Third, fascism has also associated with the idea of volkism which is a form of cultural nationalism; it can be seen as a romantic ideal which is a desire to retain the traditional territory or to regain possession of it after losing it historically. In Italy, Mussolini and Gentile made up an mythology around Italian history claiming that it was Italy’s destiny to recreate its imperial past. In Nazi Germany, Hitler’s plan of the golden future of Germany also involved the restoration of all its lost territories
Moreover, fascism has also engaged with many socialist ideas. Both ideologies see a great value in collectivism where they prefer actions to be taken collectively rather than independently. Fascists believe that the interests of the community are above that of the individuals. Therefore, just like socialism, fascists are against capitalism. They detest capitalism because it is based on the idea of the pursuit of self-interests which will threat the interests of the nation. Fascists are concerned that capitalism which creates class conflicts will destroy the unity and true purpose of the society. The lower middle-class fascists in particular hated large-scale capitalism where smaller businesses were losing out to bigger businesses. Both the Italian and German regimes tried to bend big business by policies of nationalization and state regulation in order to control capitalism. Such policies are indeed socialist in nature. Furthermore, fascists appreciate the struggle of the working class against capitalism and the poor physical working conditions. Many fascists were sympathetic to people such as miners and farm workers since fascists believed that they struggled and sacrificed for the need of the society.
However, on the other hand, fascism is not merely a blend of nationalism and socialism. The socialists’ elements in fascism have great limitations. Those ideas were marginalized as soon as fascist parties came to power because they wanted to receive support from big businesses. In fact, bourgeoisie proved to be the greatest supporters of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Although both socialism and fascism are opposite to the phenomenon of class conflict that capitalism creates, socialists are concerned with the exploitation of workers and creation of inequality whereas fascists fear that it would prevent society from making progress.
In some cases, fascism can be seen as opposition to socialism. For fascism, it is unacceptable that socialism is only concerned with the interest of working class whereas fascism pursues the interests of the nation. More radical socialists suggest that by promoting nationalism among the working class would let the capitalist exploitation to get away from being accused. For fascists, the denial of national aspiration is unforgivable.
Fascism also insists on that human are naturally unequal. Therefore, fascists are against socialism since the creation of equality is the goal of the movement. Fascists believe the strongest person should naturally dominate and they see socialists’ attempts of making people equal when they are not will prevent the natural progress of the society.
Moreover, fascism is against democracy because they believe it is only the expression of dominant self-interest and the rule of majority is not necessarily right. Fascists stress the idea that only the dynamic leader understands the general will of the people and will lead the nation to its bright future whereas pluralist and liberal democracy would create a weak and directionless society. These ideas are neither presented in nationalism and socialism. They are distinctive to fascism.
It has become obvious that there are more links between fascism and nationalism than there are between fascism and socialism. In fact, fascism and socialism conflict with each other in many ways such as the idea over equality; whereas all the fascists could be said to be nationalists since they emphasize on the interests and superiority of nation and importance of unity. Therefore, fascism is not merely a blend of nationalism and socialism, it is a different ideology from those two doctrines but there remains close relations with nationalism.