Editing Fascism (section)

==Tenets==
Robert Paxton finds that even though fascism "maintained the existing regime of property and social hierarchy", it cannot be considered "simply a more muscular form of conservatism" because "fascism in power did carry out some changes profound enough to be called 'revolutionary.{{'"}}{{sfnp|Paxton|2004|p=11}} These transformations "often set fascists into conflict with conservatives rooted in families, churches, social rank, and property." Paxton argues:

<blockquote>fascism redrew the frontiers between private and public, sharply diminishing what had once been untouchably private. It changed the practice of citizenship from the enjoyment of constitutional rights and duties to participation in mass ceremonies of affirmation and conformity. It reconfigured relations between the individual and the collectivity, so that an individual had no rights outside community interest. It expanded the powers of the executive—party and state—in a bid for total control. Finally, it unleashed aggressive emotions hitherto known in Europe only during war or social revolution.{{sfnp|Paxton|2004|p=11}}</blockquote>

===Ultranationalism===
{{Nationalism sidebar|Types}}

Ultranationalism, combined with the myth of national rebirth, is a key foundation of fascism.<ref>{{harvp|Griffin|2006b|pp=451–453}}; {{harvp|Ross|2017|p=5}}; {{harvp|Griffin|2008|loc=Chapter 8: Fascism's New Faces (and New Facelessness) in the 'Post-Fascist' Epoch}}; {{harvp|Davies|Lynch|2002|p=96}}</ref> Robert Paxton argues that "a passionate nationalism" is the basis of fascism, combined with "a conspiratorial and [[Manichean]] view of history" which holds, "the chosen people have been weakened by political parties, social classes, unassimilable minorities, spoiled rentiers, and rationalist thinkers."{{sfnp|Paxton|2004|p=41}} Roger Griffin identifies the core of fascism as being [[palingenetic ultranationalism]].{{sfnp|Griffin|1991|p=26}}

The fascist view of a nation is of a single organic entity that binds people together by their ancestry and is a natural unifying force of people.{{sfnp|Zimmer|2003|pp=80–107|loc=ch. 4}} Fascism seeks to solve economic, political, and social problems by achieving a [[Millenarianism|millenarian]] national rebirth, exalting the nation or [[race (biology)|race]] above all else and promoting cults of unity, strength, and purity.{{sfnp|Paxton|2004|pp=218–219}}{{sfnp|Laqueur|1997|p=223}}{{sfnp|Encyclopedia Britannica ''Fascism''}} European fascist movements typically espouse a racist conception of non-Europeans being inferior to Europeans.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=11}} Beyond this, European fascists have not held a unified set of racial views.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=11}} Historically, most fascists promoted imperialism, although there have been several fascist movements that were uninterested in the pursuit of new imperial ambitions.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=11}} For example, Nazism and Italian Fascism were [[expansionist]] and [[irredentist]].{{sfnp|Kallis|2000|p=41}}{{sfnp|Giaccaria|Minca|2016|p=37}} Falangism in Spain envisioned the worldwide unification of Spanish-speaking peoples ({{lang|es|[[Hispanidad]]}}).{{sfnp|Larsen|2001|pp=120–121}} [[British Fascism]] was [[non-interventionist]], though it did embrace the British Empire.{{sfnp|Benewick|1972|p=134}}

===Totalitarianism===
Fascism promotes the establishment of a [[totalitarian]] state.{{sfnp|Griffin|2013|pp=1–6}}<!-- Page numbers may be for 2005 edition --> It opposes liberal democracy, rejects multi-party systems, and may support a [[one-party state]] so that it may synthesize with the nation.{{sfnp|Mussolini|2002|p=40}} Mussolini's ''The Doctrine of Fascism'' (1932), partly [[ghostwriter|ghostwritten]] by philosopher Giovanni Gentile,{{sfnp|Lyttelton|1973|p=13|ps=: "The first half of the article was the work of Giovanni Gentile; only the second half was Mussolini's own work, though the whole article appeared under his name."}} who Mussolini described as "the philosopher of Fascism", states: "The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State—a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values—interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people."{{sfnp|Mussolini|1935|p=14}} In ''[[The Concept of the Political]]'', Nazi political theorist [[Carl Schmitt]] argued against liberal and parliamentarian democracy as being obstacles to the execution of state power.{{sfnp|Schweller|2006|p=122}} In ''The Legal Basis of the Total State'', Schmitt further described the Nazi intention to form a "strong state which guarantees a totality of political unity transcending all diversity" in order to avoid a "disastrous pluralism tearing the German people apart."{{sfnp|Schmitt|1995|p=72}}

