Editing Fascism (section)

==History==
{{Further|Fascism and ideology}}

===Background and 19th-century roots===
[[File:Hoplit.png|thumb|Depiction of a Greek Hoplite warrior; ancient [[Sparta]] has been considered an inspiration for fascist and quasi-fascist movements, such as [[Nazism]] and quasi-fascist [[Metaxism]]<ref>{{harvp|Roche|2017|pp=3–28}}; {{harvp|Cole|2019}}; {{harvp|Grafton|Most|Settis|2010|p=353}}; {{harvp|Fischer|2007|p=184}}</ref>]]

Early influences that shaped the ideology of fascism have been dated back to [[ancient Greece]]. The political culture of ancient Greece and specifically the ancient Greek city state of [[Sparta]] under [[Lycurgus of Sparta|Lycurgus]], with its emphasis on militarism and racial purity, were admired by the Nazis.{{sfnp|Roche|2017|pp=3–28}}{{sfnp|Cole|2019}}{{sfnp|Grafton|Most|Settis|2010|p=353}} Nazi ''[[Führer]]'' [[Adolf Hitler]] emphasized that Germany should adhere to Hellenic values and culture – particularly that of ancient Sparta.{{sfnp|Roche|2017|pp=3–28}}{{sfnp|Cole|2019}}

[[Georges Valois]], founder of the first non-Italian fascist party [[Faisceau]],{{sfnp|Sternhell|1976}} claimed the roots of fascism stemmed from the late 18th century [[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobin]] movement, seeing in its totalitarian nature a foreshadowing of the fascist state.{{sfnp|Camus|Lebourg|2017|p=20}} Historian [[George Mosse]] similarly analyzed fascism as an inheritor of the [[mass movement (politics)|mass ideology]] and [[civil religion]] of the [[French Revolution]], as well as a result of the brutalization of societies in 1914–1918.{{sfnp|Camus|Lebourg|2017|p=20}}

Historians such as [[Irene Collins]] and Howard C Payne see [[Napoleon III]], who ran a 'police state' and suppressed the media, as a forerunner of fascism.{{sfnp|Williams|2015|p=28}} According to [[David Thomson (historian)|David Thomson]],{{sfnp|Thomson|1966|p=293}} the Italian [[Risorgimento]] of 1871 led to the 'nemesis of fascism'. [[William L Shirer]]{{sfnp|Shirer|1960|p=97}} sees a continuity from the views of [[Fichte]] and [[Hegel]], through [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]], to Hitler; [[Robert Gerwarth]] speaks of a 'direct line' from Bismarck to Hitler.{{sfnp|Gerwarth|2005|p=166}} Julian Dierkes sees fascism as a 'particularly violent form of [[imperialism]]'.{{sfnp|Dierkes|2010|p=54}}

[[Marcus Garvey]], founder and leader of the [[Universal Negro Improvement Association]], insisted that he and his organisation "were the first fascists".{{sfnp|Gregor|2006|p=111}} In 1938, [[C. L. R. James]] wrote "all the things that Hitler was to do so well later, Marcus Garvey was doing in 1920 and 1921".{{sfnp|Gilroy|2000|p=70}}

===Fin de siècle era and lead up to World War I (1880–1914)===
{{See also|National syndicalism}}
The historian [[Zeev Sternhell]] has traced the ideological roots of fascism back to the 1880s and in particular to the {{lang|fr|[[fin de siècle]]}} theme of that time.{{sfnmp|Sternhell|1998|1p=169|Payne|1995|2pp=23–24}} The theme was based on a revolt against [[materialism]], [[rationalism]], [[positivism]], [[bourgeois]] society, and [[democracy]].{{sfnp|Sternhell|1998|p=170}} The {{lang|fr|fin-de-siècle}} generation supported [[emotionalism (disorder)|emotionalism]], [[irrationalism]], [[subjectivism]], and [[vitalism]].{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=24}} They regarded civilization as being in crisis, requiring a massive and total solution.{{sfnp|Sternhell|1998|p=170}} Their intellectual school considered the individual as only one part of the larger collectivity, which should not be viewed as a numerical sum of atomized individuals.{{sfnp|Sternhell|1998|p=170}} They condemned the rationalistic, [[liberal individualism]] of society and the dissolution of social links in bourgeois society.{{sfnp|Sternhell|1998|p=170}}

The {{lang|fr|fin-de-siècle}} outlook was influenced by various intellectual developments, including [[Darwinian]] biology, {{lang|de|[[Gesamtkunstwerk]]}}, [[Arthur de Gobineau]]'s racialism, [[Gustave Le Bon]]'s [[psychology]], and the philosophies of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], and [[Henri Bergson]].{{sfnp|Sternhell|1998|p=171}} [[Social Darwinism]], which gained widespread acceptance, made no distinction between physical and social life, and viewed the human condition as being an unceasing struggle to achieve the [[survival of the fittest]].{{sfnp|Sternhell|1998|p=171}} It challenged positivism's claim of deliberate and rational choice as the determining behaviour of humans, with social Darwinism focusing on heredity, race, and environment.{{sfnp|Sternhell|1998|p=171}} Its emphasis on biogroup identity and the role of organic relations within societies fostered the legitimacy and appeal of nationalism.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=29}} New theories of social and political psychology also rejected the notion of human behaviour being governed by rational choice and instead claimed that emotion was more influential in political issues than reason.{{sfnp|Sternhell|1998|p=171}} Nietzsche's argument that "God is dead" coincided with his attack on the "[[herd mentality]]" of [[Christianity]], [[democracy]], and modern [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivism]], his concept of the {{lang|de|[[Übermensch]]}}, and his advocacy of the [[will to power]] as a primordial instinct, were major influences upon many of the {{lang|fr|fin-de-siècle}} generation.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|pp=24–25}} Bergson's claim of the existence of an {{lang|fr|élan vital}}, or vital instinct, centred upon free choice and rejected the processes of materialism and determinism; this challenged Marxism.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=25}}

In his work ''The Ruling Class'' (1896), [[Gaetano Mosca]] developed the theory that claims that in all societies an "organized minority" would dominate and rule over an "disorganized majority",{{sfnmp|Outhwaite|2006|1p=442|Koon|1985|2p=6}} stating that there are only two classes in society, "the governing" (the organized minority) and "the governed" (the disorganized majority).{{sfnp|Caforio|2006|p=12}} He claims that the organized nature of the organized minority makes it irresistible to any individual of the disorganized majority.{{sfnp|Caforio|2006|p=12}}

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[[French nationalist]] and [[reactionary]] monarchist [[Charles Maurras]] influenced fascism.{{sfnp|Carroll|1998|p=92}} Maurras promoted what he called [[integral nationalism]], which called for the organic unity of a nation, and insisted that a powerful monarch was an ideal leader of a nation. Maurras distrusted what he considered the democratic mystification of the popular will that created an impersonal collective subject.{{sfnp|Carroll|1998|p=92}} He claimed that a powerful monarch was a personified sovereign who could exercise authority to unite a nation's people.{{sfnp|Carroll|1998|p=92}} Maurras' integral nationalism was idealized by fascists, but modified into a modernized revolutionary form that was devoid of Maurras' monarchism.{{sfnp|Carroll|1998|p=92}}

