Nazism and Fascism: A Comparative Analysis
Nazism and Fascism
Nazism: “Nazi” is a contraction of the German word “Nationalsozialistische,” meaning “National.” It refers to everything related to the regime that ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945, with the rise to power of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), the self-proclaimed Third Reich, and Austria after the Anschluss, as well as other territories that were incorporated (Sudetenland, Memel, Danzig, and other lands in Poland, France, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Holland, Denmark, and Norway). The Germany of this period is known as Nazi Germany.
The term was coined by the regime’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who used it during a speech to refer to members of his party.
Bipolar World: From the end of the war, the desire for world peace, evident in initiatives such as the creation of the UN, was threatened by the emergence of two blocs led by two emerging superpowers. The expansion of the Soviet or Eastern Bloc orbit included all countries liberated from Nazi Germany by the Red Army: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. The U.S. exerted its influence on the countries of Western Europe with financial assistance through the Marshall Plan.
Peace hopes emanating from the UN were overshadowed by the emergence of two blocs of powers: a Western bloc, aligned around the U.S., was faced with the socialist bloc or “east” of Europe, grouped around the USSR. Bipolarity immediately created the possibility of another war.
These events prompted the U.S. under President Truman to implement its plan to contain communism. A number of organizations gave vitality to the Western bloc. The intention was to create a ring of containment against the USSR.
Fascism: Fascism is an ideology and a political movement that emerged in interwar Europe (1918-1939). The term comes from the Italian fascio (bundle, fasces), and this in turn from the Latin fasces (plural of fascis). The fascist political project aims to establish a totalitarian state with corporatism and a dirigiste economy. Its intellectual foundation elevates will and action over reason, emphasizing a strong nationalist identity. Key components include victimhood narratives that lead to violence against those defined as enemies by an efficient propaganda machine.
The term “fascist regime” may apply to some totalitarian or authoritarian political regimes in interwar Europe, and nearly all were imposed by the Axis powers during their occupation of the continent during World War II.
Notably, Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini (1922) pioneered the model and coined the term, followed by Nazi Germany’s Third Reich under Adolf Hitler (1933), which took it to its ultimate consequences. Finally, National Spain under Francisco Franco lasted much longer and evolved beyond the interwar period (from 1936 to 1975). The differences in historical trajectories and ideological positions between each of these regimes are striking. For example, Nazism in Germany added a significant racist component, which was only adopted later and with much less emphasis by Italian fascism and other fascist movements. For many of these, the religious component (Catholic or Orthodox as appropriate) was much more essential, as Trevor-Roper defined with the term “clerical fascism” (which would apply to National-Spanish).