Mostly these are just silly public remarks. Please do not trivialize. That indicates absence of an argument. And that is not the same as an ideologue. He does not pose a challenge to constitutional democracy. He certainly poses a great challenge to liberalism and liberal democracy. And I think real favor will be served by journalists who, instead of seeing liberal democracy as a single entity, see it as a binomial.
Democracy can exist without liberalism. He obviously plays fast and loose, like any wheeler dealer, with things like the Supreme Court, who he gets in, etc. By not calling him fascist, and concentrating on the way he perverts democracy, we see Trump in a different context. On Trump and fascism, unlike what has become an almost majority view, I do not like applying that term to Trump or to what is going on in this country. Genocide means something: It is an attempt to wipe out an entire people, using the full force of the modern state.
Similarly, national socialism or, more broadly, fascism was a totalitarian ideology and political regime that wanted to do away not only with liberalism and democracy but to revolutionize society, economy, and politics. That Trump maintains his support by engaging in explicitly divisive appeals designed to pit groups against each other — particularly but not exclusively ethnic groups — also, of course, bears some similarity to what fascists did. And, of course, Trump is undermining various norms and institutions of democracy.
And as bad as things are today, we are still not in s Germany. If Trump was a fascist and we were in a situation akin to Germany in or Italy in , certain kinds of actions would be justified. But we are not, and they are not. And that remains important to stress, even though that does not mean downplaying the real threat Trump and the version of the Republican Party that is backing him represents to our country.
Bismarck was the classic practitioner of the negative integration strategy. As for Trump overall, I would still prefer referring to him as an illiberal populist or right-wing populist. He has a lot in common with the right-wing populists roaming around Europe today. Yet the political cultures that form him and his close supporters are not fascist, but reflect a broader authoritarian history. I also favor authoritarian over fascist as a description for Trump because the former captures how autocratic power works today.
In the 21st century, fascist takeovers have been replaced by rulers who come to power through elections and then, over time, extinguish freedom. I would not say the traditional idea of fascism fits Donald Trump in any more than it did before he took office. When historians and political scientists do a full accounting of his actions and statements as president, I do not think fascism will figure prominently in their analyses. The prototypical fascist leaders — Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, [Austrian Chancellor] Engelbert Dollfuss — not only pursued right-wing policies, they also built-up mass-mobilizing parties and paramilitary organizations with the goal of sweeping aside alternative movements and establishing single-party dictatorship.
Trump is a celebrity-turned-right-wing politician. He acts as a consummate demagogue, fabulist, and ultranationalist, and he appears to have a strong inclination for nepotism and kleptocracy. His efforts to use the presidency to finance his lifestyle and enrich his family resemble the schemes of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. In addition to profiting from his time in office, Trump, like Marcos, has challenged constraints on executive authority without investing resources into a sustainable political organization.
These current movements are fascistic rather than truly fascist, though, Griffin argued—a distinction many modern commentators ignore. In the same way, we get governments that end up looking like modern fascist regimes, even though their roots are different.
Examples of such fascistic leaders abound. Hungary has even rehabilitated controversial national hero Admiral Miklos Horthy, the World War II-era dictator who allied with Nazi Germany and deported a half-million Jews to be gassed. Like the pan-German mythology of the s, Eurasianism looks to the past to restore decrepit Russia, declaring that its people descended from a unique Slavic and Turkic ancestry, bent on reclaiming their history after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The forces and traits that gave rise to fascism—the desire to keep communists at bay, to avenge defeat in World War I—no longer exist. Nobody fears a global communist movement will topple governments one by one. So current authoritarian leaders have a harder time galvanizing their followers and justifying repressive policies. But softer and more sophisticated approach—a fascistic one, not a fascist one—can win a mob of angry followers. At its heart, fascism is an alliance of hardline and moderate conservatives seeking to repress left-wing sentiment.
