Proto-fascism

Gabriele d'Annunzio, a prominent Italian proto-fascist (centre; with the cane), with his Arditi in the Italian Regency of Carnaro in 1919

Proto-fascism represents the direct predecessor ideologies and cultural movements that influenced and formed the basis of fascism.[1][2] The term protofascism is also used in a slightly more general sense to refer to any political movement whose activities make the emergence of fascism more likely.

Proto-fascist movements that preceded fascism featured some of the common characteristics of fascist ideology, such as the scapegoating of ethnic or religious minorities, the glorification of violence, and the promotion of the Führerprinzip, the belief that the party and the state should have a single leader with absolute power, but usually did not exhibit some characteristics of fascism, for example, were less radical or lacked totalitarian ambitions.

In relation to contemporary politics, the term protofascist has been applied to movements which resemble fascist ones in certain respects, but cannot be defined strictly as neo-fascist.[3]

Historical movements

China

See also: Chiangism

The Kuomintang, a Chinese nationalist political party, had a history of fascist influence under Chiang Kai-shek's leadership.[4][5] The Kuomintang sought to build a one-party ideological state (called Dang Guo) to solidify its rule and ideological supremacy, which had some influence from fascist ideology.[6]

The Blue Shirts Society has been described as one of the most relevant fascist groups in China at the time. It began as a secret society in the KMT military before being reformed within the party.[7] By the 1930s, it had influence upon China's economy and society.[8][9] Historian Jeffrey Crean notes, however, that the Blue Shirts impacted only elite politics, not the vast majority of China's population.[10]: 64–65  The Blue Shirts held contempt for liberal democracy and stressed the political usefulness of violence.[10]: 64  They were influenced by KMT contact with Nazi advisors and inspired by the German Brownshirts and the Italian Blackshirts. Unlike those organizations, however, the Blue Shirts were composed of political elites, not the popular masses.[10]: 64 

The New Life Movement was a government-led civic movement in 1930s China initiated by Chiang Kai-shek to promote cultural reform and Neo-Confucian social morality, and to ultimately unite China under a centralised ideology following the emergence of ideological challenges to the status quo. The Movement attempted to counter threats of Western and Japanese imperialism through a resurrection of traditional Chinese morality, which it held to be superior to modern Western values. As such the Movement was based upon Confucianism, mixed with Christianity, nationalism and authoritarianism that had some similarities to fascism.[11] It rejected individualism and liberalism, while also opposing socialism and communism. Some historians regard this movement as imitating Nazism and being a neo-nationalistic movement used to elevate Chiang's control of everyday lives. Frederic Wakeman suggested that the New Life Movement was "Confucian fascism".[12] The New Life Movement drew inspirations from the Blue Shirts Society, although some historians debate to what extent it was fascist.[7]

Finland

The Finnish Civil War "offered a concrete arena for violent struggle, and the reprisals and purges following the war gave an opportunity to try to create a new society through redemptive violence": Finnish proto-fascists were invariably members of the anti-communist White Guard. The White Guard ideologue and proponent of eugenics Martti Pihkala (1882–1966) is considered a clear example of proto-fascism.[13] Fascism researcher Roger Griffin also described the Finnish irredentist Academic Karelia Society as proto-fascist.[14]

France

French proto-fascism emerged from late-19th-century Fin de siècle nationalist, xenophobic and anti-liberal currents that prefigured interwar fascist leagues.[15][page needed] The Dreyfus affair galvanized antisemitic and anti-parliamentary forces, offering rhetoric and organizational models for the far right.[16][page needed] Thinkers like Georges Sorel created an anti-bourgeois cult of violence and myth, while Charles Maurras's Action Française fused integral nationalism, monarchism and hostility to the French Republic.[16] Aforementioned movements—along with Boulangism, the Cercle Proudhon, and revolutionary syndicalism—laid the ideological groundwork for later fascist leagues like the Faisceau, Croix-de-Feu, the Parti Populaire Français, and for events such as the 6 February 1934 crisis.[15][page needed]

Germany

In Germany, the Völkisch nationalist movement which arose in the late 19th century became seen as one of the precursors of Nazi fascism; among the important elements of Völkisch culture was Blut und Boden romanticism.[17] After World War I, the proto-fascist movements of the Weimar Republic included the Freikorps militias, which combatted the leftists between the German Revolution of 1918 and the Nazi seizure of power (see Political violence in Germany in 1918–1933), the Stahlhelm, a revanchist and authoritarian nationalist World War I veteran organization, the German National Association of Commercial Employees (Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfen-Verband, DHV), the German National People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) from 1931 onwards.[2][3] Many of these paramilitaries merged into the NSDAP's paramilitaries, such as the Sturmabteilung and Schutzstaffel after the Nazi seizure of power.

Hungary

Main article: Szeged Idea

Italy

A prominent proto-fascist figure is Gabriele D'Annunzio, the best-known Italian poet of the first half of the 20th century, and an Italian nationalist whose politics influenced Benito Mussolini and Italian fascism. After World War I, D'Annunzio led a group of Arditi volunteers who occupied the port of Fiume and proclaimed the Italian Regency of Carnaro. The Italian Nationalist Association (Associazione Nazionalista Italiana, ANI), which advocated for an authoritarian corporatist nationalist state is also considered an influential proto-fascist organization. The Italian futurist movement in arts and culture, led by such figures as Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, also displayed certain key characteristics of Fascism, such as radical nationalism and cult of violence, destruction, and war.[1][3]

Japan

According to some scholars, Japan, which has a tradition of obedience, cooperation, and solidarity, already had at least a proto-fascist and proto-totalitarian spirit, so unlike Italy and Germany, it was able to adopt a totalitarian attitude without radical change in the late 1930s.[18]

Gen'yōsha (founded in 1879), and the Black Dragon Society (founded in 1901), are representative proto-fascist organizations.[19][20]

Spain

The historians Paul Preston and Julián Casanova, who treat Francoism as a Spanish variant of fascism,[21] note that "Spanish fascism" was established by the unity of the right-wing groups and parties and the military rebels, which formed the Nationalist faction of the Spanish Civil War. According to them, the Spanish anti-republican right which would later support the rebellion, including the cultural association Acción Española which propagated the idea of an anti-republican military uprising, the nationalist authoritarian corporatist party CEDA, the organization Spanish Renovation, and the Carlist Requetés, shared a political culture, similar to the Italian proto-Fascism and the German Völkisch movement. In the Civil War, the Spanish right, including the military rebels, underwent further political radicalization and fascisation; as Preston writes, "throughout the Civil War, the politics of the army were indistinguishable from contemporary fascisms."[22][23][page needed]

Georges Valois, a French national syndicalist and later self-identified French fascist of France's first official fascist party, the Faisceau

Russia

In the Russian Empire, pro-Tsarist reactionary groups have been viewed as proto-fascist in nature, especially the Black Hundreds movement and the Union of the Russian People (Russian: Союз русского народа, romanized: Soyuz russkogo naroda; СРН/SRN).[24]

United States

Proto-fascism in the United States dates back to the 19th century with slavery in the Antebellum South and the Confederacy,[25] the subsequent passage of Jim Crow laws in the American South, the rise of the eugenicist discourse in the U.S., and the intensification of nativist and xenophobic hostility towards immigrants. During the early 20th century, several groups were formed in the United States that contemporary historians have classified as fascist organizations – with a prominent example being the Ku Klux Klan.[26]

Historical individuals

Prominent historic individuals who have been labeled proto-fascist because they shared an ideological basis with fascism include:

See also

References

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allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-fascist