Comparative Social Structures.

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Student Number: 12015014

Comparative Social Structures

Question 1& 2

My resource for citizenship is:

Gaventa, J. and Jones, E. (2002) Concepts of Citizenship: A review [online] Institution of Development studies Available from:

[Accessed 20th Nov 2003]

My resource for democracy is:

Schumpeter, J. (1952) 5th Edition, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, London: Unwin University Books.

My resource for fascism is:

Bessel, R. (1996) Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Cambridge: The University of Cambridge Press.

Question 3

According to the New Lexicon Webster’s Encyclopaedic Dictionary, fascism is defined as ‘any political or social ideology of the extreme right, which rules on a combination of pseudo religious attitudes and the brutal use of force for getting and keeping power’.( http://www.webtdcenter.com/bookaai.html).

A fascist government always has one class of citizens that is considered superior to another based upon race, social class or origin. Though it is possible to be both a republic and a fascist state, this is shown whereby the ‘preferred’ class lives in a republic state while those in the oppressed class live in a fascist state. (De Grand, 1995:14-16)

Fascism promotes legal segregation, national resource allocation and employment. It operates in a two-tiered legal system. These two tiers can be overt as it was within Nazi Germany where Jews, Homosexuals, Catholics, Communist, Clergy and the Handicap were held to one set of rules and courts, while the rest of Germany enjoyed different laws.

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Italy was the birthplace of fascist ideology. Mussolini, a former socialist journalist, organized the first fascist movement in 1919 in Milan. In 1922 Mussolini led a march on Rome, he was given a government post by the king, and this was the start of transforming the Italian political system into a fascist state (Cannistraro, 1982:209-212). It was in 1938 when he forced the last vestige of democracy, the Council of deputies, to vote themselves out of existence, leaving Mussolini dictator of fascist Italy.

Fascism was so popular because it promised solutions to economic, military and political problems for ...

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