Fascist states pursued policies of social [[indoctrination]] through [[propaganda]] in education and the media, and regulation of the production of educational and media materials.{{sfnmp|Pauley|2003|1p=117|Payne|1995|2p=220}} Education was designed to glorify the fascist movement and inform students of its historical and political importance to the nation. It attempted to purge ideas that were not consistent with the beliefs of the fascist movement and to teach students to be obedient to the state.{{sfnp|Pauley|2003|pp=117–119}}

===Economy===
{{Main|Economics of fascism}}

Historians and other scholars disagree on the question of whether a specifically [[fascist]] type of [[economic policy]] can be said to exist. David Baker argues that there is an identifiable economic system in fascism that is distinct from those advocated by other ideologies, comprising essential characteristics that fascist nations shared.{{sfnp|Baker|2006|p=229–230}} Payne, Paxton, Sternhell ''et al.'' argue that while fascist economies share some similarities, there is no distinctive form of fascist economic organization.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|pp=227–228}}{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=10}}{{sfnp|Paxton|2004|p=145}} [[Gerald Feldman]] and [[Timothy Mason (historian)|Timothy Mason]] argue that fascism is distinguished by an absence of coherent economic ideology and a lack of serious economic thinking. They state that the decisions taken by fascist leaders cannot be explained within a logical economic framework.{{sfnp|Woodley|2010|p=161}}

Fascists presented their views as an alternative to both international socialism and free-market economics.{{sfnp|Bastow|Martin|2003|p=36}} While fascism opposed mainstream socialism, fascists sometimes regarded their movement as a type of nationalist "socialism" to highlight their commitment to [[nationalism]], describing it as national [[solidarity]] and unity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyguide.org/europe/duce.html |title=Benito Mussolini, Doctrine of Fascism (1932). |access-date=28 July 2016 |archive-date=31 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160731235010/http://www.historyguide.org/europe/duce.html |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Blamires|2006b|p=610}} Fascism had a complex relationship with [[capitalism]], both supporting and opposing different aspects of it at different times and in different countries. In general, fascists held an instrumental view of capitalism, regarding it as a tool that may be useful or not, depending on circumstances.{{sfnp|Laqueur|1978|p=357}}{{sfnp|Overy|1994|p=1}} Fascist governments typically established close connections between big business and the state, and business was expected to serve the interests of the government.{{sfnp|Laqueur|1978|p=357}}{{sfnp|Overy|1994|p=1}} Economic self-sufficiency, known as [[autarky]], was a major goal of most fascist governments.{{sfnp|De Grand|1995|pp=60–61}}

Fascist governments advocated for the resolution of domestic [[class conflict]] within a nation in order to guarantee national unity.{{sfnp|Griffin|1991|pp=222–223}} This would be done through the state's mediating relations between the classes (contrary to the views of [[Classical liberalism|classical liberal]]-inspired capitalists).{{sfnp|Hoover|1935|pp=13–20}} While fascism was opposed to domestic class conflict, it held that [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]]-[[Proletariat|proletarian]] conflict existed primarily in international conflict between proletarian nations and bourgeois nations.{{sfnp|Neocleous|1997|pp=21–22}} Fascism condemned what it viewed as widespread character traits that it associated with the typical bourgeois mentality that it opposed, such as materialism, crassness, cowardice, and the inability to comprehend the heroic ideal of the fascist "warrior"; and associations with liberalism, individualism, and [[Parliamentary system|parliamentarianism]].{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=102}} From 1914, [[Enrico Corradini]] developed the idea of "proletarian nations", defining proletarian as being one and the same with producers, a [[Productivism|productivist]] perspective that associated all people deemed productive, including entrepreneurs, technicians, workers and soldiers as being proletarian.{{sfnp|Corner|2012|p=16}}{{sfnp|Gregor|1974|p=374–377}}{{sfnp|Lim|2012|p=71}} Mussolini adopted this view in his description of the proletarian character.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

