The Roots of Fascism - an essay
Mar 20 '07
The Bottom Line An intense examination of the conditions that lead to the fascist regimes of the 20th century and how to prevent them from appearing in the 21st...
The roots of fascism were sowed by a multitude of complex tools but only bloomed to full maturity in the soil that was the Great Depression of the 1930's. These same roots stretched back into the past century, becoming apparent in the transitions of the world's political stage through war, colonization and decolonization and the fall of traditional empires. Through this shift in the world's polity emerged new nation states in Europe, most of them seemingly democratic; a young and fragile phenomenon partly thanking its creation to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. (Hood, 1993) In the economic prosperity of the nineteen twenties liberal democracy flourished, yet as a new and somewhat unstable ideology it was soon to be replaced by another one of a more authoritarian nature.
There is no one cause for the subsequent rise of fascism throughout Europe and parts of Latin America and Asia, with movements within North America as well. The causes are multifaceted and complicated, yet I will attempt to articulate the major reasons behind this widespread, retrogressive phenomenon of the early twentieth century. Fascism and other authoritarian modes of government became predominant because of a host of various and complex reasons, including a general disillusionment with the Left and with democracy itself, a reaction against the spread of socialism both Leninist and social democratic and the initial stock market crash which nurtured the roots of fascism in a time of uncertainty, desperation and radicalization of the populace. The fascist regimes such as Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's Nazi Germany, the Vichy regime of France, among many others had a basic outline of regressive authoritarianism, a strong state to which the people’s loyalty was to lay, a militaristic policy and an exaltation of the leader, yet one cannot view each of these regimes in the exact same lens. Firstly, I will define more thoroughly the definition of fascism and fascists movements, the goals of these regimes, the most prominent supporters of the ideology, before describing the breeding grounds that nurtured this phenomenon. As I stated before, each nation that became fascist did so for different reasons and various events triggered the change.
I will explore further how the trends of fascism became more intense than before with the Great Depression. No longer was fascism solely in the domain of the ultraconservatives, anti-socialists and anti-communists and fervent nationalists; it became ever more a phenomenon of the masses and the economic crisis of the nineteen thirties led directly to this extensive radicalization of the populaces. Next we will explore the other various fascist movements throughout the world. Although Germany and Italy are often viewed most extensively for their fascist regimes, historians often do not draw much attention of the fact that fascist movements have been prevalent throughout the world in the first half of the twentieth century. Here we will explore fascist movements in Britain, the United States and even Canada during the Great Depression era. Finally, I will touch upon the future of fascism, how contrary to many theorists, the phenomenon and ideology has not vanished from the world stage and how a crisis similar to the Great Depression could easily trigger these movements to power (Hedges, 2007). Through this setup we will explore the roots and complex forging tools of one of the dominant ideologies of the twentieth century and one that is as relevant, potent and dangerous in the twenty-first.
Before I go into greater details of the roots and spread of fascism, let me first draw upon the very definition of this ideology itself. Since the end of World War II in 1945 the word fascism has been used less in self-description and extremely common in the description of others. In fact, it is now used so often the word has lost much of its original meaning. “Fascism has become an all-purpose word. We often use it to describe people and things we dislike. It is applied indiscriminately to figures in authority, to modes of behaviour, to ways of thinking, to kinds of architecture” (Hood, 1993). George Orwell, a prominent observer on trends in authoritarianism once observed “it (fascism) is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.” (Orwell, 1944) How then do we define fascism? To do this we must explore its origins. The word itself comes from the Italian word fascio, meaning a bundle of firewood tied strongly about an axe. These pieces of firewood are weak on their own, but together they are strong, alike a union (one of many words and images 'borrowed' from the Left). Initially, Fascism was only tied to the Italian movement by Benito Mussolini (a former socialist) who transformed the young and vulnerable democracy of Italy into a ‘fascist’ state. This first fascist state had core elements, such as initial support by business interests, the Church and other elite groups, yet an appeal to the proletarian masses, an ideological nostalgia for earlier, 'purer' times, a corporative economy and a mandatory loyalty to the state. The state, above all was the important aspect of Italian Fascism as no loyalty for the fascist citizen, whether religious or political, was to come before the state. Spain under Franco had similar ideals as Mussolini’s Italian Fascism. Nazism is often considered an offshoot of fascism that was more specifically racist, eugenic and anti-semitic. Initially the Italian fascist movement was not particularly anti-semitic, in fact the movement contained quite a few Jewish supports. Each of these regimes had similarities in their basic outline, including an authoritarian state, programs that emphasized conformity and submission, a nostalgia for past ‘greatness’ (the Roman Empire for Italy, a Germanic legendary past for Nazi Germany appealing to the myths of Nibelungen), the use of violence and terror, frequent use of scapegoats on whom to focus society’s hatred, a masculine-oriented culture, contempt for the Marxist class struggle view of history and rampant militarism. (Hood, 1993) Fascism and Nazism were also often opposed to intellectuals whom they accused of undermining time-honoured values. Conservatism and the undermining of still young democratic notions was fully embedded in the fascist states, yet this was not the old conservatism of the monarchists or the Church. Fascism involved the massive rallying of the people and could not have come to fruition without these movements. We will next explore the conditions that made great numbers of people from various walks of life support the coming fascists.
