Outline and discuss the main features of fascist political thought.

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Outline and discuss the main features of fascist political thought.

The ideological status of fascism is controversial; defining such a word is difficult because of the variety of the regimes and movements identified as fascist. Fascism rooted from the years of World War I and it was at this time that self-styled fascist movements in Italy and Germany came into power.  What promoted the rise of fascism in this period were the problems which bedevilled the modern age and which were becoming increasing apparent by the end of the nineteenth century. Fascism saw its birth at the time of the First World War, and ideas involved were to solve social, economic and political problems with practical explanations. A former socialist by the name Benito Mussolini, were its creator.  His vision was to create a birth of Italy and to return Italy to its earlier Empiric glory, with himself sooner to become the Emperor. Fascism seeks to forcibly subordinate all spheres of society to its ideological vision of organic community, usually through a totalitarian state. Both as a movement and a regime, fascism uses mass organisations as a system of integration and control, and uses organised violence to suppress opposition, although the scale of violence varies widely. This results to the ideological status of Fascism being controversial. Fascism is often used as a term of abuse and nothing more. This essay will outline and discuss the main features of fascist political thought, which were mostly exposed in Mussolini’s career as Prime Minister of Italy, and his crusade to develop fascism.

Fascism can be theorised in its negative manner, the main feature of Fascism was that it was violent, its members had no scruples in resorting to violence and that the movement was irrational and addressed itself to the creation of emotion rather than conviction, nevertheless it was cleverly manoeuvred with great skill which was aimed to preserve a close relationship with the various sections of his followers, so that his decree would be immediately obeyed. Mussolini’s attempt to explicit fascism attracted a various background of people, however mainly drew its support from five principal sources.This ranged, and during the winter of 1920-21 the Fascist movement expanded dramatically. This saw peasants and shop-keepers to industrialists and professionals follow him in support.  All had different ideas of what to except, however they all shared one idea. This was Mussolini’s idea- his love for his country. This provided difficulty for the party, as it did not provide a source for a common ideology. Fascists had several different ideas however due to their extremism they found it hard to develop and survive beyond 1922. This involved, replacing Italy’s monarch, by substituting it for republic; church property to be seized. Fascists of the provinces, mostly peasants and rural workers were attracted by promises of land reform, this was another foremost idea and lastly to create a national minimum wage. Nevertheless, when Mussolini was given the role of prime minister and eventually ruling the governing body of the country, it still however retained its royalty. Moreover, there was a feud between the church and Mussolini, yet he tried to be in their favour, so that he gained popularity from the nation. One common factor between the fascists and the church was; the fear and hatred for communists. Similarly Hitler used the same strategy, and used the fear of communism to maintain the control of the country.

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The ideas of fascism emerged from World War I, reacting to the leading political ideologies of the time, liberalism and socialism. They opposed such ideas. Liberalism emphasises the individual, whereas socialism, stresses the impact of class conflict. According to fascism both liberalism and socialism divert from social solidarity, which results in a fragile state.  Socially, Mussolini condemned Marxism for dividing the nation into classes and causing class war which would sap the strength of a nation. Thus he demanded that the people should subject themselves to the absolute authority of the state. People could find their own worth only when ...

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