FASCISM

political attitude and mass movement that tended to dominate political life in central, southern, and eastern-central Europe between 1919 and 1944. Common to all fascist movements was an emphasis on the nation (race or state) as the centre and regulator of all history and life, and on the indisputable authority of the leader behind whom the people were expected to form an unbreakable unity. The word fascism itself was first used in 1919 by Benito Mussolini in Italy; in the following years the influence of fascism made itself felt in countries as far away as Japan, Argentina, Brazil, and the Union of South Africa, its specific aspects varying according to the country's political traditions, its social structure, and the personality of the leader. The Italian word fascio (derived from the Latin fasces, a bundle of rods with an ax in it) symbolized both aspects: the power of many united and obeying one will and the authority of the state, which was the supreme source of law and order and all national life. a political movement that governed Italy during the years 192243, Germany during 193345, Spain during 193975, and a few other countries at various times; more generally, the term is applied to any right-wing nationalist, totalitarian movement or government. The Italian word fascismo is derived from the Latin fasces, a bundle of elm or birch rods containing an ax, that was an insignia of authority in ancient Rome. Benito Mussolini adopted the symbol as the emblem of the Italian Fascist movement in 1919. In all its forms, fascism displays certain key features. The absolute primacy of the state is the chief of these, and from it follow others: the submission of the individual will to the unified will of the people as expressed by the state and entire obedience to a usually charismatic leader, who embodies the state. In addition, martial virtues, combat, and conquest are celebrated, while liberal democracy, rationalism, and bourgeois values are denigrated. An element of mysticism commonly pervades fascist expressions of the sanctity of the state or the race and declarations of its destiny, as in Mussolini's prophecy of a rebirth of the Roman Empire. Italian fascism grew out of the widespread disillusionment with ineffectual government, uninspired leadership, and chaotic economic conditions that beset Italy after World War I. Such conditions created a political atmosphere conducive to the glorification of authoritarian and, especially, military virtues. The poet Gabriele D'Annunzio was one of a number of intellectuals who exalted adventure, conflict, and war during that period. In 1919 D'Annunzio even led a takeover of the city of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia), which he ruled for 16 months. In the same year, Mussolini founded the fascist movement in Milan, calling his followers the Fasci di Combattimento. The first milestone in the party's rise to power occurred on Oct. 28, 1922, when Mussolini and his black-shirted followers staged a march on Rome, demanding that he be appointed prime minister and threatening to take over the government by force if he were not. The king capitulated and the next day invited Mussolini to form a government. Armed fascist gangs soon began to terrorize the headquarters of leftist parties and to assault and even murder their members. Mussolini outlawed all political parties but the Fascist Party the following January and thenceforth ruled Italy as a totalitarian state. In Germany Adolf Hitler's National Socialist (Nazi) movement grew out of an even more bitter aftermath of World War I and was nourished by a stronger strain of antiliberal nationalism. Hitler's program differed from Mussolini's in many respects, notably in its far more detailed program for attaining national and racial power and security, but they were fundamentally similar expressions of a particular political outlook. In Spain the Falange Espaola came to power after a civil war against a radical republican regime. The Spanish fascists held on to power mainly by remaining neutral in World War II and thus avoiding the defeat that unseated fascism in Germany and Italy. In Japan the presence of the emperor as the embodiment of the national will and identity and of a strong militarist tradition provided the needed ingredients for the development of a fascist movement in the 1930s. Many Japanese intellectuals began to call for the rejection of Westernizing influences and a return to the ancient virtues of Japanese religion, ethics, and the samurai tradition. Like Germany, Japan came to conceive of its role in the world not only as a paragon of its own virtues but also a validator of those virtues by conquest of less-enlightened peoples. Additional reading Hans Rogger and Eugen Weber (eds.), The European Right: A Historical Profile (1965); Walter Laqueur (ed.), Fascism: A Reader's Guide (1976); Roger Griffin, The Nature of Fascism (1993); Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, and Maia Asheri, The Birth of Fascist Ideology (1994; originally published in French, 1989); and Ernst Nolte, Three Faces of Fascism (1965; originally published in German, 1963), are the best resources for a theoretical introduction to fascism after one consults the works listed in the general introduction section of this bibliography. Other useful works include G.A. Borgese, Goliath: The March of Fascism (1937, reprinted 1979), on the historical and intellectual roots of Italian Fascism; Paul Brooker, The Faces of Fraternalism: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan (1991); Tim Redman, Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism (1991); Dante L. Germino, The Italian Fascist Party in Power: A Study in Totalitarian Rule (1959, reissued 1971); Elizabeth Wiskemann, Fascism in Italy: Its Development and Influence, 2nd ed. (1970); Renzo De Felice, Mussolini, vol. 1, Il rivoluzionario, 18831920 (1965); A. James Gregor, The Ideology of Fascism (1969), an analysis based upon the philosophy of Giovanni Gentile, with an extensive bibliography; F.W. Deakin, The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler, and the Fall of Italian Fascism, rev. ed. (1970); International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, The Third Reich (1955, reprinted 1975), an authoritative symposium by European and American scholars; William Ebenstein, The Nazi State (1943, reissued 1975); Hermann Rauschning, The Revolution of Nihilism: Warning to the West (1939, reissued 1973; originally published in German, 1938); Heinz Hhne, The Order of the Death's Head (1969; originally published in German, 1969), a detailed study of the most militant Nazi organization, the SS; Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, completely rev. ed. (1962), also available in an abridged ed. with the same title (1971, reissued 1991); Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, rev. and definitive ed. (1985); Diamantino P. Machado, The Structure of Portuguese Society: The Failure of Fascism (1991); D.L. Raby, Fascism and Resistance in Portugal (1988); the works by Brenan and Thomas, cited above; Stanley G. Payne, Falange: A History of Spanish Fascism (1961); C.A. Macartney, A History of Hungary, 19291945, 2 vol. (195657); J. Plumyne and R. Lasierra, Les Fascismes Franais, 19231963 (1963); Eugen Weber, Varieties of Fascism: Doctrines of Revolution in the Twentieth Century (1964, reissued 1982); Harley Ferguson MacNair, The Real Conflict Between China and Japan: An Analysis of Opposing Ideologies (1938, reprinted 1969); Angelo Del Boca and Mario Giovana, Fascism Today: A World Survey (1969; originally published in Italian, 1965), a well-documented comprehensive survey of the resurgence of fascism after 1945; Peter Hayes, The People and the Mob: The Ideology of Civil Conflict in Modern Europe (1992); Stein Ugelvik Larsen, Bernt Hagtvet, and Jan Petter Myklebust (eds.), Who Were the Fascists: Social Roots of European Fascism (1980), fifty essays on fascism in more than twenty countries; and Stanislav Andreski, Wars, Revolutions, Dictatorships (1992). Hans Kohn The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica