Editing Fascism (section)

===Position on the political spectrum===
[[File:Francoist demonstration in Salamanca.jpg|thumb|Pro-government demonstration in [[Salamanca]], [[Francoist Spain]], in 1937. [[Francisco Franco]] was later labeled by some commentators the "last surviving fascist dictator".{{sfnp|Encyclopedia Britannica ''Franco's dictatorship''}}]]

Scholars place fascism on the [[far right]] of the [[political spectrum]].<ref name="RoutledgeCompanion"/>{{sfnp|Holocaust Encyclopedia ''Fascism''}}<ref name="University-Aristotle-Hartley-Reich-Payne"/> Such scholarship focuses on its [[social conservatism]] and its [[authoritarian]] means of opposing [[egalitarianism]].<ref>{{harvp|Davies|Lynch|2002|pp=126–127}}; {{harvp|Zafirovski|2008|pp=137–138}}; {{harvp|Woodley|2010|pp=17–18, 26}}; {{harvp|Richardson|2017|pp=25–26, 34–35}}; {{harvp|Kallis|2003b|pp=234, 282}}</ref> Roderick Stackelberg places fascism—including [[Nazism]], which he says is "a radical variant of fascism"—on the political right by explaining: "The more a person deems absolute equality among all people to be a desirable condition, the further left he or she will be on the ideological spectrum. The more a person considers inequality to be unavoidable or even desirable, the further to the right he or she will be."{{sfnp|Stackelberg|1999|pp=4–6}}

Fascism's origins are complex and include many seemingly contradictory viewpoints, ultimately centered on a mythos of national rebirth from decadence.{{sfnp|Griffin|2003|p=5}} Fascism was founded during [[World War I]] by Italian [[national syndicalists]] who drew upon both [[left-wing]] organizational tactics and [[right-wing]] political views.{{sfnp|Gregor|2009|p=191}} [[Italian fascism]] gravitated to the right in the early 1920s.{{sfnmp|1a1=Sternhell|1a2=Sznajder|1a3=Ashéri|1y=1994|1p=161|2a1=Borsella|2a2=Caso|2y=2007|2p=76}} A major element of fascist ideology that has been deemed to be far right is its stated goal to promote the right of a supposedly [[Supremacism|superior people]] to dominate, while purging society of supposedly inferior elements.{{sfnp|Woshinsky|2008|p=156}}

Mussolini and [[Giovanni Gentile]] described their ideology as right-wing in the political essay ''[[The Doctrine of Fascism]]'' (1932), stating: "We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right,' a fascist century."{{sfnmp|1a1=Schnapp|1a2=Sears|1a3=Stampino|1y=2000|1p=57|Mussolini|1935|2p=26}} Mussolini stated that fascism's position on the political spectrum was not a serious issue for fascists: "[F]ascism, sitting on the right, could also have sat on the mountain of the center. ... These words in any case do not have a fixed and unchanged meaning: they do have a variable subject to location, time and spirit. We don't give a damn about these empty terminologies and we despise those who are terrorized by these words."<ref>Mussolini quoted in {{harvp|Gentile|2005|p=205}}</ref>

Major Italian groups politically on the right, especially rich landowners and big business, feared an uprising by groups on the left, such as sharecroppers and labour unions.{{sfnp|Baranski|West|2001|pp=50–51}} They welcomed fascism and supported its violent suppression of opponents on the left.{{sfnp|Encyclopedia Britannica ''The fascist era''}} The accommodation of the political right into the Italian Fascist movement in the early 1920s created internal factions within the movement. The "fascist left" included [[Michele Bianchi]], [[Giuseppe Bottai]], [[Angelo Oliviero Olivetti]], [[Sergio Panunzio]], and [[Edmondo Rossoni]], who were committed to advancing national syndicalism as a replacement for parliamentary liberalism in order to modernize the economy and advance the interests of workers and the common people.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=112}} The "fascist right" included members of the paramilitary [[Blackshirts]] and former members of the [[Italian Nationalist Association]] (ANI).{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=112}} The Blackshirts wanted to establish fascism as a complete dictatorship, while the former ANI members, including [[Alfredo Rocco]], sought to institute an authoritarian corporatist state to replace the liberal state in Italy while retaining the existing elites.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=112}} Upon accommodating the political right, there arose a group of monarchist fascists who sought to use fascism to create an [[absolute monarchy]] under King [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy]].{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=112}}

A number of post-World War II fascist movements described themselves as a [[Third Position]] outside the traditional political spectrum.{{sfnp|Shaffer|2018|pp=83–91}} [[Falange Española de las JONS]] leader [[José Antonio Primo de Rivera]] said: "[B]asically the Right stands for the maintenance of an economic structure, albeit an unjust one, while the Left stands for the attempt to subvert that economic structure, even though the subversion thereof would entail the destruction of much that was worthwhile."{{sfnp|Neocleous|1997|p=54}}