Fascism in general

Question 1

Paxton - Mussolini not alone

Answer 1

Mussolini was no solitary adventurer - similar movements were springing up in postwar Europe

They had a similar mix of nationalism, anti-capitalism, voluntarism, and active violence both against bourgeois and socialist enemies

Question 2

Paxton - lack of a definition

Answer 2

Hard to define a phenomenon which seemed to come form nowhere, took on many forms, and varied depending on the national setting

Question 3

Paxton - importance of image

Answer 3

‘The most self-consciously visual of all political forms’

However to think that we can understand the regime by scrutinising the dictator is wrong

Question 4

Paxton - impact of fascism

Answer 4

Withdrew the frontiers between private and public, emphasised the necessity of participation for citizenship, unleashed aggressive emotions

Question 5

Paxton - origin of antisemitism for Nazis

Answer 5

Could be built upon the purifying impulses of 20th century medicine and public health

e.g. Francis Galton’s 1880s invention of ‘eugenics’

Question 6

Paxton - focus on drama

Answer 6

Conventional images of fascism focuses on moments of high drama, however the solid texture of everyday experience and complicity of ordinary people needs to be taken into account

Question 7

Paxton - fascism for mass politics

Answer 7

Created for the era of mass politics - sought to appeal mainly to emotions through ceremonies and rhetoric

Question 8

Paxton - lack of truth in fascism

Answer 8

Rested more upon the leader’s mystical union with the historic destiny of his people than truth

Replaced reasoned debates with immediate sensual experience (led to unquestioning zeal)

No program - power came first

Question 9

Paxton - context in which fascism grew

Answer 9

Crisis of capitalism to which fascism was a response - should not make this a cause

Others perceive the founding crisis as the inadequacy of the liberal state to deal with the challenges of a post-1914 world e.g. mass unemployment

Question 10

Paxton - general definition of fascism

Answer 10

A popular movement against the Left and against liberal individualism

Question 11

Paxton - effect of WW1

Answer 11

Did not create fascism, but opened up wide cultural, social and political opportunities for it

Discredited optimistic and progressive views of the future

Spawned armies of restless veterans

Generated economic and social strains that exceeded the capacity of existing institutions to resolve

Question 12

Paxton - key fears that spawned fascism

Answer 12

Fear of the collapse of the community, intensified by urban sprawl and immigration

Fear of enemies (foreigners and ethnic minorities)

Question 13

Paxton - necessity of an enemy

Answer 13

Fascism needed a demonised enemy agains which to mobilise citizens

Germany - Jews, Gypsies and Slavs

Italy - South Slav neighbours, socialist, later Ethiopians and Lybians

Question 14

Paxton - importance of a mood

Answer 14

Search for origins of fascism should prioritise the establishment of a ‘mood’ over individual precursors

Question 15

Paxton - ‘mobilising passions’

Answer 15

Overwhelming crisis beyond traditional solutions

Primacy of a group, and subordination of individual to it, dread of its decline

Need for pure community

Beauty of violence and efficacy of will

‘an affair of the gut more than of the brain’

Question 16

Paxton - necessity of collaboration

Answer 16

Although propagandists want us to see the leader alone on his pinnacle, it is clear they were not monolithic

Dictator must obtain cooperation of the decisive agencies of rule

Also had to share power with the conservative elites who had helped them gain power

Therefore, an ideologically pure fascist regime has never existed

Question 17

Paxton - composite makeup of parties

Answer 17

Hitler had coalition partners

Even more flagrant in Italy, with Salvemini’s ‘dualistic dictatorship’ of the Duce and the King

Question 18

Paxton - prerogative vs normative state

Answer 18

While Hitler never abolished the constitution, even before the war began the Nazi prerogative state achieved approaching total domination over the normative state (Fraenkel)

Mussolini accorded far more power to the normative state, keeping many features of the liberal state, and subordinating the the party to state

While Hindenburg died in 1934, Victor Emmanuel III lasted to the end

Question 19

Paxton - strengths of Mussolini’s prerogative

Answer 19

OVRA, control of the press, economic baronies and involvement in the war strengthened

Question 20

Paxton - ‘islands of separateness’

Answer 20

Friedrich and Brzezinski coined the term to describe elements of civil society that survive dictatorship

Hitler was able to overcome most of these islands through Gleichschaltung

Italian consolidation far slower, only press, unions and parties brought into line, and Catholic Church remained an important island

Question 21

Paxton - prevalence of tension within the regime

Answer 21

Permanent, because none of the contending groups could dispense completely with the other

Question 22

Paxton - role of parallel organisations

Answer 22

Fascist party duplicated every level of public authority with a party agency, however they were subordinated soon after consolidation of power

Most Italian organisations did not challenge traditional power

Nazis had parallel organisations like SA, party court, party police - threatened to usurp existing agencies

Question 23

Paxton - shapelessness of the regimes

Answer 23

Duplication of traditional power centres caused ‘haplessness’ and the chaotic lines of authority that characterised fascist rule

Question 24

Paxton - opportunists

Answer 24

1933 opening of PNF rules encouraged the casual Italian civic spirit - joining became a good career move

Opportunists among 1.6 mil Nazis in 1933 despite closed roles

Question 25

Paxton - contrast between regimes in dominance

Answer 25

While Hitler managed to subject his allies to unwanted policies, Mussolini gave the Catholic Church very favourable treatment and yielded to businessmen

Question 26

Passmore - failure of movement in Britain

Answer 26

Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (est. 1932) was modelled on fascist movements, flourished briefly under Daily Mail patronage

However failed as conservatives were more united than in Germany and very well entrenched in parliament - no need for fascist backing, also representative government barrier

Question 27

Passmore - definition of Fascism

Answer 27

Aimed to bring a new elite to power as representative of the mobilised people, and regards defence of property and family as subordinate to the needs of the mobilised nation

Question 28

Passmore - General Francisco Franco

Answer 28

Had a 1936 military rising

Coalition included the Falange Espanola, however it was limited by many conservatives and monarchists who had infiltrated it

Spain lacked a strong ultranationalist tradition due to its multi-ethnic composition