French revolutionary [[syndicalist]] [[Georges Sorel]] promoted the legitimacy of [[political violence]] in his work ''[[Reflections on Violence]]'' (1908) and other works in which he advocated radical syndicalist action to achieve a revolution to overthrow capitalism and the bourgeoisie through a [[general strike]].{{sfnp|Antliff|2007|pp=75–81}} In ''Reflections on Violence'', Sorel emphasized need for a revolutionary [[political religion]].{{sfnp|Antliff|2007|p=81}} Also in his work ''The Illusions of Progress'', Sorel denounced democracy as reactionary, saying "nothing is more aristocratic than democracy."{{sfnp|Antliff|2007|p=77}} By 1909, after the failure of a syndicalist general strike in France, Sorel and his supporters left the radical left and went to the radical right, where they sought to merge militant Catholicism and French patriotism with their views—advocating anti-republican Christian French patriots as ideal revolutionaries.{{sfnp|Antliff|2007|p=82}} Initially, Sorel had officially been a [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionist]] of Marxism, but by 1910 announced his abandonment of socialist literature and claimed in 1914, using an aphorism of [[Benedetto Croce]] that "socialism is dead" because of the "decomposition of Marxism".{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=78}} Sorel became a supporter of reactionary Maurrassian nationalism beginning in 1909 that influenced his works.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=78}} Maurras held interest in merging his nationalist ideals with Sorelian [[syndicalism]], known as [[Sorelianism]], as a means to confront democracy.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=82}} Maurras stated, "A socialism liberated from the democratic and cosmopolitan element fits nationalism well as a well made glove fits a beautiful hand."{{sfnp|Holmes|2000|p=60}}

The fusion of Maurrassian nationalism and Sorelian syndicalism influenced radical Italian nationalist [[Enrico Corradini]].{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=163}} Corradini spoke of the need for a nationalist-syndicalist movement, led by elitist aristocrats and anti-democrats who shared a revolutionary syndicalist commitment to direct action and a willingness to fight.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=163}} Corradini spoke of Italy as being a "proletarian nation" that needed to pursue imperialism in order to challenge the "[[plutocratic]]" French and British.{{sfnp|Blinkhorn|2006|p=12}} Corradini's views were part of a wider set of perceptions within the right-wing Italian Nationalist Association (ANI), which claimed that Italy's economic backwardness was caused by corruption in its political class, liberalism, and division caused by "ignoble socialism".{{sfnp|Blinkhorn|2006|p=12}}

The ANI held ties and influence among [[conservatives]], Catholics, and the business community.{{sfnp|Blinkhorn|2006|p=12–13}} Italian national syndicalists held a common set of principles: the rejection of [[bourgeois]] values, democracy, liberalism, [[Marxism]], [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalism]], and [[pacifism]], and the promotion of [[heroism]], vitalism, and violence.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=32}} The ANI claimed that liberal democracy was no longer compatible with the modern world, and advocated a strong state and imperialism. They believed that humans are naturally predatory, and that nations are in a constant struggle in which only the strongest would survive.{{sfnp|Gentile|2003|p=6}}

[[File:Manifesto of Futurism.jpg|thumb|[[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]], Italian modernist author of the [[Futurist Manifesto]] (1909) and later the co-author of the [[Fascist Manifesto]] (1919){{sfnp|Elazar|2001|p=73}}]]

[[Futurism]] was both an artistic-cultural movement and initially a political movement in Italy led by [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]] who founded the [[Manifesto of Futurism]] (1908), that championed the causes of modernism, action, and political violence as necessary elements of politics while denouncing liberalism and parliamentary politics. Marinetti rejected conventional democracy based on majority rule and egalitarianism, for a new form of democracy, promoting what he described in his work "The Futurist Conception of Democracy" as the following: "We are therefore able to give the directions to create and to dismantle to numbers, to quantity, to the mass, for with us number, quantity and mass will never be—as they are in Germany and Russia—the number, quantity and mass of mediocre men, incapable and indecisive."{{sfnp|Hewitt|1993|p=153}}

Futurism influenced fascism in its emphasis on recognizing the virile nature of violent action and war as being necessities of modern civilization.{{sfnp|Gori|2004|p=14}} Marinetti promoted the need of physical training of young men saying that, in male education, gymnastics should take precedence over books. He advocated segregation of the genders because womanly sensibility must not enter men's education, which he claimed must be "lively, bellicose, muscular and violently dynamic."{{sfnp|Gori|2004|pp=20–21}}

===World War I and its aftermath (1914–1929)===
[[File:Benito Mussolini 1917.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Benito Mussolini]] in 1917 as an Italian soldier in [[World War I]].]]
At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the Italian political left became severely split over its position on the war. The [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI) opposed the war but a number of Italian revolutionary syndicalists supported war against Germany and Austria-Hungary on the grounds that their reactionary regimes had to be defeated to ensure the success of socialism.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=175}} Angelo Oliviero Olivetti formed a pro-interventionist ''[[fascio]]'' called the [[Fascio Rivoluzionario d'Azione Internazionalista|Revolutionary Fasces of International Action]] in October 1914.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=175}} Benito Mussolini upon being expelled from his position as chief editor of the PSI's newspaper {{lang|it|[[Avanti! (Italian newspaper)|Avanti!]]}} for his anti-German stance, joined the interventionist cause in a separate ''fascio''.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=214}} The term "fascism" was first used in 1915 by members of Mussolini's movement, the Fasces of Revolutionary Action.{{sfnp|O'Brien|2014|p=52}}

The first meeting of the Fasces of Revolutionary Action was held on 24 January 1915{{sfnp|O'Brien|2014|p=41}} when Mussolini declared that it was necessary for Europe to resolve its national problems—including national borders—of Italy and elsewhere "for the ideals of justice and liberty for which oppressed peoples must acquire the right to belong to those national communities from which they descended."{{sfnp|O'Brien|2014|p=41}} Attempts to hold mass meetings were ineffective and the organization was regularly harassed by government authorities and socialists.{{sfnp|Gregor|1979|pp=195–196}}

[[File:Hitler World War I.jpg|thumb|Adolf Hitler as a German soldier in World War I.]]
Similar political ideas arose in Germany after the outbreak of the war. German sociologist [[Johann Plenge]] spoke of the rise of a "National Socialism" in Germany within what he termed the "ideas of 1914" that were a declaration of war against the "ideas of 1789" (the French Revolution).{{sfnp|Kitchen|2006|p=205}} According to Plenge, the "ideas of 1789"—such as the rights of man, democracy, individualism and liberalism—were being rejected in favor of "the ideas of 1914" that included "German values" of duty, discipline, law and order.{{sfnp|Kitchen|2006|p=205}} Plenge believed that racial solidarity ({{lang|de|Volksgemeinschaft}}) would replace class division and that "racial comrades" would unite to create a socialist society in the struggle of "proletarian" Germany against "capitalist" Britain.{{sfnp|Kitchen|2006|p=205}} He believed that the [[Spirit of 1914]] manifested itself in the concept of the People's League of National Socialism.{{sfnp|Hüppauf|1997|p=92}} This National Socialism was a form of [[state socialism]] that rejected the "idea of boundless freedom" and promoted an economy that would serve the whole of Germany under the leadership of the state.{{sfnp|Hüppauf|1997|p=92}} This National Socialism was opposed to capitalism because of the components that were against "the national interest" of Germany but insisted that National Socialism would strive for greater efficiency in the economy.{{sfnp|Hüppauf|1997|p=92}} Plenge advocated an authoritarian rational ruling elite to develop National Socialism through a hierarchical [[Technocracy|technocratic]] state.{{sfnp|Rohkrämer|2007|p=130}}

====Impact of World War I====
[[File:Italian Arditi.jpg|thumb|Members of Italy's {{lang|it|[[Arditi]]}} corps, shown here in 1918 holding daggers, a symbol of their group. They were formed in 1917 as groups of soldiers trained for dangerous missions, characterized by a refusal to surrender and a willingness to fight to the death. Their black uniforms inspired those of the Italian Fascist movement.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Corni |first=Gustavo |date=26 August 2015 |title=Fascism and the Radical Right |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/fascism-and-the-radical-right/ |encyclopedia=International Encyclopedia of the First World War |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250401005815/https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/fascism-and-the-radical-right/ |archive-date=1 April 2025}}</ref>]]

