Essay about German Nazism vs. Italian Fascism

Benito Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism and premier of Italy from 1922-43 and ruling as a dictator from about 1925. In 1919

The etymology of “fascism” is denotative of power and dominance. For example, the term derived from the Roman fasces which were bundles of rods bound to each other, carried in advance of Roman magistrates. The rods were symbolic of power to punish through severe beating and the axes which extended from the center were symbolic of punishment by death (Grolier Education p.110).

The consolidation of fascist power in Italy in the years 1922-1929 was mainly due to the use of force and intimidation, because from all his steps to

Benito Mussolini outlines several essential characteristics of his preferred political ideology, Fascism, in what has become known as the Doctrine of Fascism. In this paper, Mussolini outlines his vision of the ideology, and explains the major issues that Fascism will address once it becomes the leading political system in Italy. Mussolini’s major points as outlined in the Doctrine included an extreme emphasis on nationalism, organization and modernization of the state, persistent focus on religion, life as a struggle, and the notion that individuals exist only for the improvement of society as a whole. Wolfgang Schieder, after reviewing the Doctrine of Fascism, explains Mussolini’s success based on it and

The state of Mussolini’s Fascist Italy and Hitler’s Nazi Germany, can be highly comparable in their policies and ideologies. Fascism is a political ideology, in which the country is to be racially and culturally pure. Mussolini said himself that “Fascism desires the state to be strong and organic and to always be prepared for conflict”. Fascism includes things such as nationalism, hostility to democracy, racism, the love of symbols such as uniforms, parades and army discipline. It is a totalitarian philosophy which worships the state and nation. Fascism is an extreme right-wing that celebrates the nation or race as a pure community which exceeds all other loyalties and expectations (Downing, 2001). Most of the time it celebrates masculinity and male supremacy, rarely it will promote female solidarity (De Grand, 1995). Fascist aims are to prepare for conflict and violence and to prepare and educate the youth. Both were able to gain support from military associations,

Fascism such as that displayed in post-World War 1 Italy was in many ways a contradictory ideology; anti-modernism contrasted with technological obsession and anti-democratic views paired with capitalism. Despite this ambiguity of the fascist ideology, one clear characteristic among almost all fascists throughout history has been a heavy focus on militarism – an aspect of Mussolini’s Italy which was intrinsically tied to his use of terror and force to achieve fascist political agendas.

Being one of the most feared powers in Europe during the twentieth century, Benito Mussolini was the leader and the founder of the Italian Fascist party. He had the most courageous and outgoing ideas and ways to reform Italy into its old roots. Benito had inspiring ideas as, to rebuild the “Roman Empire”, make Italy into a European superpower, and be a severe threat to the entire world. Benito was the editor-in-chief of “Avanti!” a socialist newspaper, and was able to spread the word of himself as well as the idea of Fascism. His ideas and tactics eventually led to him being dictator of Italy for 21 years.

This downfall wounded Italy’s national pride, it led to depression and high unemployment rates; as well as a social unrest and an increase in street violence. As a result, Mussolini knew Italy needed a new doctrine in order to redeem itself. When world war one ended in 1919, Mussolini stated that “Socialism, as a doctrine, was already dead”, this influenced him to use national unity and order to create a new political movement known as fascism. Mussolini explained, “Fascism was not the nursling of a doctrine previously drafted at a desk, it was born of the need of action, and was an action … an anti-party and a movement.” Mussolini began with the creation of a band of young men, called the black shirts, who fought for national unity. These men would “fight both technical and spiritual rear-guirdism” and would not be “fainthearted”. As a response, Italy began giving Mussolini and his men financial support. On October 1922, his men mobilized through the parliamentary government, leading the king to declare Marshall law and making Mussolini the new leader of Italy. Now holding all the power in his hands, Mussolini marginalized the parliament. There was a destruction of organized labor and an elimination of all political parties except fascism. Fascism promoted the leader principle, which meant one leader would smooth over everyone, in this case Mussolini. He wanted dictatorship and violence was his way of achieving it. It enforced the ideology of action, it was ready to deal with all the problems by its own policies. Fascism was born from violent struggle and not politics, in this case violence was a good thing to Mussolini and he was all for it. Fascism did not believe in possibility nor utility of peace, any doctrine that promoted peace was contradicting fascist beliefs. It also opposed all doctrines of liberalism, which was the idea of

When looking at the nature of fascism, we have to look to how it originated. The social strata in the inter-war period and its structure and general opinion were a product of both direct factors and long-term factors. The 19th century was the century of the Liberalism as ‘the ideology’ in juxtaposition to the form of governance of the absolutist monarchies

Fascism is a political movement which originated in Italy, deriving its name from fasces - bundles of sticks tied around an axe symbolizing authority of leadership and the unity of the people tied to it. It holds that the individual exists for the State, to whose good all his work and interests should be directed. It is an ideology of liberation, yet one which is constructed around direct subservience to leadership. This form of hierarchy within the state is the first key theme within fascism. Elitism entails a strong distrust of democracy, fearing that it manipulates law and society through influencing public opinion, they believe in the iron law of oligarchy, in a hero / leader, and in elite values. However, there are many paradoxes within fascism. It has characteristically been at opposition with democracy, yet fascism has also characteristically enacted the same system of oppression within its political regimes. It is similar to Marxism in the ways in which the victims of each system suffer under dictatorships, and expansionary practices. Fascism tends to completely glorify war however, deeming it an "outlet for heroic and grand passions". Following this, there is an irrationality which fascism follows. It is a very subjective ideology and expresses a diminished role of reason. Most Fascists were in agreement with Sorel on the grounds of justifying a proletarian war

There are no set positions, left, right, center, for the general idea of Fascism. Neither is there a set of rules which it is comprised of. It is safe to say there is no one definition that is all inclusive because Fascism can be very different depending on how it is employed. It is debated in many different opinions of what it represents. With that said, since there is no one all inclusive

This notion argues that by ruling under democratic ideologies, crisis and weakness would likely occur as a result. Furthermore, another important concept of Fascism is the fact that the movement was initially rooted into the notion of nationalism. Much of Mussolini’s rhetoric revolved around restoring Italy and expanding Italian territories. This expansion was justified through reasoning explained as asserting strength and power in order to avoid the demise of their nation. It’s through this concept that there are some similarities and differences between Fascism and National Socialism, which I’ll further discuss later on. Moreover, The Fascist platform of 1919 outlined several key topics including, universal suffrage, the eight-hour work day, and inheritance taxes to name a

The Fascists’ social and economic policies up to 1939 significantly aided their control over Italy yet may not be cited as the sole cause. The Fascist party’s social and economic policies along with other factors attributed to the overall control of Italy. Through such policies it was a certainty that the Fascist party would hold complete power over the population of Italy in each aspect of an individual’s life whether it was their leisure time through the Dopolavoro or at work under the corporate state system which was formally introduced in 1934. This complete domination of the Italian peoples’ lives could be argued to have been the instrumental factor behind the Fascists’ control over Italy up to 1939. Other factors which assisted the

The Rise of Fascism Due More to the Personality of Mussolini than the Failures of Liberal Italy

As a result of how Italy was created but not fully unified, the new Italian state suffered from a variety of weaknesses which the new liberal state was unable to tackle these. This made Italy susceptible to the appeal of fascism, and therefore aided Mussolini’s rise to power.