It was liberals and conservatives, frightened not by fascism, but by the Left, who accepted fascists into their coalition governments and gave them the opportunity to govern. Many fascists played an active role during the First World War and they adored violence and sought to materialize the final victory of their chosen race or nation over what they saw as its inferior opponents.Įxplaining the anatomy of fascism, Paxton deconstructs the myth that fascist movements seized power by force. They sought unity, purity, and nationalist mobilization, and wanted unquestioned devotion to the community and its leader. Paxton demonstrates that fascists were preoccupied with community decline and victimhood. Via WikipediaĪs it was not based in any political program, fascism used rituals and ceremonies to appeal to emotions.
In 1914, Mussolini founded the Fasci d’Azione Rivoluzionaria that he led. The aftermath of the First World War and, later on, the Great Depression, were critical for fascism’s spread.īenito Mussolini in 1917, as a soldier in World War I. After the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the foundation of an anti-leftist movement that could adopt elements of the Left’s mass organization was necessary. Coalition politics disenchanted many workers and intellectuals, while many politicians did not have the skills mass politics required. It is not supported by any coherent philosophical system, but is a product of mass politics invented only after the introduction of universal suffrage, the spread of nationalism, and the entry of socialist parties into coalition governments. Paxton argues that fascism is not like other political movements. He builds his argument in stages by studying how these movements were created, how they were rooted in the political system, how they seized and exercised power, and if they incorporated into the existing system.
Paxton argues that fascism can be understood only through an examination at the local level. Paxton instead examines fascism’s variations and focuses on fascists’ actions and he compares them with other successful or unsuccessful versions of fascism.
This is an original approach, as the majority of scholars focus on fascism as an ideology. However, as Robert Paxton shows in The Anatomy of Fascism, fascism was a practice that extended far beyond these two leaders. When people think about fascism, two men come to mind: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
0 kommentar(er)