Fascists viewed World War I as bringing revolutionary changes in the nature of war, society, the state and technology, as the advent of [[total war]] and mass mobilization had broken down the distinction between civilian and combatant, as civilians had become a critical part in economic production for the war effort and thus arose a "military citizenship" in which all citizens were involved to the military in some manner during the war.{{sfnmp|Griffin|2006|1pp=140–141|Gentile|2006b|2p=670|Mann|2004|3p=65}} World War I had resulted in the rise of a powerful state capable of mobilizing millions of people to serve on the front lines or provide economic production and logistics to support those on the front lines, as well as having unprecedented authority to intervene in the lives of citizens.{{sfnmp|Griffin|2006|1pp=140–141|Gentile|2006b|2p=670|Mann|2004|3p=65}} Fascists viewed technological developments of weaponry and the state's total mobilization of its population in the war as symbolizing the beginning of a new era fusing state power with [[mass politics]], technology and particularly the mobilizing myth that they contended had triumphed over the myth of progress and the era of liberalism.{{sfnmp|Griffin|2006|1pp=140–141|Gentile|2006b|2p=670}}

====Impact of the October Revolution in Russia====
{{see also|October Revolution}}

The [[October Revolution]] of 1917, in which [[Bolshevik]] communists led by [[Vladimir Lenin]] seized power in Russia, greatly influenced the development of fascism.{{sfnp|Umland|2006|pp=95–96}} In 1917, Mussolini, as leader of the [[Fasces of Revolutionary Action]], praised the October Revolution, but later he became unimpressed with Lenin, regarding him as merely a new version of [[Tsar Nicholas II]].{{sfnp|Neville|2004|p=36}} After World War I, fascists commonly campaigned on [[anti-Marxist]] agendas.{{sfnp|Umland|2006|pp=95–96}}

British historian Cyprian Blamires argues that there are similarities between fascism and Bolshevism, including that they believed in the necessity of a vanguard leadership, showed contempt for bourgeois values, and had totalitarian ambitions.{{sfnp|Umland|2006|pp=95–96}} In practice, both have commonly emphasized revolutionary action, proletarian nation theories, one-party states, and party-armies;{{sfnp|Umland|2006|pp=95–96}} With the antagonism between [[anti-interventionist]] Marxists and pro-[[Interventionism (politics)|interventionist]] fascists complete by the end of the war, the two sides became irreconcilable. The fascists presented themselves as [[anti-communists]] and as especially opposed to the [[Marxists]].{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=178}} In 1919, Mussolini consolidated control over the fascist movement, known as {{lang|it|[[Sansepolcrismo]]}}, with the founding of the ''[[Italian Fasces of Combat]]''.{{sfnp|Encyclopedia Britannica ''The fascist era''}}

====Fascist Manifesto and Charter of Carnaro====
[[File:Promised Borders of the Tready of London.png|thumb|Territories promised to Italy by the [[Treaty of London (1915)]]: [[Trentino-Alto Adige]], the [[Julian March]] and [[Dalmatia]] (tan) and the [[Snežnik (plateau)|Snežnik Plateau]] area (green). However, after World War I, Dalmatia was not assigned to Italy but to [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]]]

In 1919, [[Alceste De Ambris]] and [[futurist]] movement leader [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]] created "[[The Manifesto of the Italian Fasces of Combat]]".{{sfnp|Elazar|2001|p=73}} The Fascist Manifesto was presented on 6 June 1919 in the fascist newspaper {{lang|it|[[Il Popolo d'Italia]]}} and supported the creation of [[universal suffrage]], including [[women's suffrage]] (the latter being realized only partly in late 1925, with all opposition parties banned or disbanded);{{sfnp|Passmore|2003|p=116}} [[proportional representation]] on a regional basis; government representation through a [[corporatist]] system of "National Councils" of experts, selected from professionals and tradespeople, elected to represent and hold legislative power over their respective areas, including labour, industry, transportation, public health, and communications, among others; and abolition of the [[Senate of the Kingdom of Italy]].{{sfnp|Borsella|Caso|2007|p=69}} The Fascist Manifesto supported the creation of an [[eight-hour work day]] for all workers, a [[minimum wage]], worker representation in industrial management, equal confidence in labour unions as in industrial executives and public servants, reorganization of the transportation sector, revision of the draft law on invalidity insurance, reduction of the retirement age from 65 to 55, a strong [[progressive tax]] on capital, confiscation of the property of religious institutions and abolishment of bishoprics, and revision of military contracts to allow the government to seize 85% of profits.{{sfnp|Borsella|Caso|2007|pp=69–70}} It also called for the fulfillment of expansionist aims in the Balkans and other parts of the Mediterranean, the creation of a short-service national militia to serve defensive duties, [[nationalization]] of the armaments industry, and a foreign policy designed to be peaceful but also competitive.{{sfnp|Borsella|Caso|2007|p=70}}

[[File:Fiume cheering D'Annunzio.jpg|thumb|Residents of [[Fiume]], now Rijeka, Croatia, cheer the arrival of [[Gabriele d'Annunzio]] and his blackshirt-wearing nationalist raiders, as D'Annunzio and fascist [[Alceste De Ambris]] developed the quasi-fascist [[Italian Regency of Carnaro]] (a city-state in Fiume) from 1919 to 1920 and whose actions inspired the Italian fascist movement. In September 1919 Fiume had 22,488 (62% of the population) Italians in a total population of 35,839 inhabitants.{{sfnp|Encyclopedia Britannica ''Fiume question''}}]]
The next events that influenced the fascists in Italy were the raid of [[Fiume (city)|Fiume]] by Italian nationalist [[Gabriele d'Annunzio]] and the founding of the [[Charter of Carnaro]] in 1920.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=186}} D'Annunzio and De Ambris designed the Charter, which advocated national-syndicalist corporatist [[productionism]] alongside D'Annunzio's political views.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=187}} Many fascists saw the Charter of Carnaro as an ideal constitution for a fascist Italy.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=189}} This behaviour of aggression towards Yugoslavia and [[South Slavs]] was pursued by Italian fascists with their persecution of South Slavs—especially Slovenes and Croats.{{sfnp|Hehn|2005|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=nOALhEZkYDkC&pg=PA45 44–45]}}{{sfnp|Millett|Murray|2010|p=184}}

====From populism to conservative accommodations====
In 1920, militant strike activity by industrial workers reached its peak in Italy and 1919 and 1920 were known as the "Red Year" ({{lang|it|[[Biennio Rosso]]}}).{{sfnp|Borsella|Caso|2007|p=73}} Mussolini and the fascists took advantage of the situation by allying with industrial businesses and attacking workers and peasants in the name of preserving order and internal peace in Italy.{{sfnp|Borsella|Caso|2007|p=75}}

Fascists identified their primary opponents as the majority of socialists on the left who had opposed intervention in World War I.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=189}} The fascists and the Italian political right held common ground: both held Marxism in contempt, discounted class consciousness and believed in the rule of elites.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=193}} The fascists assisted the anti-socialist campaign by allying with the other parties and the conservative right in a mutual effort to destroy the Italian Socialist Party and labour organizations committed to class identity above national identity.{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=193}}

