75
FASCISM AND NATIONAL SOCIALISM
GERALD L. MCCALLISTER
University of North Texas
T he Great War, also known as World War I or the
war to end all wars, brought the concept of total
war to the battlefield, unleashing unprecedented
destruction and leaving millions of victims in its wake.
After such devastation, it might have been reasonable to
expect those affected to be pacified by a feeling of war
weariness, but instead we saw the rise of a political ideol-
ogy whose followers advocated perpetual conflict. Fascism
is a quasi-religious political ideology that is anticommunist,
antiliberal, anticapitalist, anti-intellectual, antipositivist,
anti-internationalist, anti-Christian, anticonservative, anti-
rationalistic, antiproletarian, antibourgeois, anti-individualistic,
and antidemocratic (E. Gentile, 2003, 2004; G. Gentile, 2002;
Gregor, 2001; Ioanid, 2005; Laqueur, 1996; Lederer, 1937;
Schuman, 1934; Sternhell, Sznajder, & Asheri, 1994; Szaz,
1963; Wellhofer, 2003).
Although it may appear that the above litany of nega-
tions encompasses everything, fascism demanded cultural
and ideological unity among all within the nation by forc-
ing the creation of a new society, a new way of thinking,
and a new man. Thus it was a totalitarian ideology. It was
fiercely nationalist and jingoistic once in power, employ-
ing myth in order to stimulate nationalist fervor among its
followers and seeking to eliminate all political opposition
through violence.
Fascism came in different forms. The two most promi-
nent were in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Fascist par-
ties arose in other places, as well, but did not achieve the
same success as the National Fascist Party in Italy and the
National Socialist German Workers Party or Nazi (short
for National Socialist) Party did.
Studies of Fascism
Fascism has been widely researched by both political sci-
entists and historians. From 1945 until the mid-1960s, the
traditional approach to studying fascism tended to focus on
its negative aspects and treat fascism as a trivial, reac-
tionary ideology without its own historic uniqueness or
substance (E. Gentile, 2005). Beginning in the mid-1960s
and until the 1970s, empirical studies of fascism began
generating new scholarly work that stressed fascisms rev-
olutionary, as opposed to its reactionary, characteristics
(Griffin, 2005).
Emilio Gentile (2005) calls this phase of studying fas-
cism the first period of renewal among three periods of
renewal in the research. Empirical work began informing
theory that replaced the traditional cursory interpretations
of fascism. One of the first and most important scholars
contributing to a more objective study of fascism was
George L. Mosse, a Jewish intellectual who had suffered
Nazi persecution himself (E. Gentile, 2005). There is not
much disagreement over what fascism is not, but this new,
more objective approach to studying fascism demanded
that scholars also define what it is, its appeal, and how it
639
640 POLITICAL THOUGHT
defines man and society (Linz, 1976). As a result, many
scholars have attempted a definition of fascism, without
consensus, but their attention to detail and precision is
indicative of the change in the scholarly work.
In the 1980s, studies of fascism focused less on theory
and more on the history of singular fascist movements,
their politics, organization, and institutions. Differences
among these regimes led some scholars to question
whether a general theory of fascism was even appropriate.
In the 1990s, a partial consensus began to emerge about
the basic nature of fascism, along with a greater focus on
fascist culture and ideology (E. Gentile, 2005). Sometimes
expanding on previous literature, these studies covered
class, civil society, and even rational choice perspectives
(Wellhofer, 2003). In addition, the literature has become
more compatible as the various studies began working
from similar conceptual frameworks (Griffin, 2005),
allowing for greater cooperation among scholars studying
the fascist phenomenon.
Political Spectrum
Fascists were hostile to parties on the left, center, and
right but most commonly, although not always, allied with
those on the radical authoritarian right (Payne, 1995).
Although it is common to place fascism on the right, there
are differences among scholars, and even among fascists
themselves, as to where fascism actually lies on the politi-
cal spectrum.
On the economic political spectrum, fascism was not on
the right. Capitalist-style competition was seen as destruc-
tive to the unity of the nation. Although some free market
policies were not rejected outright, the ability of the state
to interfere in economics with impunity and its increasing
need for the war effort lead some to equate fascist govern-
ment with Communist Soviet government (Lederer, 1937).
However, fascism also rejected socialism. Benito
Mussolini wrote, The socialists ask, what is our program? would later apply Barress ideas and in 1910 would use
Our program is to smash the skulls of the socialists
(Laqueur, 1996, p. 50). Whereas fascists claim that social-
ism accentuates class warfare and therefore a type of eco-
nomic civil war within the state, fascisms aim is to
reinforce class solidarity to strengthen the state (Laqueur,
1996). The difficulty with classifying fascism on the politi-
cal axis arises because the ideology does not fit neatly into
any category. Instead fascism sought to create a new culture
and ideology independent from others (Payne, 1995), with
the goal of replacing them all; hence its fierce opposition to
all other ideological competitors.
