The Traits that enabled Fascism to Evolve.
Fascism in Mussolini's hand's was expressed as Totalitarianism. But at it's core it was a more flexible belief than that. By 1934 Mussolini was saying "In the period since 1929 Fascism has changed from an Italian phenomenon to a universal phenomenon." By 1932 Mussolini was providing "secret subsidies to numerous fascistic movements abroad." These "daughter" movements would redefine fascism to suit their country's situations.
The Complete Rule of the Party.
Mussolini explained his Totalitarianism and the roots of this governing philosophy in that essay he wrote in 1932:
"So too the privileges of the feudal system" are of the Past, and "the division of society into Castes...the Fascist conception of authority has nothing to do with such a polity. A party which entirely governs a Nation is a fact entirely new to history, there are no possible references or parallels. Fascism uses in its construction whatever elements in the Liberal, Social, or Democratic doctrines that still have a living value; it maintains what may be called the certainties which we owe to history, but it rejects all the rest – that is to say, the conception that there can be any doctrine of unquestioned efficacy for all times and all peoples."
Fascist authoritarianism was founded on the "party." The original form of government didn't matter. It could have been liberal, social, or Democratic. And in fact, in the Marxist Leninist countries the form could be "communist" and yet still evolve into a Fascist state. The key element was not the outward form of the Government, but the "entire rule" of the nation by the Party.
"Given that the nineteenth century was the century of Socialism, Liberalism and of Democracy, it does not necessarily follow that the twentieth century must also be a century of Socialism, Liberalism, and Democracy: Political doctrines pass but humanity remains; and it may rather be expected that this will be a century of authority, a century of the Right, a century of Fascism. For if the nineteenth century was a century of individualism (Liberalism always signifying individualism) it may be expected that this will be the century of collectivism, and hence the century of the State. It is a perfectly logical deduction that a new doctrine can utilize all the still vital elements of previous doctrines."
For Mussolini and other Fascists the fundamental purpose of the Party is the gaining and holding of power and authority. Individuals serving the collective needs of the party. His vision of party was as a kind of "army" and a surrogate family. Elements of other thought were to be kept based on whether they were useful and not whether they were "absolute principles." The paradox of absolutism is that it rejects fixed doctrine. This would become important in the "post Mussolini" evolution of fascism, neo-fascism and it's other "daughter" movements. The only necessary commonality for the Fascist is the "will to power" and the "complete rule of the (fascist) party." Everything else is "means." Fascism could express itself in Democracies, monarchies, Communist regimes. All that was needed was party discipline and the "complete rule" of the country. In a speech he gave at the birth of Fascism, on October 22
1922, Mussolini said:
"In the final analysis, what separates us from democracy is our mentality, our method. Democracy holds that principles are fixed, that they are applicable at all times, in all places, in all eventualities. We don't believe that history repeats itself; we don't believe that history follows a hard and fast itinerary; we don't believe that after democracy there must ensue super-democracy! If democracy was useful and profitable for the nation in the nineteenth century, it may well be that in the twentieth century some other political system will give greater strength to the national identity."
Sources for this section are all from "Mediterranean Fascism 1919-1945 by Charles F. Delzell
Posted by cholte at November 4, 2004 11:03 PM