Fascism sought to accommodate Italian conservatives by making major alterations to its political agenda—abandoning its previous populism, [[republicanism]] and [[anticlericalism]], adopting policies in support of [[free enterprise]] and accepting the [[Catholic Church]] and the monarchy as institutions in Italy.{{sfnp|De Grand|2000|p=145}} To appeal to Italian conservatives, fascism adopted policies such as promoting [[family values]], including policies designed to reduce the number of women in the workforce—limiting the woman's role to that of a mother. The fascists banned literature on birth control and increased penalties for abortion in 1926, declaring both crimes against the state.{{sfnp|Blinkhorn|2003|p=14}}

Although fascism adopted a number of anti-modern positions designed to appeal to people upset with the new trends in sexuality and women's rights—especially those with a [[reactionary]] point of view—the fascists sought to maintain fascism's revolutionary character, with Angelo Oliviero Olivetti saying: "Fascism would like to be conservative, but it will [be] by being revolutionary."{{sfnp|Sternhell|Sznajder|Ashéri|1994|p=190}} The Fascists supported revolutionary action and committed to secure law and order to appeal to both conservatives and syndicalists.{{sfnp|Blinkhorn|2003|p=22}}

Prior to fascism's accommodations to the political right, fascism was a small, urban, northern Italian movement that had about a thousand members.{{sfnp|Borsella|Caso|2007|p=72}} After Fascism's accommodation of the political right, the fascist movement's membership soared to approximately 250,000 by 1921.{{sfnp|Borsella|Caso|2007|p=76}} A 2020 article by [[Daron Acemoğlu]], Giuseppe De Feo, Giacomo De Luca, and Gianluca Russo in the [[Center for Economic and Policy Research]], exploring the link between the threat of [[socialism]] and Mussolini's rise to power, found "a strong association between the Red Scare in Italy and the subsequent local support for the Fascist Party in the early 1920s."{{sfnp|Acemoğlu|De Feo|De Luca|Russo|2020}} According to the authors, it was local elites and large landowners who played an important role in boosting Fascist Party activity and support, which did not come from socialists' core supporters but from [[centre-right]] voters, as they viewed traditional centre-right parties as ineffective in stopping socialism and turned to the Fascists. In 2003, historian Adrian Lyttelton wrote: "The expansion of Fascism in the rural areas was stimulated and directed by the reaction of the farmers and landowners against the peasant leagues of both Socialists and Catholics."{{sfnp|Acemoğlu|De Feo|De Luca|Russo|2020}}

====Fascist violence====
Beginning in 1922, fascist paramilitaries escalated their strategy from one of attacking socialist offices and the homes of socialist leadership figures, to one of violent occupation of cities. The fascists met little serious resistance from authorities and proceeded to take over several northern Italian cities.{{sfnp|Paxton|2005|p=87}} The fascists attacked the headquarters of socialist and Catholic labour unions in Cremona and imposed forced Italianization upon the German-speaking population of [[Bolzano]].{{sfnp|Paxton|2005|p=87}}{{sfnp|Ferrandi|Obermair|2023|p=127–167}} After seizing these cities, the fascists made plans to take [[Rome]].{{sfnp|Paxton|2005|p=87}}

[[File:March on Rome.jpg|thumb|[[Benito Mussolini]] with three of the four [[quadrumvirs]] during the [[March on Rome]] (from left to right: unknown, [[Emilio de Bono|de Bono]], Mussolini, [[Italo Balbo|Balbo]] and [[Cesare Maria de Vecchi|de Vecchi]]){{sfnp|Morgan|1995|p=58}}]]

On 24 October 1922, the Fascist Party held its annual congress in [[Naples]], where Mussolini ordered Blackshirts to take control of public buildings and trains and to converge on three points around Rome.{{sfnp|Paxton|2005|p=87}} The Fascists managed to seize control of several post offices and trains in northern Italy while the Italian government, led by a left-wing coalition, was internally divided and unable to respond to the Fascist advances.{{sfnp|Paxton|2005|p=88}} King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy perceived the risk of bloodshed in Rome in response to attempting to disperse the Fascists to be too high.{{sfnp|Paxton|2005|p=90}} Victor Emmanuel III decided to appoint Mussolini as [[Prime Minister of Italy]] and Mussolini arrived in Rome on 30 October to accept the appointment.{{sfnp|Paxton|2005|p=90}} Fascist propaganda aggrandized this event, known as "[[March on Rome]]", as a "seizure" of power because of Fascists' heroic exploits.{{sfnp|Paxton|2005|p=87}}

===Fascist Italy===
Historian Stanley G. Payne says:

<blockquote>[Fascism in Italy was a] primarily political dictatorship. ... The Fascist Party itself had become almost completely bureaucratized and subservient to, not dominant over, the state itself. Big business, industry, and finance retained extensive autonomy, particularly in the early years. The armed forces also enjoyed considerable autonomy. ... The Fascist militia was placed under military control. ... The judicial system was left largely intact and relatively autonomous as well. The police continued to be directed by state officials and were not taken over by party leaders ... nor was a major new police elite created. ... There was never any question of bringing the Church under overall subservience. ... Sizable sectors of Italian cultural life retained extensive autonomy, and no major state propaganda-and-culture ministry existed. ... The Mussolini regime was neither especially sanguinary nor particularly repressive.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=122}}</blockquote>

====Mussolini in power====
[[File:RegioniIrredenteItalia.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Italian ethnic regions claimed in the 1930s. [[Italian irredentism in Savoy|Savoy]] and [[Italian irredentism in Corfu|Corfu]] were later claimed.
{{legend|#01ec95|[[Italian irredentism in Nice|Nice]], [[Italian irredentism in Switzerland|Ticino]] and [[Italian irredentism in Dalmatia|Dalmatia]]}}
{{legend|#f41820|[[Italian irredentism in Malta|Malta]]}}
{{legend|#bc85be|[[Italian irredentism in Corsica|Corsica]]}}]]
Upon being appointed Prime Minister of Italy, Mussolini had to form a coalition government because the fascists did not have control over the Italian parliament.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=110}} Mussolini's coalition government initially pursued [[Economic liberalism|economically liberal]] policies under the direction of liberal finance minister [[Alberto De Stefani]], a member of the Center Party, including balancing the budget through deep cuts to the civil service.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=110}} Initially, little drastic change in government policy had occurred and repressive police actions were limited.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=110}}

The fascists began their attempt to entrench fascism in Italy with the [[Acerbo Law]], which guaranteed a plurality of the seats in parliament to any party or coalition list in an election that received 25% or more of the vote.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=113}} Through considerable fascist violence and intimidation, the list won a majority of the vote, allowing many seats to go to the fascists.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=113}} In the aftermath of the election, a crisis and political scandal erupted after Socialist Party deputy [[Giacomo Matteotti]] was kidnapped and murdered by a Fascist.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=113}} The liberals and the leftist minority in parliament walked out in protest in what became known as the [[Aventine Secession (20th century)|Aventine Secession]].{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=114}} On 3 January 1925, Mussolini addressed the Fascist-dominated Italian parliament and declared that he was personally responsible for what happened, but insisted that he had done nothing wrong. Mussolini proclaimed himself dictator of Italy, assuming full responsibility over the government and announcing the dismissal of parliament.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=114}} From 1925 to 1929, fascism steadily became entrenched in power: opposition deputies were denied access to parliament, censorship was introduced and a December 1925 decree made Mussolini solely responsible to the King.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=115}}