Ideological Precursors of Fascist Theory
In the 20th century, several developments contributed to
power that ideologies could exert. Bracher (1984) explains
that never before in history did the legitimacy of a political
system feel such a need to justify its existence intellectually.
Never had this justification had such sophisticated com-
munications equipment at it disposal and never had
regimes been so capable of manipulating public opinion.
Several strands of consciously irrational and illiberal
political thought and historical trends contributed to the
formulation of fascist thought. This chapter explores those
ideological as well as cultural evolutions, their reasoning,
and their prejudices. In so doing, much of the most impor-
tant aspects of fascism are covered. Names of some of the
people whose ideas led to fascist thought are mentioned
although the list is by no means exhaustive. In addition, it
should be noted that some of the people mentioned here,
had they lived long enough, may not have actually
approved of fascism and all that is associated with it.
Nationalism
Nationalist movements rejected rationalist thought, per-
ceiving that it blunted nationalist sentiment with its atom-
ization of society into individuals and cosmopolitan ideas.
It was emotion and instinct that constituted reality, truth,
and beauty, not rational thought. The nationalist believed
that rationalism would ultimately destroy national activity
(Sternhell et al., 1994).
The French politician Maurice Barres was one of the
first to use the term national socialism. He believed that
only emotion had real value and that real thought took
place on the level of the unconscious. Therefore, attack-
ing the unconscious with rationality divested the
national organism of its substance. As a consequence,
the welfare of the nation depended on the energy of the
people. Rationalism and concepts of individualism were
like a virus and would therefore contaminate the concept
of the nation. The nation requires unity, and therefore a
Marxist, liberal, proletarian, or bourgeois movement is
antithetical to the idea of a nation. Enrico Corradini
the term national socialism to define Italian nationalism
(Sternhell et al., 1994).
The reaction to natural rights theories and intellectual-
ism took place in Germany in the forms of nationalism
and romanticism. One of the best known German roman-
tic nationalists was Johann Gottlieb Fichte. At the begin-
ning of the 19th century, he argued for an independent
German state and spoke of the cultural superiority of the
German people. In contrast to social contract theory, the
romantic nationalists saw the state as a living organism
that survived through its national idea. The belief of
Fichte and others was that a national consciousness had
emerged from the concept of empire and the longing for
an empire and that patriotism, no longer toward king-
doms but toward a German nation, became a historical
force (Szaz, 1963).
National romanticism and the desire for the unification
of German-speaking peoples in Europe was later expanded

on by Ernst Moritz Arndt to incorporate Prussian concepts
of duty and a national will to power in order to create a
unified people. This thought spread across Germany, with
philosophers, writers, and educators introducing the con-
cept of the German volk, or people, power with increasing
popular support in Germany from the late 19th century
until World War II (Szaz, 1963).
Pan-Germanism, in fact, influenced the war aims of
German parties on both the right and the left during World
War I. The nationalist ideas and racial beliefs of the supe-
riority of the German people were intensely indoctrinated
into the German army as well (Holborn, 1964). These con-
cepts and ideas would later facilitate and influence Nazi
empowerment, as well as Nazism.
Georges Sorel and Revolutionary Syndicalism
At the beginning of the 20th century, Marxists in France
and Italy began questioning whether the theories of Marx
were an actual reflection of reality. Proletarian revolutions
were not occurring in countries where industrialization
was most effective, in direct contradiction to what Marx
had predicted. This realization of the failure of classic
Marxism led to a split into two directions among European
Marxists. In 1905, the Socialist Party formed and encom-
passed most socialists. The Socialist Party accepted the
liberal democratic norms prevalent in Western European
countries, with the objective of eventually changing the
economic system through the democratic process
(Sternhell et al., 1994).
Georges Sorel was a Marxist theoretician who repre-
sented another, more radical school of thought in the
bifurcation of the European Marxists. Sorel did not reject
capitalism and saw no difference between capitalist and
Marxist economics. He believed that capitalism produced
tensions between the classes that would lead to an all-out
violent class struggle, which he advocated and which had
been prognosticated by Marx. The problem according to
Sorel was democracy. When conflict occurred between
the proletariat and bourgeois classes, the democratic
process allowed for compromise to diffuse the situation.
If the democratic system could be destroyed, then the
proletariat could be broken away from its alliance with
the democratic socialists. Realizing this, the Sorelians
advocated the theory of revolutionary syndicalism
(Sternhell et al., 1994).
Besides the beliefs in the role of the market as an ori-
gin of tensions and overthrow of the democratic system,
Georges Sorel introduced the doctrine of social myth into
the syndicalist movement. Sorel believed that one of the
advantages of introducing myth into politics was that
myths were not subject to scientific criticism, and there-
fore doubt could not easily be introduced into the minds
of the followers. In this sense, Sorel referred to Christianity
and its use of the Second Coming as an effective myth. So
he proposed the myth of the general strike, believing it an
Fascism and National Socialism 641
update of Marxs revolution of the proletariat (Cohen, 1962).
