Chapter 40 

Fascism and Nazism 

We now deal with the twin theories of Fascism and Nazism. The two resemble in their origin, aspirations, ideals and policies, but it is useful to consider them separately. 

FASCISM Rise of Fascism. 

Historically, fascism is of Italian origin, where it arose as a result Of the World War I and its effects on Italy. Italy joined the Anglo-FrenchAmerican Allies in the World War 1(1914-18) in the hope of being allotted by them colonies and dependencies in Africa, Albania and Asia. But her hopes were dashed to pieces by the Allies at the Paris Peace Conference, where she was given no colony. It created feeling of sharp resentment and frustration in Italy. The after-effects of the war produced social, economic and political crises, such as growing unemployment, inflation, corruption in industry and government, strikes and lock-outs. Communism, recently victorious in Russia, began to spread among Italian workers and the bogey of Bolshevism frightened the capitalist and middle classes of Italy. The warweary soldiers returning home found no work and wages. The Italian parliamentary system became corrupt, inefficient and impotent to provide a 

firm and strong government in the country. Indeed, the politicians and 

ruling parties were interested only in making money through politics. These 

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conditions of social, economic and political disorder and discontent enabled 

Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Party of Direct Action to capture political power in Italy. Mussolini organised the ”armed bands”, called the Fascio di 

ombattimento — to smash the heads of the striking workers, raid t 

mmunist meetings and press, and killthe political opponents of Fascism. ally, Mussolini captured power in Rome in October 1922, when his cist volunteers ”marched on Rome”. The Italian King invited  Mussolini Milan where he had hid himself and appointed him asthe Prime -ister of Italy. Two years later, in January 1925, he destroyed the 

stitutional parliamentary system of government and established the 

Fascist State in Italy. In 1929, the King became a nominal ruler, while all pwers passed into the hand of the Duce — the Leader, as Mussolini was ityled. Thus Fascism was established in Italy. 

The term ’fascism is derived from the Italian word ”fascio” which s a ”band” or ”group”. This word is really derived from the Latin word 
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”fasces” which meant the ”bundle of sticks and an axe” which was the symbol of political authority of the ancient rulers of Rome. The memories of the Imperium Ramanum — the ancient Roman Empire was always so dear to the Fascist heart. An aggressive nationalism and imperialism are the real meanings Fascism. Structure and Policy of the Fascist State. 

When  Musolini was firmly established in power, he laid down the structure and policy of his fascist State. First of all, he abolished Parliamentary system and assumed to himself the power to govern the country by decrees and ordinances. All power was centralised in him: thus the Duce became the Dictator. In November, 1926, all opposition parties were dissolved and prison sentences were provided for those who tried to revive the parties or carried on propaganda for their doctrines. Thus oneparty State was established, with  the National Fascist Party as the only party in country. It was hierarchically organised, with Mussolini, the Duce, at its apex, both as its leader and dictator. Members could be admitted to it only after strict tests as to their Fascist character and loyalty. They were to take an oath of strict obedience and unquestioning loyalty to the orders of the Duce. Mussolini always boasted that ”having created the Fascist Party, I have always dominated it.” Indeed, Italy became his State, ruled by his Party. In place of the old Parliament, Mussolini established a new ”corporative parliament.” and  several other corporations and federations to control the social, economic and political activities of all citizens. They were headed by the Grand Council of Fascism which was made governmental body. It was to work under Mussolini himself, who became both ”Head of the State” and ”the Leader of Fascism”. Thus the whole structure of the Fascist State, in all its political, social and economic aspects, was organised hierarchically under the Duce who stood at its top. 

The Duce and his Fascist State adopted a policy of brutal repression at home. All individual rights and liberties were crushed M means of  terrorist reign of killings, kidnappings and beatings of the opponents and critics of the Fascist policy Martial law was proclaime& censorship was imposed and an official propaganda was conducted. AU newspapers and periodicals operated within the limits imposed by the Dux Government. Former socialist and liberal newspapers and periodicals were suppressed and the milder ones were ”fascistized” by appointing editors and 

managers who would uphold Fascist rule. 