The danger of fascism lies in its ability to coopt legitimate resentments resulting from inequality and refashion them as hostility towards outsiders. Fascists also excel at propaganda, using it as a tool to scapegoat certain groups; however, those groups may differ from country to country.
For instance, the Nazi regime demonized Jews and other ethnic minorities, such as the Romani people, while Mussolini's Italian regime targeted Bolsheviks — radical, far-left Marxists. Mussolini worked regularly with Jews, and his mistress, Margherita Sarfatti, was Jewish, though she later converted to Catholicism.
Because of Mussolini's alliance with Hitler, he did eventually incorporate antisemitic components into his regime, and Sarfatti fled Italy in after Mussolini began passing antisemitic legislation, according to the Jewish Women's Archive. But overall, Mussolini differed from Hitler on the subject of biological racism. Related: What are the different types of governments?
Paxton also said that fascism is based more on feelings than philosophical ideas which may explain why fascism can be hard to define. In his essay " The Five Stages of Fascism ," published in in the Journal of Modern History, he defined seven "mobilizing passions" for fascist regimes.
They are:. Once in power, "fascist dictatorships suppressed individual liberties, imprisoned opponents, forbade strikes, authorized unlimited police power in the name of national unity and revival, and committed military aggression," Paxton wrote.
Mussolini's fascism mixed extreme nationalist expansion with social programs like women's suffrage and workers' rights, accumulating power by forming alliances with conservatives and existing government factions. According to the AHA , in Italy in , strong-arm squads known as the Blackshirt Militia, who were financed by industrialists, fought socialist farmer organizations, conducted raids on socialist newspapers and occupied socialist-led towns. They threatened to march on Rome in The government tried to placate Mussolini by naming him prime minister, but in , he established himself as dictator.
What followed was violent suppression of dissent; the deification of Mussolini; violent expansion into Ethiopia, Albania and other countries; and in , alliance with Nazi Germany and participation in World War II.
Hitler learned many lessons from Mussolini, including the importance of propaganda and violence. In the s, he led his Nazi Party to prominence through dramatic speeches, grand entrances and passionate rhetoric against Jews, Marxists, liberals and internationalists — those who support social and economic collaboration between nations, Paxton wrote.
By the summer, Hitler's rule had become a dictatorship. In violation of the Versailles Treaty, Hitler rearmed Germany and began invading neighboring lands. The invasion of Poland on Sept. European fascist ideas inspired regimes throughout Latin America, including in Bolivia and Argentina. Spain and Portugal were dictatorships until , but those governments were a mix of conservative and fascist parties.
The Library of Economics and Liberty defined fascism's economic practices as "socialism with a capitalist veneer," but the economics of fascism are complicated. For fascist governments, the purported goal is autarky, or national self-sufficiency, according to The Library of Economics and Liberty.
In the s and s, fascist leaders pitched this as an effective middle ground between bourgeois, profit-oriented capitalism with a distinct upper and lower class, and revolutionary Marxism that would dismantle many social institutions and persecute the bourgeoisie, or upper class.
In the decades prior to WWII in Germany and Italy, fascist cartels business monopolies under government control determined many aspects of commerce, finance, agriculture and manufacturing, and made decisions according to what would further the state's power; however, they also allowed the conservative business elite to maintain property and increase their wealth. The cartels forcibly lowered wages and paid the workers with national pride.
One element of fascism is collaboration with capitalists and the conservative elite. Fascists, even when they start out with radical ideas, always collaborate to move in the direction of protecting private property, Paxton told Live Science.
This is, however, an awkward alliance, he said. On July 20, , conservatives tried to assassinate Hitler. Throughout 20th-century history, fascist regimes have required certain sociocultural and political situations to rise. It is also worth noting that many countries, such as Britain in the s and s, have seen fascist ideas increase in popularity without regimes coming to power or fascist parties becoming star political players.
First and foremost, fascist regimes in the 20th century have required extreme national crises to gain popularity and power. After defeat in World War I, many in Germany and Italy were anxious about the future of their countries.
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