The given presentation will primarily focus on a key figure of Italian Fascism, Benito Mussolini, and his overall impact on the establishment of fascist ideologies. The key argument of the presentation is to demonstrate that fascism emerged as a reactionary framework to communism, where the latter was aimed to empower the working class and the former to preserve the power of the ruling class. The main idea is that fascism adopted several core principles from both socialism and liberalism and created a mix, where one can have full control over a nation by directing any hostility from the public outwards, unlike communism directing at the ruling class and liberalism directing at both state and other groups in the nation.
He can be considered as a prominent figure and representation of what Italian fascism is in practice and what type of regime the political and ideological framework establishes. In other words, he views the concept as comprehensive, which means it has both spiritual and practical elements. Mussolini defines fascism by stating: “Like all sound political conceptions, Fascism is action and it is thought; action in which doctrine is immanent, and doctrine arising from a given system of historical forces in which it is inserted, and working on them from within. It has, therefore, a form correlated to contingencies of time and space; but it also has an ideal content which makes it an expression of truth in the higher region of the history of thought” (Mussolini, 1932).
Mussolini states the demonstrated quote to highlight the universalism of fascism, which absorbs the achievements of previous eras, in which other ideologies dominated, replacing each other due to insurmountable contradictions. Fascism takes the best of them and rejects those elements that have led previous doctrines to decline. For example, from socialism, the fascists adopt the collective principle in the management of the state, they do not deny trade unions that unite people to solve their problems, but at the same time, fascism rejects the class struggle and atheism, as well as the democracy of the majority of the people (Bosworth, 2007). From liberalism, fascism adopts the freedom of the individual, but only such freedom that does not contradict the freedom of the state, that is, fascism stands for the freedom of the state, only within which the freedom of the individual can be exercised (Duiker, 2015).
Fascism fiercely rejects the liberal principle of non-interference of the state in the economy, only the state, according to Mussolini, can resolve all contradictions and crises within capitalism, harmonize and rationalize the relationship of social classes of society, through state regulation through trade unions and control of production, and the distribution of economic benefits through government agencies (Iodice, 2018). Therefore, the fascists are supporters of dirigisme, that is, the management of the economy by the state, and based on corporatism, which destroys competition and builds a clear hierarchy of subordination of small enterprises to large ones.
At the same time, both workers and owners are united in corporations, their relationship is regulated by the fascist trade union, and so there is cooperation and reconciliation of classes. In the understanding of liberalism, the state is a mechanism that delimits the spheres of supposed individual freedoms (Knight, 2003). Fascism, on the other hand, rejects the liberal concept of the role of the state in society and offers its own in return. According to Mussolini, it is a strong state that creates a nation, and not vice versa, and the state must expand, exalt, or otherwise, it will die (Mussolini, 1932). Thus, fascism rejects the equality of nations, states, and the peaceful concept of development. The fascists believe that peace will come only when a strong fascist state and a strong nation in this state will dominate the planet and regulate relationships between other states (Bosworth, 2021).
Fascism also rejects the democracy of the majority, in its understanding, society is divided into classes that have different interests, but at the same time, they are common, that is, the interests of the state. Under this idea, a few should hold power in their hands, but at the same time, they should fulfill the interests of society. Thus, it should not be limited to the people and the majority because this threatens to suppress the interests of a part of a nation (Parkash, 2019). Also, fascism is a religious doctrine, here is a quote from Mussolini on this score: “the Fascist State sees in religion one of the deepest of spiritual manifestations, and for this reason, it not only respects religion but defends and protects it. The Fascist State does not attempt, as did Robespierre at the height of the revolutionary delirium of the Convention, to set up a “god” of its own; nor does it vainly seek, as does Bolshevism, to efface God from the soul of man” (Mussolini, 1932).
In addition, religion is the very instrument that unites social classes that strengthens the nation and, consequently, the state, and the stronger the state, the stronger the nation. The state is obliged to support religion, for, according to Mussolini: “Never has any religion claimed so cruel a sacrifice. Were the Gods of liberalism thirsting for blood? Now liberalism is preparing to close the doors of its temples, deserted by the peoples who feel that the agnosticism it professed in the sphere of economics and the indifferentism of which it has given proof in the sphere of politics and morals would lead the world to ruin in the future as they have done in the past” (Mussolini, 1932). Based on the statement, one can conclude that the main doctrine of fascism is the construction of a strong all-encompassing state, which is the guarantor of the stable development of the nation.
The fascist doctrine, according to the ideologist Mussolini, is a compilation of all the achievements of the previous doctrines, that is, liberal and socialist (Mussolini, 1932). Fascism rejects the rule of the people, replacing it with the power of the few in the interests of the whole society, fascism firmly adheres to the positions of dirigisme and statism, that is, the doctrine of state intervention in all spheres of society (Duiker, 2015). Fascism fiercely opposes atheism, which undermines the foundations of the state, and without a strong state, the nation will certainly perish, tormented by liberal individualism and egoism and communist lack of spirituality, causing the class struggle (Gooch, 2020). Fascism rejects the revolution as a mechanism destroying the foundations of the state, which strongly manifested in German Nazism (Singh, 2017).
In conclusion, a look at the doctrine of fascism can be interpreted as the reaction of the ruling class to the crisis of capitalism and the revolutionary struggle of the working class. Socialism does not share the principles of building a stable society in a strong state by fascism, and fascism consolidates political and economic management in the hands of the ruling class, which regulates the conduct of domestic and foreign policy. In the case of capitalism, liberalist ideas enable better economic growth, but the control is limited, which is why fascism was seen as a better alternative.
References
Bosworth, R. J. B. (2007). Mussolini’s Italy: Life under the fascist dictatorship, 1915-1945. Penguin Books.
Bosworth, R. J. B. (2021). Mussolini and the eclipse of Italian fascism: From dictatorship to populism. Yale University Press.
Duiker, W. J. (2015). Contemporary world history (6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Gooch, J. (2020). Mussolini’s war: Fascist Italy from triumph to collapse, 1935-1943. Pegasus Books.
Iodice, E. F. (2018). Lessons from history: The startling rise to power of Benito Mussolini. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 11(2), 3. Web.
Knight, P. (2003). Mussolini and fascism. Routledge.
Mussolini, B. (1932). The doctrine of fascism. World Future Fund. Web.
Parkash, D. B. (2019). The concept of fascism: A review of Italian ideology.History Research Journal, 5(4), 308-312. Web.
Singh, R. S. (2017). Advent of fascism and Nazism. Journal of National Development, 30(2), 85-90.