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What is Fascism and Why does it Emerge?
The purpose of this essay is to explain what fascism is and why it emerges.
The fascist economic system creates an upper class for the owning/ruling class and leaves the working class in a lower state who in turn produce for the elite. To justify themselves as beneficial to the oppressed lower class, the fascist installs an extreme sense of Nationalisms and organicism. If these method do not work then force is used. Fascism emerges out of economic crisis, a revolutionary promise and reaction to capitalism. It is often allowed to emerge because it is usually easy to get support from the upper class.
The fascist political structure consists of a totalitarian government with an extreme sense of absolutism. Absolutism is the principle of a absolute power in control with power that transcends even the laws itself, under the control of one main dictator who carries traits of of a geniuses or of a hero. This way the masses can be drawn into him through emotion and appeal. With the totalitarian government the fascist has total control of the nation and the people.
Along with the fascist total ruling over the people and nation came its total ruling over the economy. Although different fascist have had different economic structures, all regimes more or less, have had the same model. The main defining character of the fascist economy is the principle of goverment-buisness relationship. Like the first fascist regime in Italy, its leader created a system where private ownership was
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allowed but state intervention was issued on management and labour. He did this by creating grouped established syndicates, such as “The National Confederation of Commerce” or the “The National Federation of Credit and Insurgence”. The government then controlled these under managing agencies called “Corporations” which in turn would regulate issues and guidelines such as supply and demand, labour disputes or what interest the business is to aim at. Although the system is supposed to function as a partnership, the government is always in control and dominate.
Although the fascists claim this system is in the interest of the nation, it is only in the interest of more empowerment for the government. Due to this system both the states interest and the interest of the owning class are integrated which creates an elite. Therefore the development and technology only serves the interest of the elite and not the working class which is to be convinced to interact with promoting the sense that there dedication is necessary for the wellbeing of the nation.
Nationalism is a force which the fascist uses to eliminate conflict between social classes and restore unity through shared values such as race, language, religion and unifies men through symbols and traditions of a nation. It reduces the risk of liberal individualism and focuses on funnelling aggression into a powerful force and channelling it against outsiders so individuals will not question the state.
Nationalism often relies on the use of a scapegoat. The most blatant example of this was Hitler’s scapegoating on the Jews. He would blame them for the defeat of Germany in World War 1, or claim they were the downfall of Germany. Hitler took this idea to an extreme and later went on to ethnic cleansing which resulted in the death of 6 million Jews.
Another method of motivating the masses is to present the concept of organicism. Organicism is the theory of viewing a nation like a growing powerful single body. It focuses on the idea that the body is made up of individual components all having individual functions, but are unimportant, and only important as a whole body. The fascist applies this principle to the notion that the individual is unimportant as a single person but significant in the fact that it’s a component of the community and the interest
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of the state which is the superior element of exisistence. The fascist feels that all
means for the state are justifiable and “there is no room for detachment from the cause, for neutrality or for the luxury of being a mere spectator”(Growth, 97). The fascist also uses this principle in justifying the rationality of the fascist economic system with demoralising the image of the individual as a person producing for himself, and not for the community as he should be.
If nationalism and organicism do not supply enough motivation to create a dominant ideology, the fascist resorts to “tapping deeper levels of motivation”(...,19) and uses coercive force. They try to achieve a goal of breaking down the individual spirit of liberalism and will resort to violence ways if necessary.
The other use of force that the fascist utilises for conformity is to misinform the masses or not inform them at all. Examples of this can either be the dismissal of civil rights such as freedom of speech or assembly or controlling the means of informative sources such as newspapers television and other sorts of communication. These are tactics the fascist utilises if the population does not consent to the government.
Fascism emerges as a response to capitalism. It is a revolutionary promise to rehabilitate a nation in economic depression or unemployment by uniting and focusing the economic power of all social classes. This in turn is to restabilise a nation economically. It utilises the principle of nationalism to try to unite the social classes and if that does not work it resorts to force, “a coercive method of resolving conflicts within an industrially more advanced society”(Ebenstein,81). Usually fascism reinvests economic gain into its military with the hope of trying to mobilise the nation to its full capacity. This system of government usually emerges when other forms of government have failed. Where democracy lacked in a sense of hope and faith, fascism excelled. Post war Germany, Italy and Argentina in 1955 can all exemplify this theory of emergence:
After World War 1, Italy had a poor economy and its national identified diminished. To build the nation and strengthen it economically was to create a state the would take full control to accomplish this, the people were desperate for a solution.
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World War I also effected Germany in an economic sense. It left the country bankrupt, millions were jobless and the Treaty of Versailles left the nation with reparations. The national socialists and communists were the two main parties at the time. The Nazis utilised their economic plan to restore the nation winning mass appeal which enabled them to implement their plan of imperialistic conquest which was Hitters real goal.
Another period in which the economic condition enabled fascism to emerge was Argentina in 1930. It was at this time a predominantly agricultural nation. The conflict was landowners who were a comparison of feudal barons. There was also the trend of world wide depression and the emergence of an anarchist movement that aimed at direct appropriation of farm and land ownership. This attempt at unifying the South American country was overthrown ten years later.
Another factor that helps the fascist come into power is mass support from the owning class. They see fascism as way of securing their wealth and corporations, and see it as protection from labour disputes. They support the fascist into office and then they themselves claim power as an elite.
In conclusion the fascists main concern is power. They take total control over the people and all issues of the nation by totalitarianism. The economic system is only in the interest of the state, creating an elite class and therefore oppressing the lower classes who are made to believe in the nation while its there blood and sweat that produces for the government, and if they do not they are violently forced. The only reason this type of government emerges is because it appears as a solution to economic crisis in time of despair and gets support from the powerful upper class which benefit from it, the lower class are oppressed.
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