Rethinking fascism and dictatorship in Europe (original) (raw)
Related papers
European Fascism: The Unfinished Handbook
2012
Fascism continues to fascinate scholars within the social sciences, perhaps as much as communism, that other great non-democratic '-ism' of the twentieth century. The topic also seems to be of continuing interest to the student and commercial book markets. In some cases bland repetition is the norm, but the pressure from commercial publishers often results in some excellent syntheses, even if based on secondary material, and that is not to mention the biography genre, which is always attentive to charismatic leaders and dictators — the more cruel the better. Moreover, the already voluminous academic literature on contemporary dictatorships often returns to the fascist and dictatorial regimes of the inter-war period.
2022
This book takes up the stimuli of new international historiography, albeit focusing mainly on the two regimes that undoubtedly provided the model for Fascist movements in Europe, namely the Italian and the German. Starting with a historiographical assessment of the international situation, vis-à-vis studies on Fascism and National Socialism, and then concentrate on certain aspects that are essential to any study of the two dictatorships, namely the complex relationships with their respective societies, the figures of the two dictators and the role of violence. This volume reaches beyond the time-frame encompassing Fascism and National Socialism experiences, directing the attention also toward the period subsequent to their demise. This is done in two ways. On the one hand, examining the uncomfortable architectural legacy left by dictatorships to the democratic societies that came after the war. On the other hand, the book addresses an issue that is very much alive both in the strictly historiographical and political science debate, that is to say, to what extent can the label of Fascism be used to identify political phenomena of these current times, such as movements and parties of the so-called populist and souverainist right.
Rethinking the Nature of Fascism. Comparative perspectives
2011
This book revisits the major themes of research into, and interpreta- tion of, the nature of fascism that have been developed since the 1970s. European fascism continues to attract a considerable degree of atten- tion, as the continuous publication on theme testifies. During the past 20 years the comparative study of fascism has concentrated increasingly on its ideological and cultural dimensions, at times becoming ‘ideology- centred’. We may even say that the analysis of so-called ‘generic fascism’ has moved from a ‘sociological’ to a more ‘political’ perspective, giving both ideology and culture much more importance than was previously the case. On the other hand, this area has become more restricted in disciplinary terms, with historians clearly dominating over sociologists and political scientists.
Fascisms and Their Afterli(v)es: An Introduction
Journal of the History of Ideas, 2021
How do we think about fascism's relation to ideas today? The introduction to the cluster of essays proposes grounds on which to pursue anew the intellectual history of fascism: (1) on a global stage, from the Italian Empire, Japan, and Nazi Germany to Sweden and contemporary Argentina; (2) across the 1945 divide, considering the premises thanks to which fascism has re-emerged time and again; (3) as a history of the process-ideas and pleasures through which fascisms have convinced their adherents, woven together their ideologies, and carried out their violence.
Arnd Bauerkämper and Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe, Fascism without Borders: Transnational Connections and Cooperation between Movements and Regimes in Europe from 1918 to 1945 (Oxford: Berghahn, 2017), 1-38.
Fascist movements and regimes have usually been conceived as and presented themselves as national political forces. In fact, contemporaries as well as scholars have highlighted hyper-nationalism as one of the most important features of fascism which separated fascist movements and regimes from each other. Not accidentally, all attempts to forge a “Fascist International” foundered between the two world wars. Many historians have therefore dismissed or failed to recognize crossborder cooperations between fascists. In fact, the hyper-nationalism of fascist movements and their social Darwinist doctrines, as well as the expansionist and racist policies of the Third Reich and Fascist Italy, have led most experts to argue that fascist internationalism or international fascism was merely a camouflage and a sham. The interpretation that “international fascism is unthinkable, a contradiction in terms” has received broad support from most historians. As a corollary, fascism has largely been investigated in the framework of national history. Beyond volumes that have collected national case studies, few systematic comparative studies have been published. In particular, cross-border interactions between fascist movements and regimes have largely been dismissed in historical scholarship.
The Nature of Fascism Revisited
2014
The topics explored in this book relate to empirical research and theoretical reflections on fascism I have been conducting for some time. In recent years social science literature has returned to the matter of the factors leading to the survival or downfall of the dictatorships and dictators: the construction of legitimacy, the regimes’ capacity to distribute resources, divisions within the power coalitions, the political institutions of the dicta- torships, their capacity for survival, and the cost-benefit analysis of rebellion.6 On the other hand, the survival (and appearance) of several dictatorships after the end of the Cold War, and particularly the increasing complexity of their institutions, has led to a new field of study into the hybrid nature of many contemporary political regimes that were already present in the po- litical landscape of the era of fascism’ The essays in this book point in that direction, reassessing such dimensions as decision-making and institutions, legislatures, and parties, which are most typically integral to a dictatorial regime.