[[File:VW Typ 83 vr.jpg|thumb|The need for a ''people's car'' ({{lang|de|[[Volkswagen]]}} in German), its concept and its functional objectives were formulated by [[Adolf Hitler]].{{sfnp|Nelson|1967|p=333}}]]

Because [[productivism]] was key to creating a strong nationalist state, it criticized internationalist and Marxist socialism, advocating instead to represent a type of nationalist productivist socialism. Nevertheless, while condemning parasitical capitalism, it was willing to accommodate productivist capitalism within it so long as it supported the nationalist objective.{{sfnp|Spektorowski|Ireni-Saban|2013|p=33}} The role of productivism was derived from [[Henri de Saint Simon]], whose ideas inspired the creation of [[utopian socialism]] and influenced other ideologies that stressed solidarity rather than class war and whose conception of productive people in the economy included both productive workers and productive bosses to challenge the influence of the aristocracy and unproductive financial speculators.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006b|p=535}} Saint Simon's vision combined the traditionalist right-wing criticisms of the French Revolution with a left-wing belief in the need for association or collaboration of productive people in society.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006b|p=535}} Whereas Marxism condemned capitalism as a system of exploitative property relations, fascism saw the nature of the control of credit and money in the contemporary capitalist system as abusive.{{sfnp|Spektorowski|Ireni-Saban|2013|p=33}}

Unlike Marxism, fascism did not see class conflict between the Marxist-defined proletariat and the bourgeoisie as a given or as an engine of historical materialism.{{sfnp|Spektorowski|Ireni-Saban|2013|p=33}} Instead, it viewed workers and productive capitalists in common as productive people who were in conflict with parasitic elements in society, including corrupt political parties, corrupt financial capital, and feeble people.{{sfnp|Spektorowski|Ireni-Saban|2013|p=33}} Fascist leaders such as Mussolini and Hitler spoke of the need to create a new managerial elite led by engineers and captains of industry—but free from the parasitic leadership of industries.{{sfnp|Spektorowski|Ireni-Saban|2013|p=33}} Hitler stated that the Nazi Party supported {{lang|de|bodenständigen Kapitalismus}} ("productive capitalism") that was based upon profit earned from one's own labour, but condemned unproductive capitalism or loan capitalism, which derived profit from speculation.{{sfnp|Friedman|2011|p=24}}

Fascist economics supported a state-controlled economy that accepted a mix of [[private ownership|private]] and [[public ownership]] over the [[means of production]].{{sfnp|Millward|2007|p=178}} [[Economic planning]] was applied to both the public and private sectors, and the prosperity of private enterprise depended on its acceptance of synchronizing itself with the economic goals of the state.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=189}} Fascist economic ideology supported the [[profit motive]] but emphasized that industries must uphold the national interest as superior to private profit.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=189}}

While fascism accepted the importance of material wealth and power, it condemned materialism, which was identified as being present in both communism and [[capitalism]], and criticized materialism for lacking acknowledgment of the role of the [[Vitalism|spirit]].{{sfnp|Davies|Lynch|2002|p=103}} In particular, fascists criticized capitalism, not because of its competitive nature nor support of private property, which fascists supported—but due to its materialism, individualism, alleged bourgeois decadence and alleged indifference to the nation.{{sfnp|Paxton|2005|p=10}} Fascism denounced Marxism for its advocacy of materialist internationalist class identity, which fascists regarded as an attack upon the emotional and spiritual bonds of the nation and a threat to the achievement of genuine national solidarity.{{sfnp|Breuilly|1994|p=290}}