In this myth, the syndicates, or trade unions, would be the
standard-bearers of Marxs revolution.
However, when the proletariat refused its role as the
standard-bearer of the revolution, the Sorelians passed
this task on to the entire nation. The result was a fusion,
in both France and Italy, of the revolutionary syndicalists
and the nationalists. The addition of nationalism con-
tributed the cult of a strong authority to the syndicalist
ideas. The revolutionary syndicalists were among the
founders of Italian fascism and included Benito Mussolini
(Sternhell et al., 1994).
Mysticism
Totalitarianism is the result of a revolutionary political
movements securing itself as the sole power in the nation
and then proceeding to conquer society, seeking to politi-
cize all existence according to its ideology. To accomplish
this, the totalitarian regime would need to portray itself as
a type of political religion through deifying the secular
entity. This effort is facilitated through the use of myths
(E. Gentile, 2005). The regimes justification to exist, there-
fore, could not be challenged because the myth provided
an indisputable and indefinite source of legitimacy.
Myths were often extracted from history. Mussolini
spoke of the return to the glory of the Roman Empire, and
Hitler introduced the idea of the Third Reich as a new
thousand-year empire (Koehl, 1960). In Italy, before the
Fascists came to power, myth was already being
employed. The Black Shirt militias were formed into units
using terminology and organization based on those of the
ancient Roman Empire (Payne, 1995).
Nazisms chief intellectuals, Alfred Rosenberg and
Heinrich Himmler (head of the Schutzstaffel, or SS, which
was the Nazi Partys personal and politically influential
guard), as well as many national socialist historians, began
using the history of the Teutonic Order, a small band of
Germanic knights who had fought in the Crusades and
existed for centuries in Germany. The importance of the
Order in Nazi propaganda was its elitism. Only those ded-
icated and subordinate to a higher purpose, an idea not
revealed to them, could be part of this Order. Rosenberg
summoned the National Socialist German Workers Party
to be the German Order serving an unknown god.
Likewise, Himmler instilled into the SS a type of piety and
worship of nature. On their belt buckles he had written,
My Honor Is Loyalty (quoted in Koehl, 1960, p. 924).
In the 1850s, intellectuals in Germany began turning to
the mystic racist idea of the superiority of the Nordic race
in order to give themselves a belief in the future of the
German nation, which at the time still had not formed, to
the disenchantment of the nationalists (Szaz, 1963).
Nordic superiority was the most heavily used myth in Nazi
thought, replacing rationalism with racist mysticism.
Racism and anti-intellectualism were the dominant tone, as
642 POLITICAL THOUGHT
exemplified by one of the Nazis favorite slogans, We
think with our blood (quoted in Schuman, 1934, p. 211).
The use of irrational thought and mysticism by fascist
movements does not deny that fascism has its own ratio-
nality. Fascism linked irrationality with rationality in the
same way that religion links its supernatural ideas with its
organizational institutions (Griffin, 2005). So the use of
myth was a way of turning fascism into a political religion
that its adherents would embrace in every way, politically,
socially, economically, and spiritually.
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Futurism
Founded by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, futurism was
an art movement as well as a political movement.
Futurisms political ideology was a form of radical nation-
alism advocated by young militant intellectuals in Italy.
They embraced modern technology, youth, and violence
and believed in mans dominance over nature. Futurists
despised everything old, whether political or artistic, and
sought its destruction. War was glorified, and their aggres-
sive nationalism sought a greater Italy through the process
of a cultural revolution and the development of a New
State and a New Man. Their political ideology often
contradicted itself, though. Although virulently imperialist
and supporting a militarist nation-state, they also praised
cosmopolitanism and individualism, as well as libertarian-
ism (E. Gentile, 2003).
Although the lack of coherence may have made their
ideology harder to incorporate into fascism, Sternhell et al.
(1994) posits that the common denominator among them,
the revolutionary syndicalists, and the nationalists was
their desire to destroy the dominant culture and replace it.
Giovanni Gentile and Actual Idealism
In 1921, Mussolini had written that fascism needed a
body of doctrine if it were not to self-destruct (Gregor
2001, p. 33). According to Gregor (2001), the Italian intel-
lectual Giovanni Gentiles actual idealism or actualism
was such a doctrine, which G. Gentile, with the approval
of Mussolini, infused into fascism. Actualism reiterated
some of the themes expressed by the different ideological
strands that led to fascism. For one, war was considered
essential for the purpose of uniting the nation through
shedding blood together. G. Gentile (1932/2002) wrote
that during World War I, it was essential that Italy enter the
war, and that it did not matter whether Italy had entered on
the side of Germany or against it.
