This book examines fascist ideology in seven leaders of parties and movements in the interwar period.
It makes use of the conceptual morphological approach, focused on core and adjacent concepts, as well as on the interlinkages between them. With such an approach, the book seeks to offer an innovative perspective on fascism and arrive at a conceptual configuration of fascist ideology, capable of highlighting its main concepts and combinations. Furthermore, it examines the major texts of seven leaders from Germany, Italy, the UK, Portugal, Spain, France and Romania – Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Oswald Mosley, Rolão Preto, Primo de Rivera, Marcel Déat, and Corneliu Codreanu. With the conceptual approach, the book reasserts the possibility of finding a definition of generic fascism at the same time as depicting the ideological varieties espoused by each leader.
This title will be of interest to students and scholars of fascism, extremism and the far right.
Author(s): Carlos Manuel Martins
Series: Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought; 156
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 246
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Fascist Leaders, Generic Fascism and the Conceptual Approach
Taking fascist ideology seriously
Why the leaders?
The search for a 'generic fascism' and new concerns about ideological fluidity
The conceptual morphological approach
Fascism and the conceptual morphological approach
Methodology and primary sources
Notes
List of references
1. The conceptual structure of 'generic fascism': Seven core concepts
Main interpretations and definitions of fascism
The core concepts of fascism
Nation
State
Corporatism
Revolution
Authority
Violence
Empire
Concluding remarks
Notes
List of references
2. Adolf Hitler and German national socialism: Racial struggle as the basis of a worldview
Hitler and the Nazi party
Adolf Hitler amid the ideological struggles of his time
The conceptual core of Mein Kampf
Race and racial struggle
The racial State
Revolution and racial struggle as the key to historical progress
The authority of the heroic leader
Violence, anti-Semitism and social Darwinism
Vital space and the survival of the race
Other important features of the configuration
Corporatism: a less relevant concept
Peripheral concepts
Permeability and rejections
Contradictions: individual/collectivity and people/leader
Concluding remarks
Notes
List of references
3. Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists: The Ideological Synthesis of 'Greater Britain'
Mosley and the BUF
Oswald Mosley amid the ideological struggles of his time
The conceptual core of Greater Britain
The national corporate state
The new revolutionary era
Authority and violence
The autarchic empire
Other important features of the configuration
Peripheral concepts
Permeability and rejections
Contradictions: nationalism/internationalism and public/private
Concluding remarks
Notes
List of references
4. Francisco Rolão Preto and Portuguese National Syndicalism: Corporatism and the construction of an alternative modernity
Rolão Preto and NS
Rolão Preto amid the ideological struggles of his time
The conceptual core of Rolão Preto's texts
The national corporate state
The alternative modernity and the national revolution
Authoritarianism and violence
Other important features of the configuration
Imperialism: an absent concept?
Peripheral concepts
Permeability and rejections
Contradictions: revolution/traditionalism
Concluding remarks
Notes
List of References
5. José António Primo de Rivera and the Spanish Falange: The historical mission of the Spanish Nation
Primo de Rivera and the FE de las JONS
Primo de Rivera amid the ideological struggles of his time
The conceptual core of Primo de Rivera
The historical mission of the nation and the empire
The corporate state
The elitist and violent revolution
Other important features of the configuration
Personality
Peripheral concepts
Permeability and rejections
Contradictions: tradition/revolution and elitism/populism
Concluding remarks
Notes
List of References
6. Corneliu Codreanu and the iron guard: The Manichean Battle between good and evil
Corneliu Codreanu and the GF
Corneliu Codreanu amid the ideological struggles of his time
The conceptual core of Pentru Legionari
Holist nationalism and the 'Greater Romania'
The 'New Man' of the palingenetic revolution and the concept of authority
Violence, racism and the cult of death
Other important features of the configuration
Corporatism as a less relevant concept
Peripheral concepts
Permeability and rejections
Contradictions: populism/elitism and spirituality/materialism
Concluding remarks
Notes
List of References
7. Marcel Déat and the French RNP: The European Revolution and the new party
Marcel Déat and the RNP
Marcel Déat amid the ideological struggles of his time
The conceptual core of Le Parti Unique
The national community, the French empire and the state
Corporatism and class conciliation
The totalitarian revolution and internationalism
Authority, violence and order
Other important features of the configuration
The party
Peripheral concepts
Permeability and rejections
Contradictions: nationalism and internationalism
Concluding remarks
Notes
List of References
8. Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism: The creation of a new conceptual configuration
Benito Mussolini, fascism and the political milieu of Italy in the 20th century
The conceptual reconfigurations of Mussolini during the formative years of Fascism
The founding speech of the Fasci Italiani di Combatimento and the political program of the Fasci
The inaugural speech at the first congress of the Fasci
The inaugural speech at the second congress of the Fasci
The founding of the PNF
Concluding remarks
Notes
List of References
9. Final considerations about the conceptual configuration of generic fascism
The core concepts of fascism
Interlinkages
The adjacent concept of order
One marginal concept: liberty
Permeability and rejections
Contradictions and tensions
Concluding remarks: a definition of fascism
Notes
List of references
Conclusion
Index