In discussing the spread of fascism beyond Italy, historian Philip Morgan states: <blockquote>Since the Depression was a crisis of laissez-faire capitalism and its political counterpart, parliamentary democracy, fascism could pose as the 'third-way' alternative between capitalism and Bolshevism, the model of a new European 'civilization.' As Mussolini typically put it in early 1934, 'from 1929 ... fascism has become a universal phenomenon ... The dominant forces of the 19th century, democracy, socialism, [and] liberalism have been exhausted ... the new political and economic forms of the twentieth-century are fascist'.{{sfnp|Morgan|2003|p=32}}</blockquote>

Fascists criticized egalitarianism as preserving the weak and instead promoted social Darwinist views and policies.{{sfnp|Griffin|Feldman|2004|p=353|ps=: "When the Russian revolution occurred in 1917 and the 'Democratic' revolution spread after the First World War, anti-[[bolshevism]] and anti-egalitarianism rose as very strong "restoration movements" on the European scene. However, by the turn of that century no one could predict that fascism would become such a concrete, political reaction ... ."}}{{sfnp|Hawkins|1997|p=285|ps=: "Conflict is in fact the basic law of life in all social organisms, as it is of all biological ones; societies are formed, gain strength, and move forwards through conflict; the healthiest and most vital of them assert themselves against the weakest and less well adapted through conflict; the natural evolution of nations and races takes place through conflict." Alfredo Rocco, Italian Fascist.}} They were in principle opposed to the idea of [[social welfare]], arguing that it "encouraged the preservation of the degenerate and the feeble."{{sfnp|Evans|2005|pp=483–484}} The Nazi Party condemned the welfare system of the Weimar Republic, as well as private charity and philanthropy, for supporting people whom they regarded as racially inferior and weak and who should have been weeded out in the process of natural selection.{{sfnp|Evans|2005|p=484}} Nevertheless, faced with the mass unemployment and poverty of the Great Depression, the Nazis found it necessary to set up charitable institutions to help racially pure Germans in order to maintain popular support while arguing that this represented "racial self-help" and not indiscriminate charity or universal social welfare.{{sfnp|Evans|2005|pp=484–485}} Thus, Nazi programs such as the [[Winterhilfswerk|Winter Relief of the German People]] and the broader [[Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt|National Socialist People's Welfare]] (NSV) were organized as quasi-private institutions, officially relying on private donations from Germans to help others of their race—although in practice those who refused to donate could face severe consequences.{{sfnp|Evans|2005|pp=486–487}} Unlike the social welfare institutions of the Weimar Republic and the Christian charities, the NSV distributed assistance on explicitly racial grounds. It provided support only to those who were "racially sound, capable of and willing to work, politically reliable, and willing and able to reproduce." Non-Aryans were excluded, as well as the "work-shy", "asocials" and the "hereditarily ill".{{sfnp|Evans|2005|p=489}} Under these conditions, by 1939, over 17 million Germans had obtained assistance from the NSV, and the agency "projected a powerful image of caring and support" for "those who were judged to have got into difficulties through no fault of their own."{{sfnp|Evans|2005|p=489}} Yet the organization was "feared and disliked among society's poorest" because it resorted to intrusive questioning and monitoring to judge who was worthy of support.{{sfnp|Evans|2005|pp=489–490}}

===Direct action===
Fascism emphasizes [[direct action]], including supporting the legitimacy of political violence, as a core part of its politics.{{sfnmp|Payne|1995|1p=106|Breuilly|1994|2p=294}} Fascism views violent action as a necessity in politics that fascism identifies as being an "endless struggle";{{sfnp|Woodley|2010|p=106}} this emphasis on the use of political violence means that most fascist parties have also created their own private [[militias]] (e.g. the Nazi Party's [[Brown shirts]] and Fascist Italy's [[Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale|Blackshirts]]). The basis of fascism's support of violent action in politics is connected to social Darwinism.{{sfnp|Woodley|2010|p=106}} Fascist movements have commonly held social Darwinist views of nations, races, and societies.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|pp=485–486}} They say that nations and races must purge themselves of socially and biologically weak or [[Social degeneration|degenerate]] people while simultaneously promoting the creation of strong people in order to survive in a world defined by perpetual national and racial conflict.{{sfnp|Griffin|1995|p=59}}