G. Gentile (1932/2002) defines fascism as a totalitarian
ideology that does not concern itself only with politics but
also with the thought and will of the nation. Individuals
were social creatures, not isolated individuals having
inalienable rights. Liberty exists only through the author-
ity of the state and is manifested only as the liberty of
the state rather than the individual. Therefore the state
was not the result of a social contract but was instead a
fundamental part of human life. It was the social essence
of individuals who shared a nationally defined consciousness
(Gregor, 2001).
For the state to best represent the collective consensus
of all citizens, the economy must reject the unbridled com-
petition of capitalism, as well as the class conflict of
socialism. Instead, G. Gentile (1932/2002) advocates a
corporative nation wherein the state associates workers of
a particular category with others in the same category into
a type of union. However, these unions are not to work
against one another but are rather to work harmoniously
together as one national economic organism.
G. Gentile (1932/2002), an educated person himself as
a professor of philosophy, reinforced anti-intellectualism
in fascism. He wrote that the first among those who needed
to be defeated included authors, cultivators of literature,
and other academics, all of whom he called intellectuals.
He opposed these intellectuals, not because he denied sci-
ence, but rather because scientists believed the world
existed independent of the mind. One of the tenets of actu-
alism was that reality was only what was perceived by the
mind and was therefore dependent on it. Gentile therefore
rejects the positivist interpretation of the world and called
it a disease of reason (quoted in Gregor, 2001, p. 28).
Biological Determinism
Although Italian Fascism and Nazism were similar in
many respects, the German fascists succeeded in carrying
out these principles more thoroughly. Mussolini, in order to
justify Italian imperialism in Africa, championed the state
as creating the nation. Hitler, in order to justify its claim to
German-speaking areas in France and Czechoslovakia,
claimed that the German nation was superior and that the
state was its instrument (Cohen, 1962). But the main point
of divergence between them was in the Nazis biological
determinism.
Linguistic and anthropological studies of the 19th cen-
tury had revealed similarities in the languages of the peo-
ple of Europe and central Asia. The assumption was that
these languages had originated from a yet unknown com-
mon ancestor referred to by scholars as the Aryans. Many
theories were developed to explain this finding, but that of
the French count Arthur de Gobineau was to be the most
significant for the development of Nazi biological deter-
minism. Gobineau argued that Aryans had once been
superior to all other races. However, they intermarried
with various other races, diluting their purity and causing
them to lose their superiority. Aryan blood was superior
enough among the nations of northwest Europe, with
Germany being the purest of all. While most of Europe
gave no credence to this idea, it was embraced by Germany
(Baradat, 1991).
Among those who embraced the Aryan myth was
Gobineaus friend Richard Wagner, a very influential
German composer in the mid-19th century. Wagner con-
tributed to nationalism in Germany by emphasizing the

concept of the dynamic character of a nation, or its life-
force of dynamism, and insisted on racism in politics and
the teaching of anti-Semitism. In addition, Wagner intro-
duced the idea of the king as a type of superhuman. From
this perspective, the king spoke for the people, and there-
fore any constitutional limits on the kings power were
interpreted as a humiliation or lack of confidence. In his
last essay, perhaps disenchanted with the leaders of his
day, Wagner had his idyllic superhuman ruler become a
future leader who would unite the people, rejuvenate the
national culture, and restore purity to the Aryan race
(Szaz, 1963).
Houston Stewart Chamberlain, an intellectual and the
nephew of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain,
was a staunch advocate of Wagners ideas and married
Wagners daughter Eva. He continued where Wagner left
off. He claimed that the Aryan race had actually created
all the other races but that their advances were negated
through interbreeding. The only two exceptions were the
German, who was Aryan and represented good, and the Jew,
representing evil. Chamberlain concluded that if the
Germans could remain racially pure, they would demon-
strate their superiority by eventually conquering the world.
This idea was extolled by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who then
befriended Chamberlain, and by Hitler, who would incor-
porate Chamberlains theories as the basis of Nazism
(Baradat, 1991).
The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche also had a signifi-
cant influence on Hitlers thought. Nietzsches theme that
might makes right had an impact on Hitler. Nietzsche, in
his writings, undertook a full assault on Christian and
democratic values, which in his view protected the weak,
thus preventing the eventual production of supermen. Szaz
(1963) says that this denial of Christian morals by
Nietzsche would relax the moral restrictions against the
atrocities that occurred during World War II.
Hitler divided the worlds people into three categories.
The culture-creating race was the Aryans and included the
English, Dutch, Scandinavians, and Germans, with the
Germans being the most pure. All cultural achievements
were the products of the Aryan peoples, and Hitler said
that if the Nordic Germans were taken away, then all that
would be left would be the dance of apes. The second
category was the culture-bearing races, which included the
Asians, Latinos, and Slavs. According to Hitler, they could
not create culture but could preserve it if they remained
uncorrupted by inferior races. The culture-destroying races
included Gypsies, Negroes, and Jews. They were responsi-
ble for the decline of civilizations and so, according to
Hitler, deserved to die (Baradat, 1991).