====Catholic Church====
[[File:Firma_dei_Patti_Lateranensi_1929.jpg|thumb|right|The signing of the [[Lateran Treaty]], Mussolini shown on the right side of the photograph.]]
In 1929, the fascist regime briefly gained what was in effect a blessing of the Catholic Church after the regime signed a concordat with the Church, known as the [[Lateran Treaty]], which gave the papacy state sovereignty and financial compensation for the seizure of Church lands by the liberal state in the 19th century, but within two years the Church had renounced fascism in the Encyclical ''[[Non Abbiamo Bisogno]]'' as a "pagan idolatry of the state" which teaches "hatred, violence and irreverence".{{sfnp|Payne|1995|pp=119–120}} Not long after signing the agreement, by Mussolini's own confession, the Church had threatened to have him "excommunicated", in part because of his intractable nature, but also because he had "confiscated more issues of Catholic newspapers in the next three months than in the previous seven years."{{sfnp|Mack Smith|1983|p=162}} By the late 1930s, Mussolini became more vocal in his anti-clerical rhetoric, repeatedly denouncing the Catholic Church and discussing ways to depose the pope. He took the position that the "papacy was a malignant tumor in the body of Italy and must 'be rooted out once and for all,' because there was no room in Rome for both the Pope and himself."{{sfnp|Mack Smith|1983|pp=222–223}} In her 1974 book, Mussolini's widow Rachele stated that her husband had always been an atheist until near the end of his life, writing that her husband was "basically irreligious until the later years of his life."{{sfnp|Mussolini|1977|p=131}}

The Nazis in Germany employed similar anti-clerical policies.{{sfnp|Gellott|2006|pp=69–70}} The Gestapo confiscated hundreds of monasteries in Austria and Germany, evicted clergymen and laymen alike and often replaced crosses with swastikas.{{sfnp|von Lang|1979|p=221}} Referring to the swastika as "the Devil's Cross", church leaders found their youth organizations banned, their meetings limited and various Catholic periodicals censored or banned. Government officials eventually found it necessary to place "Nazis into editorial positions in the Catholic press."{{sfnp|Evans|2005|p=239}} Up to 2,720 clerics, mostly Catholics, were arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned inside of Germany's Dachau concentration camp, resulting in over 1,000 deaths.{{sfnp|Berben|1975|pp=276–277}}

====Corporatist economic system====
The fascist regime created a corporatist economic system in 1925 with creation of [[Pact of the Vidoni Palace|the Palazzo Vidoni Pact]], in which the Italian employers' association {{lang|it|[[Confindustria]]}} and fascist trade unions agreed to recognize each other as the sole representatives of Italy's employers and employees, excluding non-fascist trade unions.{{sfnp|Pollard|2006|p=150}} The Fascist regime first created a Ministry of Corporations that organized the Italian economy into 22 sectoral corporations, banned workers' strikes and lock-outs and in 1927 created the [[Labour Charter of 1927|Charter of Labour]], which established workers' rights and duties and created labour tribunals to arbitrate employer-employee disputes.{{sfnp|Pollard|2006|p=150}} In practice, the sectoral corporations exercised little independence and were largely controlled by the regime, and the employee organizations were rarely led by employees themselves, but instead by appointed Fascist party members.{{sfnp|Pollard|2006|p=150}}

====Aggressive foreign policy====
In the 1920s, Fascist Italy pursued an aggressive foreign policy that included ambitions to expand Italian territory.{{sfnp|Kallis|2000|p=132}} In response to revolt in the Italian colony of [[Libya]], Fascist Italy abandoned previous liberal-era colonial policy of cooperation with local leaders. Instead, claiming that Italians were a superior race to African races and thereby had the right to colonize the "inferior" Africans, it sought to settle 10 to 15 million Italians in Libya.{{sfnp|Ahmida|1994|pp=134–135}} This resulted in an aggressive military campaign known as the [[Pacification of Libya]] against natives in Libya, including mass killings, the use of [[concentration camp]]s and the forced starvation of thousands of people.{{sfnp|Ahmida|1994|pp=134–135}} Italian authorities committed [[ethnic cleansing]] by forcibly expelling 100,000 [[Bedouins|Bedouin]] Cyrenaicans, half the population of Cyrenaica in Libya, from their settlements that was slated to be given to Italian settlers.{{sfnmp|Cardoza|2006|1p=109|2a1=Bloxham|2a2=Moses|2y=2010|2p=358}}

====Nazi adoption of the Italian model====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 119-1486, Hitler-Putsch, München, Marienplatz.jpg|thumb|Nazis in Munich during the [[Beer Hall Putsch]] ]]
The March on Rome brought fascism international attention. One early admirer of the Italian fascists was [[Adolf Hitler]], who less than a month after the March had begun to model himself and the [[Nazi Party]] upon Mussolini and the Fascists.{{sfnp|Kershaw|2000|p=182}} The Nazis, led by Hitler and the German war hero [[Erich Ludendorff]], attempted a "March on Berlin" modeled upon the March on Rome, which resulted in the failed [[Beer Hall Putsch]] in [[Munich]] in November 1923.{{sfnp|Jablonsky|1989|pp=20–26, 30}}

===International impact of the Great Depression and buildup to World War II===
The conditions of economic hardship caused by the [[Great Depression]] brought about an international surge of social unrest.{{sfnp|Tenorio|2023}} Fascist propaganda blamed the problems of the long depression of the 1930s on minorities and [[scapegoat]]s: "[[antisemitism|Judeo]]-[[Freemasonry|Masonic]]-[[Bolshevism|bolshevik]]" conspiracies, [[Left-wing politics#Nationalism, anti-imperialism and anti-nationalism|left-wing internationalism]] and the presence of immigrants.{{sfnp|Chomsky|2003|p=46}}

In Germany, it contributed to the rise of the Nazi Party, which resulted in the demise of the [[Weimar Republic]] and the establishment of the fascist regime, [[Nazi Germany]], under the leadership of Adolf Hitler.{{sfnp|Holocaust Encyclopedia ''"Degenerate" Art''}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Module 5: The Twin Drivers of Nazi Culture |url=https://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/virtualmuseum/mod5-1.html |website=The Madeleine and Monte Levy Virtual Museum of the Holocaust and the Resistance |publisher=[[McMaster University]] |language=en |access-date=10 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250317120658/https://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/virtualmuseum/mod5-1.html |archive-date=17 March 2025}}</ref> With the rise of Hitler and the Nazis to power in 1933, [[liberal democracy]] was dissolved in Germany and the Nazis mobilized the country for war, with expansionist territorial aims against several countries.{{sfnp|Shirer|1960|pp=199–201}}{{sfnp|Evans|2008|p=7}} In the 1930s, the Nazis implemented racial laws that deliberately discriminated against, [[Disfranchisement|disenfranchised]] and persecuted Jews and other racial and minority groups.{{sfnp|Holocaust Encyclopedia ''Anti-Jewish Legislation''}}

[[File:1er Congrès du Parti populaire français - discours de M. Doriot - btv1b90453371.jpg|thumb|[[Jacques Doriot]], leader of the [[French Popular Party]] speaking at the party's first congress in 1936.{{sfnp|Jackson|1988|pp=254–255}}]]
Fascist movements grew in strength elsewhere in Europe. Hungarian fascist [[Gyula Gömbös]] rose to power as Prime Minister of [[Hungary]] in 1932 and attempted to entrench his [[Party of Hungarian Life|Party of National Unity]] throughout the country. He created an eight-hour work day and a forty-eight-hour work week in industry; sought to entrench a corporatist economy; and pursued [[Irredentism|irredentist]] claims on Hungary's neighbors.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=270}} The fascist [[Iron Guard]] movement in [[Romania]] soared in political support after 1933, gaining representation in the Romanian government, and an Iron Guard member assassinated Romanian prime minister [[Ion Duca]].{{sfnp|Payne|1995|pp=282–288}} The Iron Guard was the only fascist movement outside Germany and Italy to [[National Legionary State|come to power]] without foreign assistance.{{sfnp|Gallagher|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1zoXqTR_dAC&pg=PA35 35]}}{{sfnp|Deletant|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8taGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA66 66]}} During the [[6 February 1934 crisis]], [[France]] faced the greatest domestic political turmoil since the [[Dreyfus Affair]] when the fascist [[Francist Movement]] and multiple far-right movements rioted ''[[en masse]]'' in Paris against the French government resulting in major political violence.{{sfnp|Woolf|1983|p=311}} A variety of [[Para-fascism|para-fascist]] governments that borrowed elements from fascism were formed during the Great Depression, including those of [[Greece]], [[Lithuania]], [[Poland]] and Yugoslavia.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|p=145}} In [[Netherlands|the Netherlands]], the [[National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands]] was at its height in the 1930s due to the Great Depression, especially in 1935 when it won almost eight percent of votes, until the year 1937.{{sfnp|Rietbergen|2000|pp=160–161}}