PRINCIPLES OF FASCISM What is Fascism? 

It is difficult to describe the principles and doctrines of Fascil 

for the Fascists prided themselves in their lack of theory and consi: 

philosophy and practice. There is no Fascist manifesto or an authi 
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Statement of Fascist principles and programmes, as we find with the Communists, Mussolini himself acted as if he hated all abstract thinking and theorizing. ”My programme”, he said, ”is action, not talk”. He further said, ”Fascism is based on reality, Bolshevism is based on theory. We want to be definite and real. We want to come out of the cloud of discussion and theory.” Such Statements show that Fascism had really no principles: it was a creed of expediency, of political relativism, a sort of opportunistic pragmatism. But it is wrong to say that Fascism did not acquire doctrines and theories of its own. It had a programme of action;  it had aims and ideals to attain, which necessarily led to theorising about them. This produced Fascist theories and doctrines. A Philosophy of action and violence. 

Fascism is first and foremost a theory of force of action and violence Before Musolini became a fascist leader, he was a revolutionary socialist of Syndicalist type. Syndicalism taught that socialism could be achieved by ”direct action” and ”myth”. When Mussolini became  a Fascist, he renounced and denounced socialism of his earlier Syndicalist faith, but remained true to its philosophy of ”direct action” and ”myth”. With him ’direct action’ became a philosophy of unlimited force and violence at home and unlimited war abroad. The Fascists came to power by force, maintained themselves in power by force and dreamt of reviving the imperial glories of ancient Rome by force of war and conquests. Hence, according to Mussolini, Fascism is ”government for the people over the heads of the people, and, if necessary, against the people.” Fascism was hungry for power. It was aggressive, nationalistic and militaristic. Fascism repudiates democracy, liberty, equality and majority rule. 

Fascism does not believe in democracy, and rejects the democratic processes, such as the choice of the rulers by the ruled, elections, majority rule or government by the majority, etc. It also rejects popular sovereignty and equality. It denies  that all people are of equal value in the eyes of the State that they should share equally in the benefits of the State. To quote him again: ”Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society.” So Fascism denies the democratic 

method of discovering the general will by voting and majority decision. Parliaments cannot express the will of the State because the majority is not , necessarily wiser than the minority. Government of the elite and by the elite. 

Fascism repudiates Individualism and the government by the 

’sovereign majority. General will is a matter of motives and not the counting 

votes. It is expressed by the motives of the chosen few, the elite, who 

ossess a strong social sense, patriotism and a high moral sense. They are 

he noble leaders, led by the ’heroic’ Duce, born to rule the ignorant masses. 

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Thus Fascism believes in government by an aristocracy, by the elite, because only a minority of the nation has the capacity to perceive and give effect to national interests.” The knowledge of right and wrong, of the moral law, is the prerogative of the few superiors in the nation and of one supreme leader at its best. He has the right to rule by virtue of his superiority. Hence, the need is not popular elections, ballot-boxes, parliamentary debates and oratory, voting and majority rule, but to ”find in the country the ablest man that exists there, raise him to the supreme place and loyally bow down before him in absolute obedience and there you have the perfect government, the ideal State.” The masses are always incapable of knowing their will or opinion, while they are ruled by a few dominating spirits. Political aristocracy is, therefore, both reasonable and unavoidable. The few superiors have the knowledge and devotion to the State which enable them to harmonise interests of the masses and the State. In case of a conflict, they can ignore the interests of the masses. The leader is infallible. ”Musolini is always right.” Our champion and first and greatest, the Duce, has been urged and inspired from on high.” In the last analysis, the test of the superiority of the leaders lies in their ability to use force and violence to secure obedience. The use of brute force is the hallmark of superiority. A man who is unwilling or unable to be a ruthless despot is not fit to be the head of the State. 

Fascist Theory of State. 