Anti-Semitic legislation was eventually passed in Italy
in order to convince Germany of its dedication to their
alliance. According to Gregor (2001), Mussolini undertook
an effort to make some form of racism and anti-Semitism
a part of Italian Fascism in the summer 1938. However,
Italian Fascism, unlike Nazism, did not contain any inherent
racism. Fascism upheld the ideal of the nation-state even if
Fascism and National Socialism 643
its history and culture were multiracial. Italys Jewish
community had been there since Roman times. So to be
racist against Jews would attack the history of Italy. There
were in fact a number of Italian Fascist Jews, and their
numbers were greater than their ratio in the population.
But an alliance with Hitlers Germany was necessary if
Italy was to achieve its foreign policy goals. However,
racist policies were not adopted wholeheartedly in Italy, as
Fascist officials would intervene on behalf of the protec-
tion of Jews in many cases and the Italian military com-
mand even provided protection to Jews as well.
Historical Context
Fascist movements were anticapitalist movements in that
they sought to reshape the capitalist economic order into
one that still sought economic growth while eliminating
the tensions between employer and employee caused by
industrialization and exacerbated by dire economic
prospects after World War I (Fletcher, 1979). Private prop-
erty was still allowed, but the democratic framework
within which it operated was eliminated and placed under
state control to preclude private enterprise from contra-
dicting the wishes of the state (Cole, 1941). Fascisms goal
in doing so was to rectify what it saw as capitalisms frag-
mentation of society into self-interested individuals and
antagonistic groups that it believed dehumanized peoples
relationships (Sternhell et al., 1994).
History showed that fascist movements were successful
only in democratic societies, where they were allowed to
roam freely and spread their ideas. When they tried to form
inside an authoritarian regime, they were always crushed.
Where they were successful, their success was due to a
lack of support for the democratic regime (Laqueur, 1996).
In most democratic regimes, fascists formed only fringe
parties and never gained real influence. The two countries
where they did find success and power were Italy and
Germany.
Italy
Italy experienced rapid economic growth at the begin-
ning of the 20th century, along with increasing nationalism
and a desire for empire. The government, headed by
Givoanni Giolitti, responded to this sentiment by invading
and capturing Libya from the Turkish Empire. However,
this conquest failed to quench the nationalists imperial
thirst (Payne, 1995). This thirst for imperial possessions
determined which side Italy would fight on in World War I.
It fought with the side that it felt would grant it the great-
est amount of territory. But after the war was over and the
Allies had won, Italians felt that they had not been com-
pensated adequately for the alliance. The result was that
the nationalists began to denounce the political leaders
who accepted the Allies terms and labeled the victorious
outcome of the war the truncated victory (Payne, 1995).
644 POLITICAL THOUGHT
The trenches of World War I tied down millions of sol-
diers in stationary combat for long periods of time. A
camaraderie and collective consciousness developed and
was made more potent by the shared suffering (Payne,
1995). After the war, these veterans would return home to
find few prospects. The process of modernization had been
accompanied with instability, unemployment, and infla-
tion, which plagued many European countries. The Italian
kingdom was in a state of malaise, with massive social and
economic problems (Baradat, 1991), as well as opportu-
nity for those willing to exploit it. Although developed in
France, it was in Italy where the revolutionary syndicalists
became a significant political force. In 1914, the revolu-
tionary syndicalists, nationalists, and futurists found the
perfect setting to allow them to transform their ideologies
into a historical force (Sternhell et al., 1994).
Germany
Germany was in bad shape following World War I, both
economically and socially. People rejected the peace that
had long existed since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in
1815, the liberal cultural synthesis, and Germanys con-
temporary leadership. Political life became brutalized, and
the government increased its control over society while
curtailing civil liberties. Fueling this was rampant hyperin-
flation and chaotic social conditions, at the same time that
the inception of mass media allowed those with extreme
solutions an outlet for their ideas (Payne, 1995). The Nazi
party blamed all Germanys woes on the Jews. The reasons
for Germanys loss in World War I were also the Jews
fault because, according to the Nazis, they were responsi-
ble for the establishment of parliamentary democracy and
what Nazis called the Jew republic of the November
criminals of 1918. The signing of the Treaty of Versailles
was seen as a stab in the back of the German military.
Likewise, all of Germanys problems following the
armistice were attributed to the Jews (Schuman, 1934).
The Treaty of Versailles had unjustly assigned
Germany all the blame for the war and sought excessive
punitive actions in the form of territorial concessions and
inordinate reparations. Like Italy, Germany experienced
very high unemployment and inflation. The difficulty of
the Weimar Republic in solving these problems led many
to turn to extreme political movements such as the Nazis.
