What is Fascism?

What is Fascism?

When the word “fascism” is mentioned people usually associate the word with German Nazis’. There is more to fascism than just German Nazis.’ Fascism is an interesting topic that should be further examined and explained so it is no longer simply associated with German Nazis’. This essay will explain what fascism is (definition), how fascism groups are run, the ideology of fascism, and some past examples of how fascist governments operated.

Fascism is a form of counter-revolutionary politics that first arose in the early part of the twentieth-century in Europe. It was a response to the rapid social and political changes brought about by the devastation of World War I and the spread of socialism and communism. The name fascism originated in Italy. The term comes from the Italian word fascio, which referred to the names of radical new social and political organizations. “Fascism is a philosophy or a system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of aggressive nationalism”(Baradat pg.850). In other words, fascism is a form government that emphasizes a nation or particular race to rule over all other nations or races, simply because they are different. The fascism ideology will even use violent means to accomplish their goals and maintain the loyalty toward the fascist group. “Fascism approaches politics in two central areas, populist and elitist. Populist in that it seeks to activate “the people” as a whole against noticed enemies and to create a nation of unity. An elitist approach because fascism works by putting the people’s will on one select group, or most often one supreme leader, from whom all power precedes downward.”(Lyons pg.10)

Fascism values human nature in a group for the benefit of the community. Fascism’s approach to politics is to organize a mass movement in a drive to seize state power. Fascism also uses this mass movement as a system of control using organized violence to stop opposition. When the power is in firm grip of the ruler, the government will be used to control the population and everything in it so the community will be benefited. The two most recognized names that go along with fascism are Italy’s Benito Mussolini and Germany’s Adolf Hitler, which will be e...

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...oups main concern on anti-government, some other issues are gun control, taxes, Constitutional liberties, and federal regulations. These militia groups believe that the government is tyrannical, and there is a secret elite conspiracy on controlling government, the economy, the culture, or all three.”(Payne, pg. 156)

One idea shared by all fascist movements is the lack of a consistent political standard behind the ideology. Each individual leader who was associated with a fascist movement would handle every situation a little differently with no sense of tradition or law. However, one very ordinary aspect of fascism is the unmerciful drive to achieve and maintain state power and supremacy. On that road to conquest, fascists are willing to abandon any principle and adopt an issue more in acceptance and more likely to gain them followers.

In conclusion, fascism has proved to be a burden on our history. Although not everyone is informed on exactly what fascism is, everyone should be aware of how fascist movements are started and how dangerous they can be. Hopefully after reading this paper, the reader will have gained a better knowledge of fascism and will know how to spot examples.