From the above survey of the theories and plans ot the Fascists, t 

-- is easy to understand theiridea of the State. Briefly, the Fascist conception 

of the State is authoritarian, totalitarian and nationalistic. They have repudiated democracy, individualism, liberalism «and popular sovereignty. 

In his book, ”Fascism”, Mussolini wrote that the Fascist State is, first of all, j 

1 ”anti-individualistic”, for ”the Fascist conception of life stresses the 

importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience 

and the universal will of man as a historic entity. Fascism reasserts 

rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual. And 

liberty is to be the attribute of living men and not of abstract dummi 

invented by individualistic liberalism, then Fascism stands for liberty, 

for the only liberty worth having, the liberty of the State and of individual within the State. The Fascist conception of the State is 

embracing: outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much 

have value. Thus understood fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist St synthesis and unit inclusive of all values,—interprets, develops 

potentialises the whole life of a people. ”Everything within the State nothing outside it.” 

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Fascist State and the Individual. 

The Fascists held the same conception of the State as Hegel. It is an absolute, all-embracing, omnipotent State, to which the individual is completely subordinate. Like the Idealists, the Fascists regard the State as the end and the individual as the means, for the State is an imperishable organism while the individual is transitory —”the individual is fleeting, the State is permanent, the leaves wither, the tree stands.” As a fascist writer says, ”For Fascism, State is the end, individuals the means, and its whole life consists in using individuals as instruments for its ends.” Hence the State has all rights, and the individual has none, except those which the State has given him. He exists for the State and not the State for him. The State is Nation. 

For the Fascists, the three terms ”society”, ”State” and ”nation” are synonymous. Society is the nation and the State exists for the nation. The State is the organic structure of the nation. The nation is an imperishable organism. The individuals are born, live and die generations after generations, but the nation retains its form, culture and entity from generation to generation and thus enables the present generation to transmit them to the future ones. As the Fascist Charter of Labour put it: ”The Italian nation is an organism having ends, life and means of action superior to those of the separate individuals or groups of individuals which compose it.” It is a moral, political, and economic unity that is integrally realized in the Fascist State.” Its interests come first before those of its individual members. The individuals and groups of individuals have no rights, liberty and interests of their own when they are in conflict with those of the national State. A war for the preservation, expansion or exaltation of the nation may be supremely justifiable, no matter what sacrifices it may require from its best citizens and the destruction of the special interests of its lesser groups. 

Fascist State is a total State. 

Fascist State is an absolute State, with all individuals, groups and interests fully subordinate and subservient to it. It is a total State, for it may, in principle, ”control every act and every interest of every individual or group in so far as the good of the nation requires it, and of this the State is itself the sole judge. Except by the permission of the State, there may be neither political parties, trade unions, industrial or commercial associations. Except under the regulation of the State, there may be neither manufacture, business, nor labour both work and leisure are within the control of the State. Except under the direction of the State, there may be neither publication nor public meeting; education, indeed all the ethical, intellectual, and even religious interests of its members are theoretically within the keeping of the nation and the supervision of the State.” Hence the 
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Fascist State is a one-party State, hierarchically organised under one supreme leader. But the question arises: What is the end or purpose of such a totalitarian control” It is, in brief, war and conquest. Fascism and war. 

War and conquest are the supreme ends of the Fascist State. Force and violence are the first principles of Fascism; they are also its final ends and ideals. They become the aims and ideals of war, aggression, enslavement of other nations for the aggrandisement and glory of the Fascist State. To this supreme end it subordinates all individuals and groups within its boundaries on preparing and waging wars it concentrates and all its energies and policies. That is why, as Joad says, ”it (Fascism) sings the praises of war, encourages the military virtues, puts a premium upon courage and endurance, subordinate education to military training, and sees in the manufacture of armament the primary purpose of industry.” War eliminates the weak, enhances the strong and places a premium upon those virtues which have survival value. Indeed, war is beautiful. ’Though words are very beautiful things,” said Mussolini once, ”rifles, machineguns, ships, aeroplanes and cannons are more beautiful things still.” Moreover, war is natural to man. War is to man, said Mussolini, what maternity it to woman. ”A citizen and a soldier,” announced Mussolini, ”are synonymous in the Fascist State.” Fascism repudiates peace, human brotherhood and love. 

