Fascism: Comparison and Definition

8. Theories of Fascism

8 Theories of Fascism Ever since the March on Rome, political analysts have tried to formulate an interpretation or theory capable of explaining the phenomenon of European fascism. As the only genuinely novel form of radicalism emerging from World War I, and one that seemed to involve multiple ambiguities if not outright contradictions, fascism did not readily lend itself to monocausal explanation or a simple unified theory. For more than half a century the debate has gone on, and there is still no consensus regarding an explanatory concept. 1 The principal theories or interpretations of fascism have been directed primarily toward a definition of the underlying nature of this supposed species of politics, toward its overall significance, or more commonly, toward its principal sources or causes. The main interpretations may for convenience 's sake be summarized in twelve categories, though with the understanding that these concepts are not always 1. The principal studies of the interpretations of fascism are Renzo de Felice, Interpretations of Fascism (Cambridge, Mass., 1977); Gregor, Inter177 178 I THEORIES OF FASCISM mutually exclusive but in some cases may draw on each other : 1. A violent, dictatorial agent of bourgeois capitalism 2. A twentieth-century form of "Bonapartism" 3. The expression of a unique radicalism of the middle classes 4. The consequence of unique national histories 5. The product of a cultural or moral breakdown 6. A unique metapolitical phenomenon 7. The result of extreme neurotic or pathological psychosocial impulses 8. The product of the rise of amorphous masses 9. A typical manifestation of twentieth-century totalitarianism 10. A revolt against "modernization" 11. The consequence of a certain stage of socioeconomic growth or a phase in the development sequence 12. The denial that any such general phenomenon as generic fascism can be defined Before briefly considering each of these interpretations, it should be pointed out that few of those who attempt to develop a causal theory or explanatory concept of fascism define exactly what they mean by the term or specifically which parties or movements they are trying to interpret, beyond a primary reference (normally to German National Socialism). The very absence of an empirical definition of what is meant by fascism and an understanding of precisely the groups to which the term is thought to refer has been a major obstacle to conceptual clarification. pretatians af Fascism; and Wolfgang Wippermann, Faschismusthearien (Darmstadt , 1976). In addition, De Felice has written and edited a more extensive combined commentary and anthology, II fascisma: Le interpretaziani dei contemparanei (' degli starici (Bari, 1970); and Ernst Nolte's compendium, 'Ihearien uber den Faschismus (Koln, 1967), is also useful; as is Gerhard Schulz, Faschismus Natianalsazialismus: Versionen und theoretische Kantroversen, 1922-1972 (Berlin, 1974). THEORIES OF FASCISM I 179 FASCISM AS A VIOLENT, DICTATORIAL AGENT OF BOURGEOIS CAPITALISM The notion that fascism is primarily to be understood as the agent of "capitalism," "big business," "finance capital," the "bourgeoisie," or some conceivable combination thereof is one of the oldest, most standard, and widely disseminated interpretations. It was formulated to some extent even before Italian Fascism was formally organized (to explain Mussolini 's defection from orthodox socialism) and began to be given general currency, with primary reference to Italy, as early as 1923 in the formulations of the Hungarian Communist Gyula SaiP and the German Clara Zetkin.3 This became the standard Third International interpretation of fascism, and was also adopted by some non-Communists as well. Leading western exponents of the concept were R. Palme Dutt4 and Daniel Guerin.5 Some of the notable recent exponents of the Marxist concept of fascism are Reinhard Kiihnl,6 Nikos Poulantzas,' Boris Lopukhov,8 Alexander Galkin,9 and Mihaly Vajda,1° though the last two have in2 . Gyula SaS, Der Faschismus in Italien (Hamburg, 1923), reprinted in De Felice, II facismo, 68--80; and in the same vein, German Sandomirsky, Fashizm , 2 vols., (Moscow-Leningrad, 1923). 3. Clara Zetkin, "Der Kampt gegen den Faschismus," Protocols of the 1923 Comintern Conference, reprinted in Nolte, Theorien, 88-111. 4. Rajani Palme Dutt, Fascism and Social Revolution (London, 1934). 5. Daniel Guerin, Fascisme et grande capital (Paris, 1936). For a discussion of other early exponents of the Marxist concept, see De Felice, Interpretations, 30-54; and John Cammett, "Communist Theories of Fascism, 1920-1935," Science and Society 31.2 (Spring 1967): 14~. 6. Reinhard Kiihnl, Formen burgerlicher Herrschaft (Hamburg, 1971). On expressions of the Marxist theory of fascism in...