[Le Rouge]

In school I have been taught the American standard, fascism is evil, but they never explained the economics and social order of fascism (they say the same about communism as well )?

So what exactly is fascism?
All I know is that it has a Corporatist economy and Authoriatan government

[Russkie]

Hitler was inspired by fascism created by Mussolini.
Fascism has a Nationalist goverment, and most often racism.

[Crazy Brown Guy]

Fascism has a Nationalist goverment, and most often racism.

WRONG.

[Garibaldi]

Aduro, I pity you; it was in your state, in your school, and in your time that you learned only that facism and communism were evil. At my school, we were not told evil after seventh or eighth grade; once we got into high school, they just told us a little more than that.

There are many ways to have a totalitarian or some other authoritian government. The basic principle is correct, although the executive branch is often very strong out of necessity. In the USSR, business was directly controlled by the state. However, in Nazi Germany the economy was controlled by regulating business and the state-run union. Whatever the goal of the state is, laws will reflect that. For instance, anti-jew laws and christian morality were forced on the citizens of the third reich; however, most totalitarians in this forum would not institute such laws. In fact, most would allow for much of the civil liberties called for by leftist organizations merely out of their not being a good reason for said laws to be instituted in the first place.

[liberalist]

Fascism was that system created by Mussolini in Italy during the 1920's. Primarily it was an ultra-nationalist movement focusing on national pride, military might and service to your country. Economically it was, as you say, a corporatist state. For example, unions were abolished and replaced with government controlled labour organisations.

One important thing about fascism - It is NOT National Socialism. You asked about fascism, yet in the precedint posts people have been talking about Hitler. Germany was run by Hitler and the National Socialist (Nazi) party. National Socialism was inspired by the success of fascism in Italy, but it was its own ideology and is seperate from fascism. For example, National Socialism was inherently anti-Semetic. However, fascism was not. It was ultra-nationalist - thus it discriminated against non-Italians. Any anti-Semetic attitudes in Italy at the time were not related to fascism but were caused by the prevailing anti-semetic feeling in europe and, later, pressures from Hitler's Germany.

Do not have time to write any more, but if you have any specific questions feel free to ask them.

[Garibaldi]

Liberalist, you're correct that Facism was specific to Italy; however, the word is used synonomously with totalitarianism or authoritianism more often than not, and that is the meaning I got from Aduro.

[New Era]

First of all welcome to the board, it's always a pleasure to welcome a new member who shows intrest in fascism or any other totalitarian ideology. I am going to give you two links that you can go to and read up on the subject fascism, but first I wanted to let you know that fascism is still a ideology that is quite popular in some parts of the world, the fascist party of Belgium is even the biggest party of our country Here is a link to a site with detailed information and this is a link to one of our forum members post about a alternate way of fascism.

[Neo-Manichaean Sarcophobe]

Fascism is an oft-abused word; today extreme leftists use it to denote anything remotely right-wing. Fascism as an ideology is very difficult to define; indeed there is no consensus among academicians as to what constitutes fascism and in fact some scholars have proposed that it can’t be considered an ideology. Nonetheless, it is a useful term to describe a specifically inter-war period european political phenomenon.

christian morality were forced on the citizens of the third reich

While Hitler and especially Mussolini cultivated a relatively good relationship with the catholic church, both of these movements were basically anti-christian. In Germany many of the most high-ranking officials in the reich were members of occult societies such as the Thule Society, and national socialist theory and mythology is clearly pagan, as is evident in the writings of Alfred Rosenberg, among others. The Italian writer Julius Evola displays a similar interest in pre-christian values.

the fascist party of Belgium is even the biggest party of our country

The only far right Belgian party I know of is Vlaams Blok, and they would hardly benefit from declaring themselves fascists!

[starman2003]

I agree that the nazis only paid occasional lip service to christianity and were fundamentally opposed to it. Around 1939 the pope was bitching that nazism represented apostacy from christ. The term fascism is obsolete and should be abandoned.

[XX55XX]

Fascism is Nazism without the racism. In a Fascist society, all industry is controlled by the state. There is no free speech or freedom of the press or any sort of that. There also is no indivuality in Fascism. A person's only freedom is to serve the state in industry or the army, etc.

Hopes this clears some things up.

[Neo-Manichaean Sarcophobe]

Fascism is Nazism without the racism. In a Fascist society, all industry is controlled by the state. There is no free speech or freedom of the press or any sort of that. There also is no indivuality in Fascism. A person's only freedom is to serve the state in industry or the army, etc.

If this is to be a litmus test of whether a government can be considered fascist, then no regime in the entire history of the world has ever been fascist.

[Power_Granger]

A factor often missed out in Facism is that a Facist believes that it is good and proper to fight and that war is the correct state for a country to be in.

[Bricktop]

So what exactly is fascism?

http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaste ... solini.htm

Drummond

[starman2003]

Fascism is Nazism without the racism. In a Fascist society, all industry is controlled by the state. There is no free speech or freedom of the press or any sort of that. There also is no indivuality in Fascism. A person's only freedom is to serve the state in industry or the army, etc.

If this is to be a litmus test of whether a government can be considered fascist, then no regime in the entire history of the world has ever been fascist.

He exaggerated. To me, "fascism" was 20th century Wholism. It was indeed monistic, and stressed the State or Whole over the individual, and private industry.

[starman2003]

A factor often missed out in Facism is that a Facist believes that it is good and proper to fight and that war is the correct state for a country to be in.

Past wholist systems, from Rome to the Reich, were hegemonistic, but the ultimate goal was the triumph of a better world order; war wasn't an end in itself. Of course, hegemony is consistent with Wholism, past or future. The supremacy of the State or Whole over the individual makes the State stronger in relation to others, enabling it to try to dominate them. And the Wholist ideology, deemed better than others, should be of universal applicability.

[Windir-L'etat c'est moi]

http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaste ... solini.htm

Drummond

Thanks for that URL Drummond.
It was very enlightning

Windir