What is Fascism?

Fascism is a doctrine or ideology founded in Italy by Benito Mussolini in 1919, combining his fasci of workers into the Fascisti movement. The term fasci comes from a bundle of rods bound with a red cord around an axe, a symbol of public power in ancient Rome. The Fascisti represented both the movement and the political party created to achieve the goals of fascism.

Italian fascism had some well-defined goals set by Mussolini but later evolved into a set of unrelated principles designed to meet immediate political needs, resulting in an incoherent ideology. It never became a coherent political philosophy, functioning more as a movement that experienced temporary success in Italy.

Fascism was partly adopted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany, Franco and the Falangists in Spain, and had some support in Britain, France, and other European countries. Some writers also note parallels to fascism in Asia, especially in Japan, and in Latin America, such as Argentina.

Fascism is opposed to both liberalism and Marxism, and is associated with a distorted form of idealism. It embraced certain theoretical principles to gain political support from frustrated social groups, despite lacking common ideals or values. Due to this lack of unified philosophy, fascism could not develop into a consistent political theory.

While not part of mainstream political theory, fascism is studied by political theorists to understand political pathology—how leaders like Mussolini and Hitler exploited societal sentiments for their goals. Sociologists and social psychologists examine the abnormal conditions that gave rise to fascism and the political manipulation it entailed.

Fascism is seen as a sick mental attitude that disregards reason, morality, and social principles in favor of the ambitions of narrow groups. Fascist tendencies pose a serious threat to peace and freedom. Today, the term ‘fascist’ has become a term of abuse in modern vocabulary.

Development of Fascism

Fascism developed mainly between 1919–1939 in Italy and Germany, with parallels in Japan. These three nations eventually formed the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis during World War II, opposing the Allied Powers. The war was fought largely to defeat fascism, which stood in strong opposition to both democracy and communism, prompting a rare coalition between capitalists and communists to combat it.

William Ebenstein described fascism as the totalitarian organization of government and society by a single-party dictatorship, marked by intense nationalism, racism, militarism, and imperialism. Italy became fascist in 1922, Germany in 1933, and Japan in the 1930s. Though Italian Fascism and German National Socialism (Nazism) arose under different conditions, they shared many parallels in both theory and practice.

Both fascist regimes were influenced by their dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles—Italy felt cheated, while Germany faced heavy war reparations. R.M. MacIver noted that both nations mobilized diverse social groups to support their expansionist aggression, driven by a sense of injustice. Italy and Germany had also lagged behind France and Great Britain in national unification and were frustrated by their lack of global influence.

These countries were undergoing societal transitions, with power shifting from reactionary aristocracies to the emerging bourgeoisie, while a rising working class demanded greater political influence. After World War I, both societies experienced crisis and abnormal circumstances, creating conditions ripe for the rise of fascism.

Under such grave stress and the breakdown of tradition, people—especially the youth—were easily drawn into mass movements, becoming susceptible to manipulative leaders. MacIver argued that such conditions allowed the rise of demagogues—leaders who used eloquence and psychological tactics to mobilize the masses for their own agendas. A demagogue is a political leader who gains support by appealing to emotions rather than presenting rational arguments.