===Age and gender roles===
[[File:Piccole Italiane.jpg|thumb|Members of the {{lang|it|[[Piccole Italiane]]}}, an organization for girls within the National Fascist Party in Italy]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-04517A, Potsdam, Mädchen in der Führerinnenschule.jpg|thumb|Members of the [[League of German Girls]], an organization for girls within the Nazi Party in Germany]]
Fascism emphasizes [[youth]] both in a physical sense of age and a spiritual sense as related to virility and commitment to action.{{sfnp|Antliff|2007|p=171}} The Italian Fascists' political anthem was called ''[[Giovinezza]]'' ("The Youth").{{sfnp|Antliff|2007|p=171}} Fascism identifies the physical age period of youth as a critical time for the moral development of people who will affect society.{{sfnp|Quine|1996|p=47}} [[Walter Laqueur]] argues "[t]he corollaries of the cult of war and physical danger were the cult of brutality, strength, and sexuality ... [fascism is] a true counter-civilization: rejecting the sophisticated rationalist humanism of Old Europe, fascism sets up as its ideal the primitive instincts and primal emotions of the barbarian."{{sfnp|Laqueur|1978|p=341}}

Italian fascism pursued what it called "moral hygiene" of youth, particularly regarding [[Human sexuality|sexuality]].{{sfnp|Quine|1996|pp=46–47}} Fascist Italy promoted what it considered normal sexual behaviour in youth while denouncing what it considered deviant sexual behaviour.{{sfnp|Quine|1996|pp=46–47}} It condemned [[pornography]], most forms of [[birth control]] and contraceptive devices (with the exception of the [[condom]]), [[homosexuality]] and [[prostitution]] as deviant sexual behaviour. However, enforcement of laws opposed to such practices was erratic, and authorities often looked the other way.{{sfnp|Quine|1996|pp=46–47}} Fascist Italy regarded the promotion of male sexual excitation before [[puberty]] as the cause of criminality amongst male youth, declared homosexuality a social disease and pursued an aggressive campaign to reduce prostitution of young women.{{sfnp|Quine|1996|pp=46–47}}

Mussolini perceived women's primary role as primarily child bearers, while that of men as warriors, once saying: "War is to man what maternity is to the woman."{{sfnp|Bollas|1993|p=205}} In an effort to increase birth rates, the Italian Fascist government gave financial incentives to women who raised large families and initiated policies intended to reduce the number of women employed.{{sfnp|McDonald|1999|p=27}} Italian Fascism called for women to be honoured as "reproducers of the nation", and the Italian Fascist government held ritual ceremonies to celebrate women's role within the Italian nation.{{sfnp|Mann|2004|p=101}} In 1934, Mussolini declared that employment of women was a "major aspect of the thorny problem of unemployment" and that for women, working was "incompatible with childbearing"; Mussolini went on to say that the solution to unemployment for men was the "exodus of women from the work force."{{sfnp|Durham|1998|p=15}}

The German Nazi government strongly encouraged women to stay at home to bear children and keep house.{{sfnp|Evans|2005|pp=331–332}} This policy was reinforced by bestowing the [[Cross of Honor of the German Mother]] on women bearing four or more children. The unemployment rate was cut substantially, mostly through arms production and sending women home so that men could take their jobs. Nazi propaganda sometimes promoted premarital and extramarital sexual relations, unwed motherhood and divorce, but at other times the Nazis opposed such behaviour.{{sfnp|Heineman|2002|pp=29–31, 46–49}}

