Fascism vs.

Nazism
Sat Oct 23 2004

To confuse fascism and Nazism is perhaps understandable -- both were

dictatorial, antidemocratic movements. But there are important differences
between them as well.

First, let us unravel the terminology.

Revolutionary groups and whipping canes

Fascism originated in Italy, under the leadership of Benito Mussolini.

Its name -- not its ideology -- is in part derived from certain
revolutionary workers groups in Italy at the end of the 19th century,
fasci revoluzionari (= revolutionary groups). When Mussolini started
his movement in 1919, he called his first fascist groups fasci di
combattimento (= combat groups).

As it happens, the similar -sounding Latin word fasces (signifying a

bunch of whipping canes, bound around an execution axe) was an
established Roman symbol of power. In early Rome, the entire
contraption used to be displayed ritually before the powerful Roman
consuls, who before 300 BC had the sole power to pass judgement as
well as to mete out punishment ( whipping by cane or beheading by
axe). After 300 BC this combin ed judiciary and executive power came
to an end, when Roman justice was reformed. But this didn't bother
Mussolini, who used pictures of fasces as his own symbols of
dictatorial power.

Hence the word fascism has two "separate but equal" roots: the Italian
word fasci and the Roman (Latin) fasces.

National socialism

Nazism is a contraction of the German word Nationalsozialismus

(derived from the official German name of Hitler's party,
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei , NSDAP). It stands for
the totalitarian and racist pseudo-ideology under which the Adolf
Hitler's German Third Reich was ruthlessly governed.

During the 1930's, political analysts in the democratic West were

horrified by both of these antidemocratic creeds, Italian fascism as
well as German Nazism. But they took care to keep them conceptually
apart.

However, this was not the case in Stalin's Soviet Union, because the
full name of the Soviet Union has one word element in common with
Nazism (Nationalsozialismus), the word socialism -- USSR is read
out as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Stalin, who saw
 himself as communist and socialist (and who in other respects was
just as murderous and totalitarian as Hitler), was opposed to the
competing ideology of Nazism (= Nationalsocialismus). But he didn't
want to use the word in his anti-Nazi propaganda, because it
contained a "good" element -- "socialism".

Hitler is a damned Nazi! -- Hell no, Hitler is a damned fascist!

So from the 1930's onwards a curious situation arose: when th e West

lashed out against fascists, they meant Mussolini's Italians, but when
the Soviets expressed anger against the fascists, they meant Hitler's
Germans. Communists in other countries f ollowed the Soviet-
established political vocabulary, using the word "fascist" when they
actually meant "Nazi".

This difference in political terminology remained in place even aft er

the war. The West celebrated its victory over Nazism, while parades
were held in Moscow in honour of the glorious Red Army that had
vanquished fascism. Both just meant the same thing -- that they were
happy to be rid of Hitler.

An ideological litmus paper

When discussing historical WWII events during the post-war years,

you could easily tell if the speake r or writer was inspired by
communism. If he or she talked about Nazis as "fascists", then the
argument or point of view had in all probability originated in
communist circles.

Unraveling the fuzz

Both fascism and Nazism are founded on fuzzy ideas, but this does
not justify confusing them or tre ating them as identical.

Mussolini's fascism had a shade closer resemblance to some kind of

crackpot political ideology than Hitler's Nazism, which was not based
on much else than blind racial hatred, efficient militarism, and ruthless
application of totalitarian power in the interest of the Master Race.

Corporatism -- medieval guilds warmed over

The Italian fascists regarded both parliamentary democracy and

socialist class struggle as elements that were bound to cause
divisiveness in a nation. Hence they introduced the idea of
corporatism, a kind of modernised version of the medieval guild
system. Here representatives of all trades and industries, employers
as well as employees, could settle matters based on mutual
understanding. Of course, in reality this was mostly ideological
window-dressing. Mussolini was Il Duce (= The Leader) and had the
last word.
 In general, fascism was an appreciably lighter version of a dictatorial
anti-democratic system than the mercilessly brutal Nazism. Fascist
Italy never became completely totalitarian, nor did it commit mass
murder on the scale of the Nazis'. The monarchy was intact and the
bureaucracy, the military and the church remained as complementary
power centres. Originally there was no racism in Italian fascism. Due
to Hitler's influence this unfortunately changed toward the end of
Mussolini's regime.

An inappropriate euphemism

The ideas of Italian fascism popped up among freakish movements in

several European countries during the 20's and 30's, often vanishing
after the war. They were applied during Franco's and Salazar's
dictatorships on the Iberian Peninsula, where they managed to survive
WWII by three decades, curiously enough. But Hitler' s Nazis were far
too cocky for ever terming themselves fascist. To the Nazis the Italian
fascists were soft and ineffectual sissies, whom Hitler constantly had
to save from various troubles that they always managed to get
themselves into.

Is there any point in differentiating between these two historical evils?

I strongly think that there is. Whatever Stalin and the communists may
have said in the past, it is in my opinion hardly fair to the victims of
Nazism to smooth over their horrors by euphemistically renaming their
vicious Nazi murderers, making them look like mere fascists.

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