[[File:SaudacaoIntegralista1935.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Brazilian Integralism|Integralists]] marching in Brazil]]
[[File:Retratos de Luis A. Flores 2.jpg|thumb|[[Luis A. Flores]], [[Prime Minister of Peru]] in 1932, shown saluting in the party uniform of the [[Revolutionary Union (Peru)|Revolutionary Union]] of Peru that he led as its Supreme Chief from 1933-56.]]

In the Americas, the [[Brazilian Integralism|Brazilian Integralists]] led by [[Plínio Salgado]] claimed as many as 200,000 members, although following coup attempts it faced a crackdown from the [[Estado Novo (Brazil)|Estado Novo]] of [[Getúlio Vargas]] in 1937.{{sfnp|Griffin|1991|pp=150–152}} In [[Peru]], the [[Revolutionary Union (Peru)|Revolutionary Union]] was a fascist political party which was in power 1931 to 1933. In the 1930s, the [[National Socialist Movement of Chile]] gained seats in [[Chile]]'s parliament and attempted a coup d'état that resulted in the [[Seguro Obrero massacre]] of 1938.{{sfnp|Payne|1995|pp=341–342}}

During the Great Depression, Mussolini promoted active state intervention in the economy. He denounced the contemporary "[[Supercapitalism (concept in Italian Fascism)|supercapitalism]]" that he claimed began in 1914 as a failure because of its alleged [[decadence]], its support for unlimited [[consumerism]], and its intention to create the "standardization of humankind."{{sfnp|Berghaus|2000|pp=136–137}} Fascist Italy created the [[Institute for Industrial Reconstruction]] (IRI), a giant state-owned firm and holding company that provided state funding to failing private enterprises.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=189}} The IRI was made a permanent institution in Fascist Italy in 1937, pursued fascist policies to create national [[autarky]] and had the power to take over private firms to maximize war production.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=189}} While Hitler's regime only nationalized 500 companies in key industries by the early 1940s,{{sfnp|Overy|1994|p=16}} Mussolini declared in 1934, "[t]hree-fourths of Italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the state."<ref>{{harvp|Toniolo|2013|p=59}}; Mussolini's speech to the Chamber of Deputies was on 26 May 1934.</ref>

Due to the worldwide depression, Mussolini's government was able to take over most of Italy's largest failing banks, who held controlling interest in many Italian businesses. The IRI reported in early 1934 that they held assets of "48.5 percent of the share capital of Italy", which later included the capital of the banks themselves.{{sfnp|Toniolo|2013|p=59}} Political historian Martin Blinkhorn estimated Italy's scope of state intervention and ownership "greatly surpassed that in Nazi Germany, giving Italy a public sector second only to that of Stalin's Russia."{{sfnp|Blinkhorn|2006|p=46}} In the late 1930s, Italy enacted manufacturing cartels, tariff barriers, currency restrictions and massive regulation of the economy to attempt to balance payments.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=72}} Italy's policy of autarky failed to achieve effective economic autonomy.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=72}} Nazi Germany similarly pursued an economic agenda with the aims of autarky and rearmament and imposed [[Protectionism|protectionist]] policies, including forcing the German steel industry to use lower-quality German iron ore rather than superior-quality imported iron.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=190}}

===World War II (1939–1945)===
[[File:Greater Germanic Reich.png|thumb|upright=1.5|The Greater Germanic {{lang|de|Reich}}, to be realised with the policies of {{lang|de|[[Lebensraum]]}}, had boundaries derived from the plans of the {{lang|de|[[Generalplan Ost]]}}, the [[Nazi Germany|state administration]], and the {{lang|de|[[Schutzstaffel]]}} (SS).<ref>{{Cite web |year=1999 |title=Utopia: The 'Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation' |url=https://www.obersalzberg.de/en/exhibition/zweiter-weltkrieg/occupied-europe/utopie-grossgermanisches-reich/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915155030/https://www.obersalzberg.de/en/exhibition/zweiter-weltkrieg/occupied-europe/utopie-grossgermanisches-reich/ |archive-date=15 September 2018 |access-date=15 September 2018 |publisher=[[Institut für Zeitgeschichte]] |location=Munich and Berlin}}</ref>]]

In Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, both Mussolini and Hitler pursued territorial expansionist and [[interventionism (politics)|interventionist foreign policy]] agendas from the 1930s through the 1940s culminating in World War II. From 1935 to 1939, Germany and Italy escalated their demands for territorial claims and greater influence in world affairs. Italy [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|invaded Ethiopia in 1935]] resulting in its condemnation by the [[League of Nations]] and its widespread diplomatic isolation. In 1936, Germany [[Remilitarization of the Rhineland|remilitarized the industrial Rhineland]], a region that had been ordered demilitarized by the [[Treaty of Versailles]]. In 1938, Germany annexed [[Federal State of Austria|Austria]]{{sfnp|Knaur|1951|pp=367–369}}{{sfnp|Luža|1975|p=52}} and Italy assisted Germany in resolving the diplomatic crisis between Germany versus Britain and France over claims on [[Czechoslovakia]] by arranging the [[Munich Agreement]] that gave Germany the [[Sudetenland]] and was perceived at the time to have averted a European war.{{sfnp|Corvaja|Miller|2008|pp=73–74}}{{sfnp|Goldstein|Lukes|1999|pp=59–60}} These hopes faded when Czechoslovakia was dissolved by the proclamation of the German client state of [[Slovak State|Slovakia]], followed by the next day of the occupation of the remaining [[Czech Lands]] and the proclamation of the German [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]]. At the same time from 1938 to 1939, Italy was demanding territorial and colonial concessions from France and Britain.{{sfnp|Rodogno|2006|p=47}} In 1939, Germany prepared for war with Poland, but attempted to gain territorial concessions from Poland through diplomatic means.{{sfnp|Davidson|2004|pp=371–372}} The Polish government did not trust Hitler's promises and refused to accept Germany's demands.{{sfnp|Davidson|2004|pp=371–372}}

[[File:ProgettoImperoItaliano.jpg|thumb|Map of ''Great Italy'' according to the 1940 fascist project in case Italy had won [[World War II]] (the orange line delimits metropolitan Italy, the green line the borders of the enlarged [[Italian Empire]])]]

The invasion of Poland by Germany was deemed unacceptable by Britain, France and their allies, leading to their mutual declaration of war against Germany and the start of World War II. In 1940, Mussolini led Italy into World War II on the side of the Axis. During World War II, the Axis Powers in Europe led by Nazi Germany participated in the extermination of millions of Poles, Jews, Gypsies and others in the genocide known as the Holocaust. In 1943, after Italy faced multiple military failures, the complete reliance and subordination of Italy to Germany, the Allied invasion of Italy and the corresponding international humiliation, Mussolini [[25 Luglio|was removed as head of government and arrested]] on the order of King Victor Emmanuel III, who proceeded to dismantle the Fascist state and declared Italy's switching of allegiance to the Allied side. Mussolini was rescued from arrest by German forces and led the German client state, the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945. Nazi Germany faced multiple losses and steady Soviet and Western Allied offensives from 1943 to 1945.<ref name="bi609">Bianchi (1963), pp. 609, 704</ref>{{full citation needed|date=May 2025}}

