Understanding Fascism: Ideology and Social Roots
Ideology and Social Bases of Fascism
Fascism had well-defined characteristics:
- It guarded the totalitarian state, establishing control over all areas of life. It advocated for the primacy of the state over the individual and the denial of liberal principles, such as equality of citizens, individual rights, and the separation of powers.
- It supported a single, dictatorial political party. It was sustained by the leadership principle, entrusted to a chief endowed with charismatic power. Fascism was seated on the principles of hierarchy, order, obedience, and the indisputable authority of an exceptional man, establishing a personality cult of the leader.
- It was radically anti-communist and anti-capitalist. Fascism posed a third way, defending the creation of a national socialism capable of ending class conflict and attracting the middle classes, threatened by both the concentration of capital and the fear of unemployment and poverty of the working class.
- It maintained an aggressive nationalism, requiring a new position for its nation in the world, oriented toward war.
- Fascists were racists and considered non-whites inferior. In Nazism, racism and antisemitism became central to the movement’s doctrine.
- Fascism rejected the principles of Western society and culture, which it considered decadent, exalting the irrational elements of conduct.
- It defended violence against political opponents; violence was considered a positive value.
- Fascist parties pretended to mobilize the masses and include them within the single party and union. Militias attached high importance to symbolic rallies and parades.
- It extolled masculine principles, relegating women to raising children and domestic work, excluding them from all political roles reserved for men.
Social Support for Fascism
Fascist parties never managed to achieve complete popular support, but their social base was increasing in some countries, allowing them to achieve great strength. Fascism recruited its first followers from uprooted social sectors whose adaptation to civilian life was difficult. It had the support of activists and romantic youth, impressed by the war and frustrated by the ineffectiveness of the liberal system. Members of the middle class joined due to the economic crisis. It incorporated a sector of the working class, as many radicals found the violent message of extremist fascism appealing. A fundamental part of its support came from big business and landowners. They funded these fascist organizations to use them as shock forces against socialists and communists. They helped foster the establishment of a strong executive able to reorganize and control the economy to overcome the crisis and labor unrest. When these movements eliminated anti-capitalist revolutionary demagogy from their programs and became respectable, they received total support. The taking of power by Fascism and Nazism cannot be explained without the support received from the institutions themselves; the army and the liberal state police tolerated and even assisted the violence with which fascist organizations used to frighten their enemies and conquer power.