An incipient economic recovery was rudely interrupted by
the Great Depression, which struck in 1929, bringing
about the conditions for the collapse of the democratic
regime (Baradat, 1991).
Leaders
All fascist movements required a charismatic leader and
developed a cultlike following of that leader. Mario
Palmieri lays out The Hero as Leader in his work The
Philosophy of Fascism (cited in Cohen, 1962). He defines
the hero as he who can rediscover the greatest of truths. The
true hero will be sincere and courageous and will believe in
his own destiny. Palmieri adds that in addition to the virtu-
ous human traits above, the hero will possess a mystic power
of intuition that enables him to obtain immediate knowl-
edge of the truth. According to Palmieri, Mussolini was the
hero and expressed what was in everyones hearts, but only
in the role of supreme leader would he be able to change the
world (cited in Cohen, 1962).
Palmieris Nazi counterpart in defining the role of the
leader can be found in theoretician Ernst R. Huber. Huber
explained that the true will of the people could not be
given by democratic means but could be conveyed only
through the Fuhrer. The Fuhrers will is not his individual
will, according to Huber, but rather the collective will of
the nation, which is embodied within the Fuhrer. The state
therefore has no inherent authority but rather derives its
authority from the Fuhrer to apply the national will. The
Fuhrer has no political constraints, but Huber asserts that
he is not self-seeking and will exist to apply the true will
of the people (Cohen, 1962).
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was born in 1883 to a mother who was
a schoolteacher and a blacksmith father who was also a
Socialist. He was named after Benito Juarez, the former
Mexican president. He violently assaulted fellow students
on several occasions but later became an elementary school
teacher. While staying in Switzerland, he became a Socialist
and would later write for different Socialist papers, eventu-
ally becoming the editor of Avanti (Forward), the Socialists
official newspaper. He became one of the top leaders of the
Socialist Party at the age of 29 (Payne, 1995).
Although he was a Socialist, Mussolini rejected egali-
tarianism and was heavily influenced by the theories of
Georges Sorel. Most significantly, Sorels writings incul-
cated in Mussolini the idea that great historical events
were set in motion by the initiative and leadership of small
groups of people. Seeing the widespread war fever that
overtook many European nations at the beginning of
World War I, Mussolini noticed the appeal of nationalism
and opportunistically went against the Socialist stance of
neutrality by asserting that Italy should enter the war. This
action cost him the editorship of Avanti and his member-
ship in the Socialist party. Mussolini would again act on
opportunism when a secret pact with the Allies to grant
Italy territorial concessions for joining the war effort was
not honored. The resulting confusion and postwar social,
political, and economic turmoil gave Mussolini the oppor-
tunity to found the Fascist Party (Cohen, 1962).
Unable to meet with much success at the polls,
Mussolini began brazenly promoting the idea that he
would take the government over by force. On October 27,
1922, although outnumbered and inferior in strength to the

police, an army of thousands of profascists began march-
ing on Rome. The Fascists took over many of the police
stations without having to use much violence even though
Mussolinis Black Shirts, who were thugs who used intim-
idation and violence in the name of the Fascist Party, were
ready to use terrorism. The chances they would succeed in
a coup against the government were unlikely, and the army
was ready to fight the Black Shirts if the King requested.
Armed with clubs, the Fascists arrived outside of the
city on October 28. However, King Victor Emmanuel
refused to act against Mussolini and instead invited him to
lead a new parliamentary coalition. King Emmanuel could
have easily stopped Mussolini, but for some reason did not.
Perhaps he did not have the courage to act. Or maybe he
believed that fascism was a good direction for the country
to go. Whatever the reasoning, this decision placed
Mussolini in control of Italys destiny and made fascism a
historically significant ideology in the world (Payne, 1995).
Mussolini (1968) wrote down his ideas on fascism
some time after taking power. In 1935, he wrote that liber-
alism had arisen as a reaction to absolutism but had out-
lived its function once the state became the expression and
will of the people. Liberalism, according to Mussolini,
tried erroneously to elevate the importance of the individ-
ual over the state, but it was the state that expressed the
true conscience of the individual. Mussolini proclaimed
that it was his job to reassert the right of the state.
Mussolini (1968) explains that by following the spiri-
tual attitude of fascism, one will see the common bond of
tradition and mission of the nation and of the individual,
which will suppress ones instinct to live, thus allowing
one to break free from the constraints of time and space
through self-sacrifice. By renouncing self-interest through
death itself, one can accomplish a spiritual existence. So if
the followers of fascism are willing to sacrifice themselves
for the cause, they can achieve a kind of immortality, giv-
ing the ideology a religious zeal.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was born to a minor customs official and
developed a strong sense of German nationalism at a
young age. At first trying to become an artist, Hitler went
to Vienna in 1906 but experienced only rejection by the
citys leading art schools (Baradat, 1991). While in
Vienna, Hitler encountered the ideas of pan-Germanism
from Georg von Schonerer and the Christian Social move-
ment under Viennas Mayor Karl Lueger, which gave him
his first encounter with anti-Semitism, as well as its popu-
larity. Hitler delved deeper into theoretical anti-Semitism
by reading pamphlets that were created by a former monk
called Lanz von Liebenfels. Hitler most likely read
Wagners racist writings as well (Holborn, 1964).