On 28 April 1945, Mussolini was captured and executed by Italian communist partisans. On 30 April 1945, Hitler committed suicide. Shortly afterwards, Germany surrendered and the Nazi regime was [[denazification|systematically dismantled]] by the occupying Allied powers. An International Military Tribunal was subsequently convened in [[Nuremberg#Nazi era|Nuremberg]]. Beginning in November 1945 and lasting through 1949, numerous Nazi political, military and economic leaders were [[Nuremberg trials|tried and convicted]] of [[war crime]]s, with many of the worst offenders being sentenced to death and executed.<ref name=dg21>De Felice in Grandi (1983), p. 21</ref>{{full citation needed|date=May 2025}}<ref name=def1391>De Felice (1996), p. 1391</ref>{{full citation needed|date=May 2025}}

===Post-World War II (1945–2008)===
{{Main|Neo-fascism}}
[[File:Juan Peron con banda de presidente.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Juan Perón]], [[President of Argentina]] from 1946 to 1955 and 1973 to 1974, admired [[Italian Fascism]] and modelled his economic policies on those pursued by Fascist Italy.{{sfnp|Finchelstein|2014|p=65}}]]

The victory of the Allies over the Axis powers in [[World War II]] led to the collapse of many fascist regimes in Europe. The [[Nuremberg Trials]] convicted several Nazi leaders of crimes against humanity involving the Holocaust.{{sfnp|Hirsch|2020|p=386}} However, there remained several movements and governments that were ideologically related to fascism.{{sfnp|Deutsch|2009|p=20}}

[[Francisco Franco]]'s [[Falangist]] one-party state in Spain was officially neutral during World War II, although Franco's rise to power had been directly assisted by the militaries of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany during the [[Spanish Civil War]]. The first years were characterized by a repression against the anti-fascist ideologies, deep censorship and the suppression of democratic institutions (elected Parliament, [[Spanish Constitution of 1931]], Regional Statutes of Autonomy). After World War II and a period of international isolation, Franco's regime normalized relations with the Western powers during the Cold War, until Franco's death in 1975 and the transformation of Spain into a liberal democracy.{{sfnp|Payne|1973|p=632}}

Historian Robert Paxton observes that one of the main problems in defining fascism is that it was widely mimicked. Paxton says: "In fascism's heyday, in the 1930s, many regimes that were not functionally fascist borrowed elements of fascist decor in order to lend themselves an aura of force, vitality, and mass mobilization." He goes on to observe that [[António de Oliveira Salazar|Salazar]] "crushed Portuguese fascism after he had copied some of its techniques of popular mobilization."{{sfnp|Paxton|1998|pp=3, 17}} Paxton says: "Where Franco subjected Spain's fascist party to his personal control, Salazar abolished outright in July 1934 the nearest thing Portugal had to an authentic fascist movement, Rolão Preto's blue-shirted National Syndicalists. ... Salazar preferred to control his population through such 'organic' institutions traditionally powerful in Portugal as the Church. Salazar's regime was not only non-fascist, but 'voluntarily non-totalitarian,' preferring to let those of its citizens who kept out of politics 'live by habit.{{'"}}{{sfnp|Paxton|2004|p=150}} However, historians tend to view the [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Estado Novo]] as [[para-fascist]] in nature,{{sfnp|Davies|Lynch|2002|p=[https://archive.org/details/routledgecompani00davi/page/237 237]}} possessing minimal fascist tendencies.{{sfnp|Passmore|2002|p=76}} Other historians, including [[Fernando Rosas]] and Manuel Villaverde Cabral, think that the Estado Novo should be considered fascist.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 April 2024 |title=Inauguração do Museu de Peniche é um gesto antifascista atual contra a extrema-direita |trans-title=The opening of the Peniche Museum is a current anti-fascist gesture against the far right |url=https://www.esquerda.net/artigo/inauguracao-do-museu-de-peniche-e-um-gesto-antifascista-atual-contra-extrema-direita/90683 |access-date=1 August 2024 |website=Esquerda.net |language=pt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240801011112/https://www.esquerda.net/artigo/inauguracao-do-museu-de-peniche-e-um-gesto-antifascista-atual-contra-extrema-direita/90683 |archive-date=1 August 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Giorgio Almirante crop.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Giorgio Almirante]], leader of the [[Italian Social Movement]] from 1969 to 1987]]

The term neo-fascism refers to fascist movements after World War II. In Italy, the [[Italian Social Movement]] led by [[Giorgio Almirante]] was a major neo-fascist movement that transformed itself into a self-described "post-fascist" movement called the [[National Alliance (Italy)|National Alliance]] (AN), which has been an ally of [[Silvio Berlusconi]]'s [[Forza Italia]] for a decade.{{sfnp|Giuffrida|2023}} In 2008, AN joined Forza Italia in Berlusconi's new party [[The People of Freedom]], but in 2012 a group of politicians split from The People of Freedom, refounding the party with the name [[Brothers of Italy]].{{sfnp|Slomp|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=V1uzkNq8xfIC&pg=PA4073625 407]}}{{sfnp|Cecchi de Rossi|2012}} In Germany, various neo-Nazi movements have been formed and banned in accordance with Germany's constitutional law which forbids Nazism. The [[National Democratic Party of Germany]] (NPD) is widely considered a neo-Nazi party, although the party does not publicly identify itself as such.{{sfnp|Schori Liang|2013|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=7I_pDb1O2EQC&pg=PA139 139]}}

In Argentina, [[Peronism]], associated with the regime of [[Juan Perón]] from 1946 to 1955 and 1973 to 1974, was influenced by fascism.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=512}}{{sfnp|Finchelstein|2010|p=98}} Between 1939 and 1941, prior to his rise to power, Perón had developed a deep admiration of Italian Fascism and modelled his economic policies on Italian fascist policies.{{sfnp|Blamires|2006|p=512}} However, not all historians agree with this identification,{{sfnp|Page|2014|p=10 and ss}} which they consider debatable<ref>{{citation |last=Romero |first=Ricardo |date=2015 |title=Perón, Reformismo y nazi fascismo durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial |language=es |trans-title=Perón, Reformism and Nazi fascism during the Second War World |publisher=Departamento de Ciencias Sociales, Colegio nacional de Buenos Aires, UBA |url=https://iih.cnba.uba.ar/biblioteca_virtual_edith_lopez_del_carril/coleccion_propuestas/0602/7-14-2/Per%F3n,%20reformismo%20y%20nazifascismo.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407015709/http://iih.cnba.uba.ar/biblioteca_virtual_edith_lopez_del_carril/coleccion_propuestas/0602/7-14-2/Per%F3n,%20reformismo%20y%20nazifascismo.htm |archive-date=7 April 2016 |page=14 |quote=Although it is incorrect to define Peronism as Nazism, and it is debatable to conceptualize it as fascism, the truth is that in the University the Catholic sectors that received the support of the General did much to make the students consider as fascist to Perón.}}</ref> or even false,{{sfnp|Galasso|2003|pp=2–3}} biased by a pejorative political position.{{sfnp|Cucchetti|2012|pp=151–152}} Other authors, such as the historian [[Raanan Rein]], categorically maintain that Perón was not a fascist and that this characterization was imposed on him because of his defiant stance against US hegemony.{{sfnp|Rein|2015|pp=127–128}}

