The Encyclopedia of Democracy

Authors: Lipset
Summary: In about 1850 words, this entry defines fascism, describes its conceptual foundations, explores the relationship between fascism and democracy, and analyzes fascism's rise and fall.
The entry defines fascism as a type of ideology characterized by European nationalist and authoritarian regimes during the inter war period. The fascist movement was founded by Bernito Mussolini in 1919. Fascism's roots came from 19th century critiques of liberal democracy, parliamentarism, socialism and conservative authoritarianism. The fascist movements defined themselves by what they opposed, which was virtually everything. Ideologically these movements were extremely nationalistic, nurtured deep-seated hostilities, and advocated violence, struggle and personal sacrifice for the greater common good. At its inception, fascism was a youthful movement, with leaders only thirty or forty years of age.
Fascism was populist in intent and rhetoric, yet in practice it was elitist and exclusionary. Like the communists, the fascists argued that their ideology offered the only true path to pure democracy. In such a system, the political middlemen--political parties and elected representatives--are eliminated in favor of a direct relationship between the people and their leaders. Because they were based on mass participation and leadership was open to any member of the party regardless of social or political status, fascist systems claimed to be democracies. However, fascism was profoundly anti-democratic once factors like individual freedom, political and civil liberties and minority rights are taken into consideration. The remainder of the entry is devoted to detailed descriptions of the Italian and German fascist experiences, which illustrate and emphasize the previous analysis.