Defining Fascism

The emergence of the Tea parties with their racially coded appeals and calls for national renewal, the anti-immigrant movement, the growth of patriot militias all underscore fascistic tendencies within the American polity, but without a comprehensive definition of fascism incorporating both ideological and political economic definitions, identifying a break from the neoliberal risk management state with its expanding surveillance apparatus and shrinking accountability and an outright fascist state would be difficult.

 Defining Fascism is as contentious as the subject of study itself. Often, definitions consider fascism only as a state form rather than as a type of social movement (Griffin, 2008). It is considered in a narrow or broad way depending on the political point of view of author in relation to the classical fascism of Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy (Griffin, 2008). Frequently fascism is used as an epithet directed at political opponents or at the state implying that repressive measures taken by the state are equivalent to those of classical fascist states. These kinds of political uses of the term fascism cloud the specific differences between classical fascism and other forms of repressive state regimes or repressive conditions within nominally democratic regimes.

Two definitions are most useful, the definition adopted by the Comintern when confronting fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, and the “new consensus” ideological definition that has emerged from fascist studies (Griffin, 2008). The former is useful in clarifying historical fascism as a state form and its class composition while the latter incorporates fascist self definitions to identify contemporary post war movements. Both definitions provide useful insights in understanding contemporary fascism when deployed in tandem.

The Comintern definition as outlined by Togliatti in his “Lectures on Fascism” defines fascism as "the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, most imperialist elements of finance capital" in alliance with a petit bourgeois mass movement (1976).The petit bourgeoisie occupies a specific class position, but class is an important concept that itself needs to be defined. Poulantzas defines class as aggregate groupings of agents located within a production process, and only in relation to contradiction or the class struggle. It includes the ideological and the political, a complex ensemble of social practices (Poulantzas, 1974).

The composition of the classical fascist party formations is well documented. The class composition of post war fascist groups is likely to be similar, if less transparent than their prewar classical predecessors. Kater claims that the Nazi party was a party of the lower middle classes. Citing Wolfgang Sauer, Kater found that the lower middle classes were the major component of Nazi Party membership (Kater 1983, 236). One of Katter’s surprising findings was the degree of elite over representation in the NSDAP from 1919-1945. According to his analysis, workers remained under represented in the party for its duration (Kater 1983:238) and that class structures of 1918 continued after 1933 and on after 1945 (Kater1983:239).

 Fascist ideology is the glue that binds the mass base with finance capital (Togliatti 1976) despite contradictions between the interests of a mass movement with a subaltern base and an organizational core found in the “power block” (Poulantzas 1977). Togliatti notes that within imperialism there is a tendency to reaction, particularly when faced with a systemic crisis requiring extreme labor discipline to restore profitability (Togliatti 1976). Given uncertainty of outcome one way or another, the reactionary block of capital requires a mass base and movement to advance its most ambitious agendas. For Togliatti the key point is that contradictions in the class composition of fascist dictatorship are resolved through ideology- racist, nationalist, and expansionist (Togliatti 1976). Neo-fascists are but one variety of petit bourgeois social movements which generally have a tendency toward terroristic methods to achieve their aims. Fascism and fascist movements are a political option when hegemony fails (Gramsci1971). The Comintern definition notes the ideological dimension to fascism, but only in relation to state power.

Since the Second World War, fascism as a social movement has continued to exist within the framework of liberal democracy, embodying a rejection of rationality and an embrace of mytho-poetic theories of history and purpose. It is this characteristic that seems to distinguish fascism as a social movement from other types of mass movements, irrespective of its relationship to state power or lack thereof. Post war fascist movements have not often been parties of state power. Today’s fascists indeed might not be oriented toward that goal in our current period of globalization and non-state actors. A working definition of fascism therefore depends on historical periodization, making distinctions and marking continuities with the classical period. A contemporary clerical regime or a military dictatorship might exhibit a family resemblance to Fascist Italy or Nazi Germany, but differ substantially from those state forms. A definition of Fascism must take into account those movements own self-descriptions in order to be a useful analytical tool (Griffin, 2008).

 By taking into account self description as a key element in a definition of fascism, the continuities between classical fascism and  post war fascist movements can be delineated as well as the differences between fascist and repressive regimes with fascistic characteristics. In some ways the “new consensus” view is much more applicable to the post war context since it addresses the nuances of movements not in power. The ideological or “new consensus” definition finds that fascism is “a genus of  political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a palingenetic form of populist ultra-nationalism…a revolutionary and populist thrust towards national regeneration in a new order” (Griffin 89:2008).

Fascism has transformed itself into a polycentric, utopian movement assuming a rhizomic form similar to other transformative social movements (Griffin 200:2008). Global integration and the repositioning of nation states limit the viability of fascism as a state form suitable to solving the problems of capitalism in crisis, but identity politics in its reactionary variant might provide a suitable vehicle for extralegal policing when legal measures fail in a period of weak and constrained class solidarities (Earl.2003). In the current configuration, non-state actors, global governance and states coexist in unstable asymmetry, constrained by the limits imposed through neoliberal restructuring at the global level, contributing to the appeal of anti-rational, identity politics and xenophobia in a fearful new world.

The contemporary uni-polar world of casual-ized precarious work, open borders for capital, and inversely (or perversely) “population containment zones” (nation states) for declassed and marginalized workers, farmers and de-valorized professionals is characterized by a contradiction between a networked global economy and a political structure of territorial entities (Sassen 2000; Castells 2000).Neoliberal redistributive efforts have yielded results: massive social inequality and a concentration of wealth resulting in a restoration of class power (Harvey 2005:16).Glocalization, a shift in power from parliamentary bodies to the administrative at the state level, and a shift in power from states to supra national entities such as the WB/IMF and regional bodies such as NAFTA (della Porta and Tarrow 2005) has closed some political avenues for social movements left and right. Under such conditions, statist ultra nationalist projects of renewal are unlikely in the near term, particularly since the neoliberal ideology includes a commitment to individual liberty scripted in Universalist terms (Brenner, Theodore 2002).

The new consensus definition makes it possible to distinguish between fascist and non-fascist social movements, but does not address the issue of the class composition of fascist movements, an issue best addressed by the Comintern. In Germany and Italy fascism emerged after the upsurge of revolutionary workers movements, a temporary and unstable resolution of a crisis related to imperialism and structural contradictions associated with nation-state formation and modernization (Poulantzas 1977).In the United States, devolution under both Democratic and Republican political regimes foreground new terrains and organizational structures for social action, most notably urban centers where post-fordist production is centered (Hackworth 2007). In such circumstances, coercion and channeling are tools used to fragment and disperse dissent, preventing effective organizing (Earl 2003) Coercion is selective, focused on subaltern communities systematically and as well as targeted threats--both organizational and specific—such as contentious demonstrations, organizations or populations (Earl 2003). Given the unstable and shifting nature of neo-liberal restructuring, other coercive measures might be necessary from time to time and fascist groupings might play an essential role in managing potential and emerging threats to the neoliberal order within the core democratic states. Hate crimes might be an outcome of  the extra-legal policing of the gender and color lines in US society at the local scale.

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