign sources. Such as receiving funds from Ansaldo (an armaments firm) and other companies.[226] Mussolini was supported by the British Security Service MI5, and was being paid a £100 weekly wage from MI5; this help was authorised by Sir Samuel Hoare.[227] However such criticism has been challenged even by Mussolini's socialist critics at the time who noted that regardless of the financial support he accepted for his pro-interventionist stance, that Mussolini was free to write whatever he wished in his newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia, without prior sanctioning by his financial backers.[228] Furthermore, the major source that Mussolini and the Fascist movement received in World War I was not from capitalists who sought to use Mussolini's new movement, but rather it came from France and is widely believed to have come from French socialists who supported the French government's war against Germany and were sending support to Italian socialists who wanted Italian intervention on France's side. [229]
Furthermore Mussolini's transformation away from Marxism into eventually what became fascism, began prior to World War I, as Mussolini had grown increasingly pessimistic of Marxism and egalitarianism while at the same time he had become increasingly supportive of figures who opposed egalitarianism, such as Nietzsche.[230] By 1902 Mussolini was studying Sorel, Nietzsche, and the sociologist Vilfredo Pareto.[231] Sorel's emphasis on the need for overthrowing decadent liberal democracy and capitalism by the use of violence, direct action, the general strike, and the use of neo-Machiavellian appeals to emotion, impressed Mussolini deeply.[232] His use of Nietzsche made him a highly unorthodox socialist, due to Nietzsche's promotion of elitism and anti-egalitarian views.[230] Prior to World War I, Mussolini's writings over time indicated that he had abandoned Marxism and egalitarianism that he had previously supported, in favour of Nietzsche'sübermensch concept and anti-egalitarianism.[230] In 1908, Mussolini wrote a short essay called "Philosophy of Strength" based on his Nietzschean influence, in which Mussolini openly spoke fondly of the ramifications of an impending war in Europe in challenging both religion and nihilism, saying: a new kind of free spirit will come, strengthened by the war, ... a spirit equipped with a kind of sublime perversity, ... a new free spirit will triumph over God and over Nothing.
—Benito Mussolini, "Philosophy of Strength", 1908.[88]
Ideological dishonesty[edit]
Fascism has been criticized for being ideologically dishonest.
Major examples of ideological dishonesty have been identified in Italian Fascism's changing relationship with German Nazism.[233][234] Fascist Italy's official foreign policy positions were known to commonly utilize rhetorical ideological hyperbole to justify its actions, although during Dino Grandi's tenure as Italy's foreign minister, the country engaged in realpolitik free of such fascist hyperbole.[235] Italian Fascism's stance towards German Nazism fluctuated from support from the late 1920s to 1934 involving praising Hitler's rise to power and meeting with Hitler in 1934; to opposition from 1934 to 1936 after the assassination of Italy's allied leader in Austria, Engelbert Dollfuss by Nazis in Austria; and again back to support after 1936 when Germany was the only significant power that did not denounce Italy's invasion and occupation of Ethiopia.
After antagonism exploded between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy over the assassination of Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss in 1934, Mussolini and Italian Fascists denounced and ridiculed Nazism's racial theories, particularly by denouncing its Nordicism, while promoting Mediterraneanism.[234] Mussolini himself responded to Nordicists' claims of Italy being divided into Nordic and Mediterranean racial areas due to Germanic invasions of Northern Italy, by claiming that while Germanic tribes such as the Lombards took control of Italy after the fall of Ancient Rome, they arrived in small numbers of about 8,000 and quickly assimilated into Roman culture and spoke the Latin language within fifty years.[236] Italian Fascism was influenced by the tradition of Italian nationalists scornfully looking down upon Nordicists' claims, and taking pride in comparing the age and sophistication of ancient Roman civilization as well as the classical revival in theRenaissance, to that of Nordic societies that Italian nationalists described as "newcomers" to civilization in comparison.[233] At the height of antagonism between the Nazis and Italian Fascists over race, Mussolini claimed that the Germans themselves were not a pure race and noted with irony that the Nazi theory of German racial superiority was based on the theories of non-German foreigners, such as Frenchman Arthur de Gobineau.[237] However after German-Italian relations reduced in tension during the late 1930s, Italian Fascism sought to harmonize its ideology with German Nazism and combined Nordicist and Mediterranean racial theories, noting that Italians were members of the Aryan Race composed of a mixed Nordic-Mediterranean subtype.[234]
Mussolini declared in 1938 that Italian Fascism had always been Antisemitic, upon Italy's adoption of Antisemitic laws.[234] When in fact Italian Fascism did not endorse Antisemitism until the late 1930s when Mussolini feared alienating antisemitic Nazi Germany whose power and influence were growing in Europe, prior to that period there had been notable Jewish Italians who had been senior Italian Fascist officials, including Margherita Sarfatti, who had also been Mussolini's mistress.[234] Also, contrary to Mussolini's claim in 1938, only a small number of Italian Fascists were staunchly antisemitic such as Roberto Farinacci and Giuseppe Preziosi while others, such as Italo Balbo who came from Ferrara, which had one of Italy's largest Jewish communities, were disgusted by the antisemitic laws and opposed them.[234] However fascism scholar Mark Neocleous notes that while Italian Fascism did not have a clear commitment to antisemitism, there were occasional antisemitic statements issued prior to 1938, such as Mussolini in 1919 declaring that the Jewish bankers in London and New York were connected by race to the Russian Bolsheviks, and claiming that eight percent of the Russian Bolsheviks were Jews.[238]