After suffering a poison gas attack as a soldier in World
War I and sitting out the rest of the war, Hitler joined other
Germans claiming that Germany had not lost the war but
Fascism and National Socialism 645
rather had been betrayed by a Jewish conspiracy. He later
joined the Nazi party, which had only six other members at
the time, but this small group became the core of the
National Socialist German Workers Party. He quickly rose
to the leadership position of the party as everyone recog-
nized him as having leadership qualities. After attracting
new members, including some important military people,
Hitler was inspired by Mussolinis March on Rome to
attempt his own coup, which failed. The Beer Hall Putsch,
as it was called, resulted in his imprisonment, but because
of powerful sympathetic allies, he ended up serving only a
year in prison (Baradat, 1991).
While imprisoned, Hitler (1939) wrote his ideology
down in Mein Kampf (My Struggle). Mostly it is an
extremely long rant. However, the ideas broached in it
form the basis of Nazi thought. In Mein Kampf, Hitler
chides Jews with numerous invectives. He details his
encounter with Jews in Vienna and how he went from see-
ing them as equals to uncovering their conspiracies in the
form of both Zionism and liberalism and eventually having
nothing but vitriol for them. Hitler explained that the world
will be ruled either by liberal democracy, wherein the
numerically superior races would reign, or by the law of
natural distribution, whereby the most brutal nation would
reign supreme through war, which Hitler would set out to
initiate once in power.
One of the fundamentals of his thinking was the idea
that life was an eternal struggle in order to dominate oth-
ers. Hitler said that only force rules and that humanitarian-
ism was nonsense. Struggle was the prerequisite needed
for human development and progress (Cohen, 1962).
Hitler declared that it is not people who move history but
rather races that do. Using Gobineaus theories on race,
Hitler proclaims that the German people must purify them-
selves by eliminating inferior races. The Nordic, or Aryan,
race is the most superior, and therefore the greatest appli-
cation of resources should be used to enhance the breeding
of this race. If agriculture cannot sustain that effort, then
Hitler argues that this is a justification for expelling infe-
rior races from German lands through war or even annihi-
lation (Holborn, 1964).
Hitler believed that his own ideology possessed the
principles for rebuilding Germany and establishing its
supremacy, as opposed to liberal democracys principles,
which he viewed as weak. But before this struggle could
be undertaken abroad, it first had to be won in Germany.
This required the defeat of liberalism, socialism, and com-
munism, as well as the implementation of a totalitarian
ideology immune to foreign propaganda (Holborn, 1964).
The Great Depression gave the Nazis increasing influ-
ence as voters became disillusioned by the failures and
indecisiveness of their political leaders. Believing they
could control Hitler, conservative politicians persuaded
president Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chan-
cellor. However, Hitler outmaneuvered them by having the
Nazis burn down the parliament building, blaming the
646 POLITICAL THOUGHT
communists, and arresting his main opponents before the
elections, resulting in Nazi dominance of the Reichstag.
When von Hindenburg died the following year, Hitler took
power and outlawed all opposition (Baradat, 1991).
Hitler had a profound contempt of generals, the bour-
geoisie, and professors. None of these groups ever merited
the same hatred as his hatred of Jews, though. Although
anti-Semitism was popular in Germany, his was genuine
and not just the result of opportunism. During the anti-
Jewish pogroms of April 1, 1933, and November 89,
1938, known as Kristallnacht (Crystal Night), or the Night
of the Broken Glass, the violence was carried out in pub-
lic. However, even when violence against Jews would not
be popular, as would be the case with extermination
camps, Hitler was not swayed. He ordered the extermina-
tion of European Jewry in 1942 anyway, but in secret in
order to avoid the likely disapproval of the German people
(Holborn, 1964). At that fateful meeting in Wannsee, a
suburb of Berlin, on January 20, 1942, 14 people, half of
whom had PhDs, met, and the final solution to the
Jewish problem was proposed: After using them for their
labor skills, they should be eliminated (Chodoff, 1997). So
commenced the Holocaust, Hitlers infamous legacy.
Other Fascist Movements
A problem with generic definitions is that the essence of
fascist movements is national, not international, and there-
fore national differences among the fascist movements of
different nations are unavoidable. So questions arise as to
whether these differences disqualify a movement from
being considered fascist. This chapter avoids the debates
over whether these movements are actually fascist and pre-
sents instead a cursory introduction to other movements
that are most commonly thought of as being fascist.
