POLITICAL SCIENCE

PROJECT

TOPIC – FASCISM

COMPILED BY-
TAIYEBA NOOR FATIMA
 INTRODUCTION
The word ‘fascist’ comes from ‘fasces’, a bundle of sticks tied to an axe. The fasces was
carried by the bodyguard of a roman imperial magistrate, as a symbol of his authority .In the
20​th​ century the fasces was resurrected to represent both the glory of the ancient past and
unity through strength –sticks tied together are far harder to break than sticks that stand on
their own. Fascism is primarily used to identify the social, economic and political system that
was established in Italy in 1922 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini and his Fascist
party. In modern sense, fascism is a political ideology wherein the state is all-powerful and
the power resides in the hands of a very small group of people typically led by a charismatic
leader who is more of a demagogue. It is characterized by hero worship, authoritarian power,
manipulation of education and media, control of industry and commerce, misuse of
1
nationalism and glorification of war.

Fascism was a political movement and a form of government that promoted loyalty to one's
leader and state. It shared some of the same principals for running a government and a
country as communism. Some of these include having a dictator in charge of the government,
having only one political party, censorship of media, totalitarian control, state controlled
economies, no democracy, citizens had an extreme sense of nationalism, and government
attempted to control religion. Some of the things unique to Fascism was that it had strict
social classes, supported private property, does not follow any specific ideology, and it
promoted racial superiority.

1
J.C. Johari, ​Contemporary Political Theory
DEFINITION OF FASCISM
Defining fascism raises a problem. Fascism as a movement extols action and practice over
ideas and theory. It uses ideas with considerable opportunism, mixing socialist ideas,
avant-garde positions, anti-capitalist rehetoric, ecological argument and pseudo-scientific
ideas to do with ‘​race’​ and ​‘ethinicity’ ​in a veritable pot-pourri.

Fascism is, however, essentially a twentieth-century movement although it draws upon

prejudices and stereotypes that are rooted in tradition. Italian fascism saw itself as
resurrecting the glories of Roman Empire and Rocco, an Italian fascist, saw Machiavelli as a
founding father of fascist theory. Nazism was seen by its ideologues as rooted in the history
of the Nordic peoples, and the movement embodied anti-Semitic views that go back to
Middle Ages in which Jews, for example, were blamed for the death of the Christ, compelled
2
to be moneylenders, confined to ghettos and acquired a reputation for crooked commerce.

Fascism involves a high degree of Nationalism, which is a strong feeling of patriotism to your
state and its people. In fact, the Nationalism of fascism is so strong that is often involves
feeling of national and racial superiority over others. The darkest example of this is the
Jewish Holocaust brought about by Nazi fascism during World War 2.

Fascism is also characterised by militarism, where military institutions and military force
have a heavy influence in society. Militarism can be characterized by four factors. First, it
involves the participation of military officers in civilian government. Second, the state
focuses on a foreign policies predicated on a strong military and projection of power. Third,
military values and norms are persuasive within the society’s culture. Finally, there is a focus
on war preparation in cultural, political and economic institutions.

2
John Hoffman and Paul Graham, ​Introduction to Political Ideoligies ​(Pearson, Noida, 2010)
ORIGIN OF FASCISM
Aftermath of World War 1

Fascism was supported in the atmosphere of disorder, vulnerability , frustation and

disobedience that occupied the world war in 1919. Demoblized fighters returned home to face
unemployment, bread lines, strikes and uproars. The fruitful communist revolutions in Russia
and the development froze the established order, particularly business intrigues who felt that
their social, financial, and political positions were straightforwardly undermined. Numerous
suspected that a power ready and ready to fall back on boundless counter-progressive
savagery was important to cure the circumstances.

Popularity of Fascism as a mass movement

The vast majority of its disciples were grounded officers and road tough ones party rule
expanded its allure-else it would have remained a peripheral development. Industrialist were
pulled on to totalitarianism for its extraordinary hostile to socialism. Extensive sections of the
insignificant common, office labourers and little entrepreneurs saw dictatorship as both
shielding them from enormous business and sparing them from falling into average workers.
Numerous in provincial zones saw totalitarianism as giving chances to progression.
Accordingly, Fascism turned into a mass development.
 OPPOSITION OF FASCISM
The main reason that a fascist dictatorship is that the individual citizen has no guaranteed
rights. If you say the wrong things oppose the wrong person person, you can be arrested or
killed without a fair trial. Many people belive that fascism would not be a terrible system if
you always do your duty and you never oppose the government. However, the problem is that
people can be corrupt. Everything looks good in theory, but in real life innocent people can
get into serious trouble with the government when there is no guaranteed right to a free trial.

Fascism is political doctrine opposed to democracy and demanding submission to political

leadership and authority. A key principle of fascism is the belief that the whole society has
shared a destiny and purpose which can only be achieved by iron discipline, obedience to
leadership and all powerful state.

Fascism is a form of extreme right winged ideology that celebrates the nation or the race as
an organic community transcending all other loyalities. Fascism emphasizes a myth of
national or racial rebirth after a period of decline or destruction.

To conclude fascism calls for a ‘spritual revolution’ against signs of moral decay as
individualism and materialism, and seeks to purge the alien groups and forces that threaten
the organic community.