It declares that war and struggle among nations of the world is a natural law. It breathes of war: imperialism is its very soul. It  is an enemy of internationalism, or international peace and co-operation. ”International peace is a coward’s dream” Imperialism, according to Mussolini, ”is the eternal and immutable law of life.” ”Fascism,” Mussolini writes, ”the growth of Empire, that is to say, the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality and its opposite a sign of decadence” By means of war and conquests Italy would rebuild an Empire as great and glorious u was that of the ancient Rome. Thus Mussolini’s belief in force and violence culminated in fascist idolisation and worship of the god of war. Corporative or Fascist Theory of Corporations. 

Hierarchy is the essence of Fascism. In the Fascist State the individual docs not exist alone but in groups in the economic and other aspects of national life. Each group of individuals formed, according to the functions which they perform in the nation, an organisation called a Corporation. Thus the nation is a hierarchical organism of three parts, the individuals at the bottom, the corporations in the middle and the State at the top and as Mussolini said, ”beyond the State nothing”. The individuals and the corporations are relative and subordinate to the State from which they derive their rights, powers and being. Corporations were of all kinds— 
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economic, professional, etc. Their officers were appointed from above, by the State, not elected from below by their members. They consisted of both workers and employers in an industry, or of workers alone. Each corporation supervised the working of its industry, determined wages, hours of work, holidays and conditions of work. The corporation was really a closed association. Its membership was not open to all and was regulated by the State, to which it was subordinate in all its functions. It had two essential features. Firstly, it consisted only of those who were engaged in a given industry or profession and included  both employers and employees. Secondly, it did not take over and manage  production, within its branch, to the exclusion of its capitalist owners, but simply ’regulated’ it ”under the aegis of the State” and as ”an organ of the State.” Thus Mussolini ’fascistized” capitalism by controlling and ”regulating” it. He did not abolish it, but harnessed it by means of the Corporative. 

But Corporative also had a political side. Every corporation, together with other functional bodies, acted as an electoral college from which members were appointed to serve on the Fascist legislature, which was called the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations. Criticism of Corporative. 

Italian corporative was hailed, by its admirers and advocates, as a new economic system. It was claimed that it was superior to the doctrines of laissez faire and Socialism, because it had reconciled the individual and the State by reconciling them both to the corporations. They harmonised the interests of the workers And their employers, while the State controlled and regulated industry through them. This provided a new conception of the functions of the State. The admirers of Corporative claimed that it provided disipline and responsibility in the economic life, and unity and representation in the political life. It was further claimed that even if the Fascist State would vanish, the principle of corporative would continue to exist and even that it did not need the single-party dictatorial State to exist. Mussolini, however, never said that it could exist without the single-party rule and totalitarian State. As regards the harmony and reconciliation of the workers and employees’ interests, it is sufficient to say that Fascist Corporative became really a tool for preserving the monopolistic position of capitalism and big landlordism, which were favoured by the Fascist State. While Fascist Government showered favours on big industrialists and landlords, it reduced the wages of the workers and treated them harshly by taxing them heavily. The real wages of the workers were 1(K# less in 1932 than in 1922, when Fascism came into power. Such was the tyrannical and iniquitous rule of the Fascist Corporate State which made the people to revolt against Mussolini’s Government and finally overthrew it in 1944. 

We shall consider other weaknesses, follies, and defects of Fascism afterwards, at the end of our discussion of Nazism. Here it is 

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sufficient to say that Fascism was not based on justice or on a humane ideology. 

NAZISM The term ’Nazism’ is derived from its full name ”National Socialism”, from which it is abbreviated in its German form thus: na from national and zi from socialism, as socialism is called in German. Rise of Nazism. 