===Contemporary fascism (2008–present)===

====Greece====
{{Main|Golden Dawn (Greece)|l1=Golden Dawn}}
[[File:Golden Dawn demonstration 1.jpg|thumb|Golden Dawn demonstration in Greece in 2012]]

After the onset of the [[Great Recession]] and economic crisis in Greece, a movement known as the [[Golden Dawn (Greece)|Golden Dawn]], widely considered a neo-Nazi party, soared in support out of obscurity and won seats in [[Greek parliament|Greece's parliament]], espousing a staunch hostility towards minorities, illegal immigrants and refugees. In 2013, after the murder of an anti-fascist musician by a person with links to Golden Dawn, the Greek government ordered the arrest of Golden Dawn's leader [[Nikolaos Michaloliakos]] and other members on charges related to being associated with a criminal organization.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24314319 |title=Greece's Golden Dawn leader Michaloliakos held in crackdown |work=[[BBC News]] |date=28 September 2013 |access-date=28 September 2013 |archive-date=28 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928063556/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24314319 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Michael|2013}} On 7 October 2020, Athens Appeals Court announced verdicts for 68 defendants, including the party's political leadership. Nikolaos Michaloliakos and six other prominent members and former members of parliament (MPs) were found guilty of running a criminal organization.{{sfnp|Samaras|2020}} Guilty verdicts were delivered on charges of murder, attempted murder, and violent attacks on immigrants and left-wing political opponents.<ref>{{cite news |title=Greece Golden Dawn: Neo-Nazi leaders guilty of running crime gang |work=[[BBC News]] |date=7 October 2020 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54433396 |access-date=7 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201010211224/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54433396 |archive-date=10 October 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

====Post-Soviet Russia====
{{Main|Rashism|Putinism}}

[[Marlene Laruelle]], a French political scientist, contends in ''Is Russia Fascist?'' that the accusation of "fascist" has evolved into a strategic narrative of the existing world order.{{sfnp|Laruelle|2021|pp=161–162}} Geopolitical rivals might construct their own view of the world and assert the moral high ground by branding ideological rivals as fascists, regardless of their real ideals or deeds.{{sfnp|Laruelle|2021|p=20}} Laruelle discusses the basis, significance, and veracity of accusations of fascism in and around Russia through an analysis of the domestic situation in Russia and the Kremlin's foreign policy justifications; she concludes that Russian efforts to brand its opponents as fascist is ultimately an attempt to determine the future of Russia in Europe as an antifascist force, influenced by its role in fighting fascism in World War II.{{sfnp|Laruelle|2021|p=43}}

According to [[Alexander J. Motyl]], an American historian and political scientist, Russian fascism has the following characteristics:{{sfnp|Motyl|2016|pp=33–34}}{{sfnp|Motyl|2022}}
* An [[Dictatorship|undemocratic political system]], different from both traditional authoritarianism and totalitarianism;
* [[Statism]] and [[hypernationalism]];
* A hypermasculine [[Cult of personality|cult of the supreme leader]] (emphasis on his courage, militancy and physical prowess);
* General popular support for the regime and its leader.{{sfnp|Wilson Center|2008}}

[[File:Anti-War protest, Odessa 02.jpg|thumb|upright|Protester against the Russian government, holding an image portraying [[Dmitry Medvedev]] and [[Vladimir Putin]] as Nazis with a [[swastika]] made of colours of the [[Ribbon of Saint George]] and a [[Coat of arms of Russia|Russian coat of arms]] in the centre ([[Odesa]], 2014)]]

Yale historian [[Timothy Snyder]] has stated, "Putin's regime is ... the world center of fascism" and has written an article entitled ''"We Should Say It: Russia Is Fascist."''{{sfnp|Laruelle|2022|p=149}} Oxford historian Roger Griffin compared Putin's Russia to the World War II-era [[Empire of Japan]], saying that like Putin's Russia, it "emulated fascism in many ways, but was not fascist."{{sfnp|Coalson|2022}} Historian Stanley G. Payne says Putin's Russia "is not equivalent to the fascist regimes of World War II, but it forms the nearest analogue to fascism found in a major country since that time" and argues that Putin's political system is "more a revival of the creed of Tsar [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] in the 19th century that emphasized 'Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality' than one resembling the revolutionary, modernizing regimes of Hitler and Mussolini."{{sfnp|Coalson|2022}} According to Griffin, fascism is "a revolutionary form of nationalism" seeking to destroy the old system and remake society, and that Putin is a reactionary politician who is not trying to create a new order "but to recreate a modified version of the Soviet Union". German political scientist [[Andreas Umland]] said genuine fascists in Russia, like deceased politician [[Vladimir Zhirinovsky]] and activist and self-styled philosopher [[Aleksandr Dugin]], "describe in their writings a completely new Russia" controlling parts of the world that were never under tsarist or Soviet domination.{{sfnp|Coalson|2022}} According to Marlene Laurelle writing in ''[[The Washington Quarterly]]'', "applying the "fascism" label ... to the entirety of the Russian state or society short-circuits our ability to construct a more complex and differentiated picture."{{sfnp|Laruelle|2022|p=150}}

[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]], collecting the opinions of experts on fascism, said that while Russia is repressive and authoritarian, it cannot be classified as a fascist state for various reasons, including Russia's government being more reactionary than revolutionary.{{sfnp|Coalson|2022}} In 2023, [[Oleg Orlov]], the chairman of the Board of Human Rights Center "[[Memorial (society)|Memorial]]", claimed that [[Russia under Vladimir Putin]] had descended into fascism and that the army is [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|committing]] "mass murder".{{sfnp|Papachristou|2024}}{{sfnp|Ebel|2024}} On 7 March 2024, in his [[2024 State of the Union Address]], American President [[Joe Biden]] compared Russia under Vladimir Putin to [[Adolf Hitler]]'s [[German-occupied Europe|conquests of Europe]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Biden compares Putin to Hitler as he makes the case for continued aid to Ukraine in SOTU address |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-compares-putin-hitler-makes-100000473.html |website=[[Yahoo!]], The New Voice of Ukraine |date=8 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311220509/https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-compares-putin-hitler-makes-100000473.html |archive-date=11 March 2024}}</ref>

====United States====
{{See also|Alt-right|Radical right (United States)|Fascism in the United States|Donald Trump and fascism}}
While initially composed of distinctive movements, in the 21st century, many U.S. Neo-Nazi groups have moved towards more decentralized organization and online social networks with a terroristic focus.{{sfnp|Southern Poverty Law Center|2021}} After the election of [[Donald Trump]], fascist groups began coalescing around his right-wing populism to take advantage of it.{{sfnp|Berger|2025|pp=177–179}} In 2017, the [[Unite the Right rally]],{{sfnp|Berger|2025|p=186}} saw marchers come together from a variety of far-right groups and movements, including members of the [[alt-right]],{{sfnp|Stapley|2017}} [[neo-Confederates]],{{sfnp|Weill|2018}} neo-fascists,{{sfnp|Gunter|2017}} [[white nationalists]],{{sfnp|Kelkar|2017}} neo-Nazis,{{sfnp|Wootson|2017}} [[Ku Klux Klan|Klansmen]],{{sfnp|Park|2017}} and [[Far-right politics|far-right]] [[Militia organizations in the United States|militias]].{{sfnp|Early|2018}} Around this period a number of prominent fascist groups were also founded including the [[Proud boys]] and [[Patriot Front]].{{sfnp|Berger|2025|p=190}}{{sfnp|Cruz|Sawyer|2021|pp=247–249}}