The Crisis of Democracies and the Rise of Fascism
3. The Crisis of Democracies and the Emergence of Fascism
3.1 The Crisis of Democracies
At the end of World War I, a spirit of optimism and pacifism spread between European countries, identifying with the triumph of freedom versus the old and defeated Central Empires. The realization of the right to independence by various nationalities and the creation of the League of Nations as an international forum seemed to presage that the Great War would not be repeated.
However, several factors demonstrated the illusion of the 1920s, whose base was fragile and fictitious:
– On one hand, the Russian Revolution encouraged the world proletariat to pursue the revolutionary conquest of power, leading to the establishment of a dictatorship of the working class.
– On the other hand, economic hardship after the war was only exacerbated by the crisis of the NYSE in 1929, worsening the social and economic situation of millions of workers by multiplying the number of unemployed and causing distrust in parliamentary systems.
– Finally, the Treaty of Versailles caused discontent among nations that were not satisfied with their grievances, resulting in the spread of nationalist approaches.
In short, the map of Europe presented in 1939, before World War II, showed a rise of authoritarian regimes and dictatorships.
3.2 Characteristics of Fascism
Fascism is a conservative, ultra-nationalist ideology, whose origins can be traced back to some thinkers of the nineteenth century and was systematized by the Italian Benito Mussolini and his followers. It presents peculiarities in each country, taking on several characteristics common to authoritarian and dictatorial regimes:
– Defends a totalitarian state based on a single party.
– Rejects democracy as an expression of the will of the majority.
– Establishes a hierarchical structure of society: the people, the party, and the top leader, who demands blind obedience.
– Rejects the Marxist revolutionary workers’ movement, which advocates class struggle and divides the nation.
– Is supported by the upper classes who finance the movement, as well as sectors of the middle classes and unemployed workers.
– Controls the basic levers of the economy.
– Exalts violence, deploying a police regime to suppress all opposition.
– Monopolizes propaganda and censorship, which serve the party.
– Mystifies historical nationalism, exalting it as a supreme value based on the concept of a chosen people or superior race, while encouraging xenophobia.
3.3 Italian Fascism: Benito Mussolini
Italy participated in World War I on the winning side, but the achievements of the Peace of Versailles did not satisfy the territorial claims of the most nationalistic. The postwar economic crises led to a revolution of unions and workers’ parties struggling to establish a Soviet-type model.
In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the National Fascist Party, whose objectives were to build a new state and a strong Italy. The upper classes supported him, seeing that violence could slow the proletarian revolution.
In 1922, he organized the March on Rome, a demonstration supported by the ruling groups and by the king, who appointed him head of government. From then on, Mussolini dismantled the entire liberal democratic system through violence, police control, and manipulation of institutions.
– Repealed rights and liberties, banned political parties and trade unions, and established a single party.
– Created a corporate state where employees and employers were united in professional corporations controlled by the state, which provided economic programs aimed at industrializing and modernizing agriculture to achieve economic self-sufficiency.
– Exalted the figure of the Duce through intense propaganda.
– Glorified the Roman imperial past.
– Claimed to reconstruct the ancient Roman Empire through an aggressive imperialist policy in Abyssinia, Albania, and Greece.
3.4 German Nazism
After the Great War, the Second German Reich was transformed into a democratic republic, beset by a serious social and economic situation arising in the postwar period. This was facilitated by the payment of large sums to the victors, causing industrial crises, factory closures, unemployment, and rising prices. All of this led to the emergence of political positions in favor of revising peace treaties.
In this environment, Hitler joined the Nazi Party in 1919 and participated in a failed coup that led him to jail, where he wrote his political ideology, Mein Kampf.
His ideology took old ideas of nationalism, accompanied by contributions from Italian Fascism, summarizing: military buildup, expansion, personal dictatorship, anti-Semitism, removal of what he deemed an inferior race, and revision of the Treaty of Versailles. With its existing program addressing the unemployed during the crisis of 1929, his party won a majority in 1933.
In government, Hitler implemented his program and did not hesitate to use violence and police repression. He outlawed all political parties except the Nazis, pursued Jews and opponents of the regime, and militarized society, exalting the figure of the Führer while developing an economic program based on rearmament, highway construction, and support for large industries. Hitler pursued an imperial policy aimed at constructing the Third Reich.