How Fascism Actually Works: Taking the Historical Exemplar Seriously

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2021
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
Over the past decade, there has been a rise in far-right movements in the political mainstream. Extreme right-wing leaders like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Narendra Modi, to list a few, have come into power in major countries across the world. To describe these leaders, other politicians, regular citizens, the media, and even scholars have used the word "fascist." On the otherside, right-wing media personalities have called liberal policies and political correctness "fascist" as well. As a term fascist has often been colloquially used to describe anything deemed dictatorial or violent. The Merriam Webster dictionary includes two definitions of fascism. One of the definitions points to the political idea while the other defines fascism as "a tendency toward or actual exercise ofstrong autocratic or dictatorial control." It is used so much in these ways, that some scholars argue that its overuse has rendered the word essentially meaningless (Gottfried 2017). Nonetheless, it continues to be used to describe current politicians and their actions both in the media and by scholars. While there are these colloquial definitions, scholars offer their own definitions as well when they seek to understand fascism both today and in its original context of inter-war Europe. However, in the area of fascist studies, there remains no consensus on how to define fascism (Griffin 2012). Definitions of fascism range from general, single-aspect focused definitions such as the one Jason Stanley proposes in his book, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, to more specific, comprehensive definitions such as Robert Paxton's in his book The Anatomy of Fascism. This variety in definitions allows people to understand the current role of fascism in very different ways. A general, single-aspect definition is easy to satisfy and suggests that mainstream politicians are clearly fascist whereas a more in-depth definition helps us to parse the nuance of movements. If we want to accurately differentiate between current right-wing political movements, we need to have a substantial understanding of what the labels we use mean. So how should we actually define fascism? What are the major components of a fascist ideology? To answer this question, I aim to take the current debate on fascism seriously. To have an accurate definition to apply today, we need to go back to the origin, Italian Fascism from the 20th century. The definition I offer is grounded in the historical origin of fascism but includes generalized characteristics that can be seen today. My definition lays out eleven characteristics, primacy of the state and separation of the other, a charismatic leader, myth and regeneration, the sacralization of politics, approaching modernity, crisis of democracy, mass politics, violence, anti-intellectualism, return to historic grandeur, and a totalitarian aim. This definition builds from the ideas behind fascism as well as both what fascists aim to do and what they actually do. Not all fascist movements look the same, but if fascism as an idea means anything, it has to have consistent and recognizable underlying components. Moving from this definition, I suggest that Donald Trump is not a fascist and that fascism itself may not even be a political movement compatible with the United States since individualism is irreconcilable with totalitarianism. That said, even if they are not fascist, current right wing political movements are still very dangerous. They carry many characteristics of fascism and perhaps developed from fascist ideas. But if they are not fascists, we cannot call them fascists. Instead, we have to develop a new understanding of what they are, and we can do this by dissecting the similarities and differences between these movements and the definition of fascism that I offered here.
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