Fascism is a political ideology in which society is based on authoritarianism and nationalism, typically accompanied by aggressive militarism. In fascist societies, the rights and interests of the individual and specific social groups are considered secondary to the needs of the state. Government is typically centred on a dictator who demands adherence to strict social and economic organization, with opposition ruthlessly suppressed.
Fascism emerged in the early 20th century, in large part a response to the rise of both socialism and liberal democracy. Profoundly reactionary, fascism claimed to offer hope of national rebirth. Economically, fascism treads a path between free-market capitalism, on the one hand, and government control of certain industries along with large-scale public spending, on the other.
Fascism took hold in Europe in the aftermath of the First World War and the Russian Revolution of 1917. With Europe’s economies ravaged and facing the threat of communist takeover, fascism’s message of national regeneration was eagerly received by many. While Italy was first to come under fascist rule, the movement’s most infamous figure was Adolf Hitler, who took the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party to power in Germany in 1933.
With the German economy experiencing hyperinflation – the result of the punitive Versailles Treaty that followed German defeat in the First World War – Hitler played on widespread social discontent with his credo of national recovery and expansionism. In 1937, he described the ‘main plank’ of the National Socialist programme with these words: ‘to abolish the liberalistic concept of the individual and the Marxist concept of humanity and to substitute therefore the folk community, rooted in the soil and bound together by the bond of its common blood.’ The results, as is well recorded, were disastrous – from domestic oppression and militaristic muscle-flexing sprang world war and mass murder on an unprecedented scale.
The coining of fascism
Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist dictator from 1922 until 1943, originated the term Fascismo, which has its roots in a Latin word describing a traditional symbol of ancient Rome: rods tied round an axe – an image denoting ‘strength through unity’. Along with Giovanni Gentile, the self-proclaimed ‘philosopher of Fascism’, Mussolini attempted to create an intellectual basis for the movement in 1932’s The Doctrine of Fascism. ‘The keystone of the Fascist doctrine,’ Mussolini said, ‘is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative.’