Tracing the exact roots of the rise of Fascism is a difficult and lengthy process. To explore these roots one must understand the powerful notions of nationalism and xenophobia of the time. Nationalism in turn dated as far back as the 1600s when nation-states first emerged. The First World War was largely one of imperialism and nationalism and it is in this climate where we find the first seeds of fascism begin to germinate. The German populace was resentful of the conclusions of the Treaty of Versailles, which demanded reparations from Germany and gave them the blame for starting The Great War. Italy, on the other hand, had fought on the winning side, yet had failed to secure a satisfactory deal from the armistice treaty. Another crucial component of the fascist shift was the perceived threat of socialism (Furet & Nolte, 1998). With the Russian Revolution arrived a fear throughout the elite groups of Europe and much of the world. The situations in Italy, Germany and other nations appeared to be similar to those in pre-revolutionary Russia; both industrial and rural workers participated in strikes and demonstrated against living conditions, many working class and intellectuals criticized capitalism and imperialism for leading their nations to war in the first place while unions and the left-wing parties were becoming stronger and more militant. It was, suffice to say, a possibly pre-revolutionary situation in much of Europe. Fascism offered a bulwark against these movements, which is why they received support from the big businesses, petty bourgeoisie, conservatives, the Church and middle-class anti-socialists. Many of these groups felt they had something to lose in the case of socialist revolution. Paranoia of socialist reforms became widespread, whether it is a moderate social democracy or the extreme Leninist form that took root in the Soviet Union. Some writers in hindsight claim fascism and Nazism as nothing less than a natural reaction against socialism, a controversial supporter of this theory is Ernst Nolte. Some would call him an apologist for the Nazi atrocities culminating in the Holocaust and the outbreak of World War II. Nolte’s arguments are controversial, yet have some basis in the truth. Without the threat of socialism the fascist shift may not have been as powerful, yet he fails to mention the nationalist fervor at the time, the anti-semitic and racist roles nor does he differentiate between the different styles of socialism. Socialists, also became scapegoats in the emerging fascists states, as being complicit in the defeat of nations such as Germany. In this atmosphere rife with such tensions, a single catastrophic event would secure the triumph of fascism.
The Great Depression served as a catalyst for these fascist movements. In Italy where Mussolini had already secured a grip the desperation of the economic crash would further strengthen his regime, while in nations such as Germany the radical fascist movement would become instituted. Much of the populace of Germany became further radicalized by the hard times and the tensions from before became strengthened in the “stagnation of business enterprise, the mounting rate of unemployment, and the hopelessness of the outlook for improvement under such conditions”, making the common Germany citizen part of “an army of the discontened” (Abel, 1938). Many turned to socialism as the way out of the depression, pointing to the immunity of the Soviet Union to the misery created by the market economics. Indeed, unchecked, free market economics was a big part of the cause of the Great Depression. So, fascism offered an alternative to both socialism and what was deemed weak democracy. The Nazis in Germany offered an alternative to this and in such an atmosphere such radical movements seemed credible. Without the misery of the Great Depression the chain of events that lead the Nazis to power would not have been present.
Italy and Germany were not alone in the rise of fascism, as most of the world suffered many of the same problems, all of these made more potent by the Depression. Fascist movements flourished in Britain, Spain, much of Eastern Europe and across the Atlantic in the United States and even Canada to name a few. These movements were not identical to one another, as each culture and region is unique, yet each followed the same fascist pattern. Britain's movements was called the British Union of Fascist (BUF), which was drawn “on a tradition of nationalist racism that stemmed from the 1904 British Brothers League, created to reduce or stop immigration from Eastern Europe(Hood, 1993). Like its German counterpart it was funded by big industrialists and other classes that felt they had a stake to lose in case of socialist movements. This movement was mostly absorbed by the Conservative Party of Britain. The United States had its own myriad of fascist movements, though much of the tension was reduced by the successful economic interventionist stance of the Roosevelt Administration. Canada too had a large fascist movement which grew during the Great Depression called Canadian National Socialist Unity Party with its initial base in Quebec. This party was strongly anti-semitic and anti-immigration and funded by the wealthy classes, industrialists and disillusioned workers. Prime Minister R. B. Bennett actually supported this movement in the early nineteen-thirties as a bulwark against many growing leftist movements (Betcherman, 1975). One of the failings of this movement was Canada’s entry into World War II and the public largely accepting the fascist ideology as the enemy. I have only dwelled slightly into a few of the many fascist movements throughout the world at the early twentieth century and will now move on to the fascist movements of the early twenty-first.
