Fascism

Fascism is a totalitarian philosophy of governments which glorifies a state and nation and assigns control over every aspect of national life to the state. Fascism takes the form of radical authoritarian nationalism; fascists often seek the unification of a nation through a sate that is totalitarian and seeks mass mobilization of the national community through discipline, indoctrination as well as physical training. Fascism takes the view of direct action that includes political violence as well as wars as a means of achieving a nation’s rejuvenation, spirit and vitality. Fascism therefore recognizes that class conflicts occur and goes ahead to advocate a resolution that will see an end of class divisions within a nation and hence secure solidarity within a nation. Fascism is therefore characterized by powerful and continuing nationalism, a military that is supreme, male dominant governments, the elections are fraudulent, here is rampant cronyism and corruption and they are obsessed with crime and punishment (Roger, 2005).

Fascism was not an abnormality in the inter-war world particularly in Europe in fact rise of fascist states in Europe was a very critical step on the war path.. Every European country either had a fascist style of movement or the fascist-style authoritarian. The occurrence of fascist movement in the interwar period was not a surprising thing due to the fact that the European due to the fact that the European countries were disillusioned of the post- world war reality, they feared communist subversion as well as the economic depression. the end of the first world war was the mark of the future of Europe, in the post-war period of the first world war there was a close association in existence between nationalist sentiment, in process with political and financial interest that was bound within a framework of social unrest, political situations that are volatile and economic crisis that resulted in a great slump of 1929; internationalization of the crisis that shook the foundation of the European prosperity. there followed an upsurge of social abjections, there was a rise of unemployment and a large proportion of liberal democracies suffered privatization due to reduced circumstances ( What-when-how ,2010).

In Germany the crisis was more pronounced due to industrial development while in Italy peasants were indignant with government since tit had breeched the pre-war promise that was to see distribution of landholders’ property. In general the middle class was driven by despair especially due to inflation that was galloping and economic crisis was becoming an ideological crisis. There was a discredit towards parliamentary democracy, economic policy that was liberal and a society of industrial development was now on the verge of breaking out in Europe. Therefore with the stable equilibrium from 1920 there was fragility of the democratic system and therefore adherents of authoritarian regimes aimed to overthrow the liberal governments that were in existence. In parallel with the fear of proletarianization as well as lack of any ideological guidance, authoritarian as well as nationalistic movements emerged that pressed for the sedition of the liberal democracies that were newly formed which was an endeavor that was carried into effect for dictatorial, and anti-liberal regimes .there was also the increasing disentrancement as well as accusations that the government was leveled against about economic scandals and hence all this factors led to the rise of fascism. The first fascist state to develop was Italy after the first world war while Austria, Germany and Spain went ahead to develop fascist governments during the inter-war period.

Authoritarian regimes lacked ideological substratum and their aim was just to rectify state of affairs this is in contrast to Fascism, it possessed an ideology that was firm, which saw the declaration total obedience of individuals and values to the will of a fascist state that was mighty with authority that was infallible and indisputable.

Fascism was highly accepted first the middle class accepted it since they held great value to property and they feared to loose their property through unemployment and inflation which is the source of insecurity that fascism feeds upon. Another reason why ordinary people accept fascism is the fact that there is a lot of propaganda and hence they are easily persuaded and it acquires mass support (What-when-how ,2010.The use of radio and newspapers to spread the propaganda is effective as a reasonable percentage of the society is reached and therefore they are convinced and fully support fascism.

References

What-when-how.(2010).Fascism(social science).retrieved February 14,2013 from http://what-when-how.com/social-sciences/fascism-social-science/

Roger, G. (2005).Fascism. Retrieved February 14, 2013 from http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/fascism.aspx