The Nazis decriminalized abortion in cases where fetuses had hereditary defects or were of a race the government disapproved of, while the abortion of healthy pure German, [[Aryan race|Aryan]] fetuses remained strictly forbidden.{{sfnp|Friedlander|1995|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gqLDEKVk2nMC 30]}} For non-Aryans, abortion was often compulsory. Their [[eugenics]] program also stemmed from the "progressive biomedical model" of [[Weimar Germany]].{{sfnp|McLaren|1999|p=139}} In 1935, Nazi Germany expanded the legality of [[history of abortion|abortion]] by amending [[Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring|its eugenics law]] to promote abortion for women with hereditary disorders.{{sfnp|Friedlander|1995|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gqLDEKVk2nMC 30]}} The law allowed abortion if a woman gave her permission and the fetus was not yet viable{{sfnp|Proctor|1989|p=366|ps=: "This emendation allowed abortion only if the woman granted permission, and only if the fetus was not old enough to survive outside the womb. It is unclear if either of these qualifications was enforced."}}{{sfnp|Arnot|Usborne|1999|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=q1BFiRa3KHkC 241]}} and for purposes of so-called [[racial hygiene]].{{sfnp|Proctor|1989|pp=122–123|ps=: "Abortion, in other words, could be allowed if it was in the interest of racial hygiene. ... the Nazis did allow (and in some cases even required) abortions for women deemed racially inferior. ... On 10 November 1938, a Luneberg court declared abortion legal for Jews."}}{{sfnp|Tierney|1999|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gQLqRd7hJq0C 589]|ps=: "In 1939, it was announced that Jewish women could seek abortions, but non-Jewish women could not."}}

The Nazis said that homosexuality was degenerate, effeminate, perverted, and undermined masculinity because it did not produce children.{{sfnp|Evans|2005|p=529}} They considered homosexuality curable through therapy, citing modern [[scientism]] and the study of [[sexology]]. Open homosexuals were interned in Nazi concentration camps.{{sfnp|Holocaust Encyclopedia ''Persecution of Homosexuals''}}

===Palingenesis and modernism===
{{Main article|Reactionary modernism}}
Fascism emphasizes both palingenesis (national rebirth or re-creation) and [[modernism]].{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=168}} In particular, fascism's nationalism [[palingenetic ultranationalism|has been identified as having a palingenetic character]].{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=451–453}} Fascism promotes the nation's regeneration and purging it of decadence.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=168}} Fascism accepts forms of modernism that it deems promote national regeneration while rejecting forms of modernism regarded as antithetical to national regeneration.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|pp=168–169}} Fascism aestheticized modern technology and its association with speed, power, and violence.{{sfnp|Neocleous|1997|p=63}} Fascism admired advances in the economy in the early 20th century, particularly [[Fordism]] and [[scientific management]].{{sfnp|Neocleous|1997|p=65}} Fascist modernism has been recognized as inspired or developed by various figures—such as [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]], [[Ernst Jünger]], [[Gottfried Benn]], [[Louis-Ferdinand Céline]], [[Knut Hamsun]], [[Ezra Pound]] and [[Wyndham Lewis]].{{sfnp|Welge|2007|p=547}}

In Italy, such modernist influence was exemplified by Marinetti, who advocated a palingenetic modernist society that condemned liberal-bourgeois values of tradition and psychology while promoting a technological-martial religion of national renewal that emphasized militant nationalism.{{sfnp|Welge|2007|p=550}} In Germany, it was exemplified by Jünger who was influenced by his observation of the technological warfare during World War I and claimed that a new social class had been created that he described as the "warrior-worker";{{sfnp|Welge|2007|p=553}} Like Marinetti, Jünger emphasized the revolutionary capacities of technology. He emphasized an "organic construction" between humans and machines as a liberating and regenerative force that challenged liberal democracy, conceptions of individual autonomy, bourgeois nihilism, and decadence.{{sfnp|Welge|2007|p=553}} He conceived of a society based on a totalitarian concept of "total mobilization" of such disciplined warrior-workers.{{sfnp|Welge|2007|p=553}}