Fascism

Fascism is an totalitarian political ideology that arose in early twentieth-century Europe and came to dominate the political systems of a number of European and other nations. The last European fascist regime, that of Francisco Franco in Spain, came to an end in 1975.

Characteristics of fascism include a belief that the state is more important than the individual; a leaning towards authoritarian government; an emphasis on nationalism and national traditions; militarism; information control and censorship; and a rejection both of free enterprise and Social democracy in favor of corporatist economic policies. The fourteen characteristics of fascism also include rampant cronyism and corruption as well as general disdain for human rights and rigged elections.

The prototypical fascist regime was that of Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943. Other regimes which included fascist elements are those of Francisco Franco in Spain (1936-1975) and Antonio Salazar in Portugal (1932-1968). German Nazism adds to fascism an obsession with race. Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek observed in the final stages of World War II, "the rise of fascism and Marxism was not a reaction against the socialist trends of the preceding period but a necessary outcome of those tendencies. Yet it is significant that many of the leaders of these movements, from Mussolini down (and including Laval and Quisling) began as socialists and ended as fascists or Nazis.

Fascism was comprehensively discredited in the eyes of most Westerners because of the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II, and "fascist" is today frequently used as a term of abuse both on the left and on the right against one's political opponents. While few people are willing to describe themselves as fascists or endorse the fascist regimes of the past, fascist parties and parties descended from fascist parties (such as the Alleanza Nazionale in Italy) continue to be a minor force in European politics. Fascism seems not to flourish in countries with an Anglo-centric heritage: America, Australia and Canada have never had significant fascist movements, and the British Union of Fascists was never an important force in UK politics.

The name "fascism" derives from an ancient Roman symbol, the fasces, a group of birch rods bundled together with an axe. It symbolizes strength in unity; the rods are weak by themselves but strong when bundled together.

Of the Fascist movement, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. wrote:

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The Fascists, for example, were not conservative in any very meaningful sense. They did not wish to preserve the existing order, or even to turn back the clock to some more stable century. They purposefully planned to transform the existing order into a new and all-absorbing authoritarianism, based upon the energies and frustrations of modern industrialism. The Fascists, in a meaningful sense, were revolutionaries. Yet their totalitarian ideal hardly fitted into the pattern of the Left, which had been the traditional home of greater freedoms and more generous aspirations. So, after boggling and uncertainty, they were assigned positions on the far Right.

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