Imperial Japan during World War II did not have a sin-
gle mass party, no dictator seized power, and no totalitar-
ian ideology became dominant, and therefore it was very
different than the Fascists of Europe. The New Order
Movement, which failed to gain power, was a fascist
movement in Japan, however. Its reforms were modeled on
the institutions of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and
sought to build an economically strong Japan while at the
same time eliminating the tensions of industrialization, as
fascists had tried to do through the corporative economic
system (Fletcher, 1979).
During World War II, many fascist movements sprang
up across Europe. Among these were the Arrow Cross in
Austria-Hungary, the Falange in Spain, and the Rexists in
Belgium (Laqueur, 1996). A tactic that all these move-
ments had in common was violence. They all used terror-
ism from below when out of power and terrorism from
above once in power. Almost always, this violence was
carried out collectively rather than by individuals. When
in opposition, they would organize gangs in order to break
up their adversaries assemblies by beating them up or
sometimes killing them (Laqueur, 1996).
One fascist movement that heavily relied on violence
and mysticism was the Iron Guard in Romania, or Legion
of the Archangel Michael, known also as the Legionary
Movement. It employed a brutally intense cult of death
against its adversaries. Its founder, Corneliu Zelea
Codreanu, believed that the nation constituted all
Romanians, alive, dead, and those yet to be born. Followers
believed that their mission was Gods secret will, which
was organically fused with the nation, the state, the king,
and the Legionary Movement. This destiny had to be pro-
tected from any outside influence, physical or cultural
(Ioanid, 2005).
The skinheads, despite their apparent admiration for
Adolf Hitler, the swastika, and the Nazis, are not consid-
ered a fascist movement. Their dress, music, and tastes are
a mix of different cultures, in contradiction to Fascist
nationalist doctrine. Laqueur (1996) says that they do not
have the knowledge, motivation, or discipline to be con-
sidered of any use to neofascist elements.
Contemporary established fascist parties appear to have
little in common with those of Nazi Germany and Fascist
Italy in that they observe the democratic rules and norms.
However, Laqueur (1996) warns that this is because they
are all relatively weak and so must be cautious in the face
of strong regimes, but that such may not be the case if they
were to gain power.
Conclusion
Fascism and National Socialism developed from several
ideological trends: nationalism, Revolutionary Syndicalism,
Futurism, Actualism, and in the case of Nazi Germany,
biological determinism. What these ideologies had in com-
mon was that they despised the atomization of society into
individuals, brought about by liberal democratization and
capitalist-led modernization, and they extolled the concept
of the organic nation-state in order to establish more cohe-
sive collective ties among people. These ideologies main-
tained that an integration of all society would produce
these results, but all nonconformist elements had to be
co-opted or exterminated. In the case of the racist policies
of Nazi Germany, the former was not an option for inferior
races.
Fascists believed that liberal democracy was weak and
would never accomplish these goals, so they advocated a total-
itarian government headed by a strong leader. World War I had
desensitized much of Europe to extreme violence, and the
Great Depression had left the masses economically inse-
cure. Moreover, the young liberal democracies in Germany
and Italy proved ineffective at solving these problems.
Economically, politically, and spiritually, Italians and
Germans were seeking salvation, and so the Fascist and
Nazi parties filled the vacuum. Mussolini and Hitler also

brought with them their violent plans for war, with grave
consequences for the rest of the world.
References and Further Readings
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impact (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bracher, K. D. (1984). The age of ideologies: A history of politi
cal thought in the twentieth century (E. Osers, Trans.). New
York: St. Martins Press.
Carsten, F. L. (1982). The rise of fascism. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Chodoff, P. (1997). The holocaust and its effect on survivors: An
overview. Political Psychology, 18(1), 147 157.
Cohen, C. (Ed.). (1962). Communism, fascism, and democracy:
The theoretical foundations. New York: Random House.
Cole, T. (1941). National Socialism and the German Labor
Courts. Journal of Politics, 3 (2), 169 197.
Fletcher, M. (1979). Intellectuals and fascism in early Showa
Japan. Journal of Asian Studies, 39(1), 39 63.
Gentile, E. (2003). The struggle for modernity: Nationalism,
futurism, and fascism. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Gentile, E. (2005). Fascism, totalitarianism and political religion:
Definitions and critical reflections on criticism of an inter
pretation (N. Belozentseva, Trans.). In R. Griffin (Ed.),
Fascism, totalitarianism and political religion (pp. 32 81).
New York: Routledge.
Gentile, G. (2002). Origins and doctrine of fascism (J. Gregor,
Trans.). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. (Original work
published 1932)
Gregor, J. (2001). Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of fascism.
New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
Griffin, R. (Ed.). (1998). International fascism: Theories, causes
and the new consensus. London: Arnold.
Griffin, R. (Ed.). (2005). Fascism, totalitarianism and political
religion. New York: Routledge.
Fascism and National Socialism 647
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