The spirit of fascism
The Spirit of Fascism ( Italian La Dottrina del Fascismo ) is the title of a political program by Benito Mussolini that was published in two parts in 1932. The text first appeared as an introduction to the article Fascismo for the Enciclopedia Italiana .
Basics of the work
It was not until several years after the March on Rome that Italian fascism attempted to theoretically summarize its political intentions and to underpin them with an ideological view. Mussolini provided the “guidelines” of his model of rule after he was already dictator : Only after the system of fascismo had already been consolidated, Mussolini published his theory of state and society. The Spiritus Rector and most important contributor to this endeavor was Giovanni Gentile , editor-in-chief of the Enciclopedia Italiana .
content
In the first part, Idea fondamentali - Basic Thoughts - Mussolini tries to underpin the idea of the "inherent truth" of the fascist theory . To this end, he describes the fascist view of the relationship between the individual and the community and articulates the requirements of the stato nuovo . In the second part Dottrina politica e sociale - “The Political and Social Doctrine” - Mussolini presents the historical and intellectual foundations on which the fascist movement is based. In particular, he attempts to demarcate fascism from the political theories of previous centuries.
Fascism is therefore the product and at the same time the antithesis of the “powerless and materialistic positivism ” of the bourgeois 19th century. Fascism arises from the flow of the counter-movement. He derives his essence from the opposition to those currents that would have caused his emergence. The influence of the philosophy of Georges Sorel is unmistakable , especially in the anti-individualistic thrust of the work. In the idea presented here by Mussolini that life for the fascist is a single "struggle", the social Darwinist forces on fascism manifest themselves . The fascist finds ethical justifications in the entities of the natural order of the family , community and nation . Above all these structures stands the state as the ultimate completion of human will. The state embodies in itself all possibilities of individual life: "The fascist state as a summary and unification of all values gives the life of the whole people its meaning, brings it to development and strengthens it."
In this doctrine of a totalitarian state, which is to be implemented in a strictly corporate-hierarchical state structure with a dictator at the top, the synergies of the popular masses released by the will to act are included. The ingredients of the fascist recipe for success, the cardinal virtues of the movement are "fight and work". By means of this, the way to the “highest form of government”, namely the one with the highest power, the empire, should be prepared. The renewal of the ancient Roman Empire becomes visible as a national myth and center of the fascist state idea. Every view that opposes the state's claim to omnipotence and seeks to achieve the balance of social interests in a different way than the state dictates must be fought.
The ideas of pacifism , liberalism , parliamentarism and socialism are rejected as derailments of the “demoliberal” 19th century, since they attach importance to the individual that Mussolini says is not due to him.
analysis
In the first part of the treatise, for which Gentile is responsible, a spiritualistic worldview is claimed for fascism . In the right-wing Hegelian tradition to which Gentile adhered, the treatise transfigured “Italian fascism and its leader Mussolini as interpreters of a world historical mission”. The pathetic language of expression, the superimposed heroism and the pompous diction, however, cannot hide the lack of content and the eclecticism of the fascist ideology that emerge in Mussolini's work.
expenditure
- Enciclopedia italiana , vol. 14: Article Fascismo, Milan 1932.
- Mussolini, Benito: Opera omnia , edited by D. Susmel, Volume 34, Florence 1961.
- Mussolini, Benito: Fascism, Philosophical, Political and Social Basic Teachings. CH Beck , Munich 1933.
- Mussolini, Benito: The Spirit of Fascism . A source work, Munich 1940.
- Mussolini, Benito: The doctrine of fascism , in: Ernst Nolte (Ed.): Theories about fascism. Cologne / Berlin 1967, pp. 205-220.
Footnotes
- ↑ in the original: "modo generale di concepire la vita" (I, 2).
- ↑ Cf. Sebastian Schattenfroh: Giovanni Gentile's State Philosophy and Attempts to Realize it in Fascist Italy. Frankfurt a. M. 1999.
- ↑ Carl Kraus , Hannes Obermair (ed.): Myths of dictatorships. Art in Fascism and National Socialism - Miti delle dittature. Art nel fascismo e nazionalsocialismo . South Tyrolean State Museum for Cultural and State History Castle Tyrol, Dorf Tirol 2019, ISBN 978-88-95523-16-3 , p. 56-57 .
- ^ Kindler's new literary lexicon . dtv, Munich 1988, Volume 12, p. 137.