It is a common myth that fascism has been completely defeated at the conclusion of the Second World War. One obvious example of the falsehood of this claim is that Spain’s fascist government ruled until nineteen-seventy-five. Neo fascism has made appearances throughout the world since World War II in many forms. The majority of these movements have remained fairly small, though this does not deem them as utterly harmless. There are many reasons to expect a larger fascist resurgence throughout the world for a number of reasons. In Germany a neo-Nazi movement emerged directly after the conclusion of the Cold War and German Reunification. There are numerous reasons behind this movement; an influx on immigrants from the East leading to housing shortages and widespread unemployment as well as a collapsed Left Alternative in the party of the SPD which once stood as a moderator between the far right and left of the Cold War Germany. Throughout Europe various manifestations of fascist movements have been appearing in response to immigration influxes from the continuing misery of Africa and Asia, manifesting in such movements as the Austrian Freedom Party, the Centre Democrats of Holland, the Front National of Belgium, and the Viaams Flemish Block, among many others. Their policies and motives vary from region to region yet they all represent parties that contain a platform of racism and anti-semitism as well as strong nationalism. The United States, while having no directly volatile fascist movements, is in the danger of creating the breeding grounds for fascism. In his recent book American fascists: the Christian right and the war on American (2007) Chris Hedges exposes the similarities between the atmosphere of pre-Nazi Germany to that of the modern day United States. I conclude his argument is strong and well-founded. The laissez-faire economic policies of the United States (and other powerful Western nations) have resurfaced and intensified, particularly since the end of the Cold War. This policy of neo-liberal economics with little government interventionism is the force behind the reason why the first Great Depression occurred in the first place. Today, in the United States there is a growing mass of disillusioned workers not unlike the disenfranchised German populace of yesteryear. Nationalism has been rampant, particularly since the September 11 attacks and the US-led War in Iraq and anti-immigration sentiment has been on the rise, particularly on the US-Mexican border. The Christian Right, an extremist manifestation, not dissimilar to the appeal of Nazi Mysticism has been growing as well, taking in many of the disenfranchised. Here we see so many similarities to the breeding grounds for fascism. Where is the threat of socialist revolution? Most powerful Leftist movements are occurring in the developing world, much a reaction to the neo-liberal policies and oncoming globalization caused by the liquidity of capital. A possible economic crash (whether caused by the predicament of extreme free market economics, a deadlier terrorist attack, climate change complications, or a terrible mix of all of these factors) can possibly solidified socialist movements and thus paving the path to a fascist counterpart likely to be funded by large industrialists and others not wishing to lose a stake in their wealth. With a broken and desperate populace mired in nationalistic and xenophobic sentiment these movements could become quite potent and deadly. This very real situation could once more undermine the democratic infrastructure of the world. It should be watched closely to prevent such a reality.
I will invoke the words of Adolf Hitler himself from a speech he made in nineteen-thirty-three. 'Only one thing could have stopped out movement-if our adversaries had understood its principle and from the first day had smashed with the utmost brutality the nucleus of our movement.' (Hood, 1993) In this paper, I have attempted to articulate the phenomenon of fascism, although it remains a somewhat elusive and difficult to describe. It is largely a reactionary ideology, whether it is to socialism (which I hope to dwell further into in another paper in full), racial and religious tensions, made largely prevalent during times of dire circumstance. Without the Great Depression fascism would never have come to full bloom and the movements would undoubtedly remained mere roots reaching upward through the muddled earth. Sadly, I find it likely that the appeal of fascism, the conformity, hateful dogma of intolerance and exclusion and exalting mere mortal men to nearly God-like status a natural reaction, as much a part of human nature and feeding and mating. Dire circumstance leads to desperation and a need for prosperity no matter what the costs. In a globalizing world with mounting tensions this multifactoral and complex phenomenon is as much as a concern as it was nearly a century ago. Democracy may be tested again and it is up to a human race now equipped with the useful knowledge of recent history to try to prevent such a regression to take place again.
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