Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, refers to the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy 1922–1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. The name comes from fascio, which may mean "bundle", as in a political group or a nation, but also fasces, the Roman symbol of a bundle of rods and axe-head. The Italian Fascisti were also known as Black Shirts for their style of uniform.
Definition
The word fascism has come to mean any system of government resembling Mussolini's, that exalts nation and often race above the individual, and uses violence and modern techniques of propaganda and censorship to forcibly suppress political opposition, engages in severe economic and social regimentation, and espouses nationalism and sometimes racism. Nazism is usually considered a kind of fascism.
Fascism, in many respects, is an ideology of negativism: anti-liberal, anti-Communist, anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian. As a political and economic system in Italy, it combined elements of corporatism, totalitarianism, nationalism, and anti-communism.
As George Orwell in his 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language" famously complained, "The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies 'something not desirable.'"
Practice of Fascism
Examples of fascist systems include Nazi Germany, Spain under the Falange Party of Francisco Franco, and Mussolini's Italy. Fascism in practice embodied both political and economic practices. Writers who focus on politically repressive policies identify it as one form of totalitarianism.
Writers who focus on economic policies of state intervention make broader comparisons, identifying fascism as one form of corporatism, a political outgrowth of Catholic social doctrine from the 1890s.
Italian Fascism
Mussolini's Fascist state, established nearly a decade before Hitler's rise to power, was both a movement and a historical phenomenon. Italian Fascism was, in many respects, an adverse reaction to both the apparent failure of laissez-faire economics and fear of the left.
Founded as a nationalist association of World War I veterans in Milan on March 23, 1919, the movement converted itself into a national party after winning 35 seats in the parliamentary elections of May 1921. Under threat of a fascist "March on Rome", Mussolini assumed the premiership in October 1922.
The regime's most lasting political achievement was the Lateran Treaty of February 1929 between the Italian State and the Holy See. By 1934, trade unions and employers' associations were reorganized into 22 fascist corporations. Italy's intervention as Germany's ally in World War II brought military disaster, and Mussolini was executed by partisans on April 28, 1945.
Fascism as an International Phenomenon
- Italy (1922–1943) — ruled by Benito Mussolini
- Germany (1933–1945) — ruled by Adolf Hitler's Nazi movement
- Spain (1936–1975) — led by Francisco Franco
- Portugal (1932–1968) — quasi-fascist Estado Novo of Salazar
- Austria (1932–1945) — allied with Mussolini then absorbed by Germany
- Brazil (1937–1945) — Estado Novo under Getulio Vargas
- Romania (1940–1944) — Iron Guard under Ion Antonescu
- Croatia (1941–1945) — Ustase movement under Ante Pavelic
- Hungary (1944–1945) — Arrow Cross party under Ferenc Szalasi
- France (1940–1944) — Vichy regime of Philippe Petain