The World War I was a turning-point in the history of the world. It produced Communism in Russian Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany, besides other momentous consequences in other parts of the world. 

The World War I was started by Germany in order to conquer colonies and become the greatest imperialist power in the world. But it ended in her defeat. A humiliating treaty, the Treaty of Versailles, was imposed upon her. Under this Treaty she had to pay to the victorious Allies heavy war reparations, surrender her Ruhr and Saar territories to France and was forbidden to rebuild a strong army of her  own. After the war, in 1919, Germany established a parliamentary system of government under a new Weimar Constitution. But the system failed to take roots in the post-war Germany due to her ever-increasing economic and political troubles. The Germans smarted under the humiliating terms of the Versailles Treaty which reduced their country to the status of a third-rate power. The final blow to the Weimar Parliamentary system was delivered by the Great Economic Depression (1929-32), which hit German hard. There was complete economic collapse. Prices began to soar higher and ever higher, the value of the German Mark depreciated and unemployment rose by leaps and bounds. In 1932 there were six million un-employed workers in the country. Gold fled from Germany and her industry came to a standstill, while the victorious Allies extorted huge war reparations. At the same time, political crisis deepened. Workers’ strikes increased in number and fury. Many political parties sprang up in the country. Communist influence increased and, as usual, the powerful German industrial Junker or landlord and militarist classes were frightened of the bogey of Bolshevism. They were ready to welcome any man or party which would save the count) from a Communist Revolution. This was the hour for Hitler to strike. He organised the Nazi Party and captured political power in 1933 NAZI DOCTRINES. Like Italian Fascism, German Nazism has no well-defineC doctrines. It too lacked a philosophy of the State; it was merely a politica: movement. But it evolved a theory as a result of its practical needs anC experience. Indeed, both Germany and the German people were particularl. fit for the kind of theories and ’myths’ which the Nazis preached anc practised, viz., militarism, racialism, hero-worship, State-worship, etc. No other nation equalled Germany, the homeland of Hegel, in the idealization, i.e., idolization of the State, in her traditions of military efficiency and 

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militarism, in her glorification of war, and in a systematic and quasiscientific exposition of racist theories. All these things became part and parcel of Nazi beliefs and doctrines, along with the brutal violence which alone was what Hitler and his Nazis contributed to them. Nazi glorification of the State and Nation. 

True to the German tradition, Nazism glorifies the State and regards it as a superhuman entity, and true to the Fascist tradition, it identifies it to the nation, or das Volk as it is called in German. To the Nazis, ’nation’ was essentially a racial and biological entity. The Volk or the national community was the raw material out of which the State was made. In order to make the Volk strong, all individuals and all interests were placed under the full control of the State. As Hitler declared, ”the individual is nothing, das Volk (the Folk) is everything.” The Nazi State is allpowerful, all-embracing and omni competent. The individual  is absolutely subordinate to it. He is to find his meaning and happiness in implicitly obeying the behests of the well-ordered State. Nazi State is a totalitarian State. 

Nazi State is all-inclusive. The State is end; the individual is the means to it. It is absolute and tolerates no opposition. Nothing lay outside its power or province. It controls and regulates every person and thing, every interest and value, every activity and function in the State. All aspects of national life—political, economic, industrial, educational, cultural, scientific, intellectual—are regulated by the State. Except under its regulation, there could be manufacture, business, work or leisure, art or culture. Even Truth is what the State says, ”the scientist is only free to search for truth as the State sees it.” The Fuhrer Principle. 

Far more than Fascism, Nazism emphasised the so-called Fuhrer Principle Though Italian Fascism had its ”Duce”. He was a very pale thing as compared to the Nazi Fuhrer or Leader between the Duce and the people were ”corporations,” but between the Fuhrer and the Germans was nothing except a chain of lesser Fuhrers, all of them responsible to the Fuhrer alone. The actions of the Fuhrer were above criticism. The Fuhrer was infallible,— he was always right. Hitler himself explained the ”Fuhrer Principle” ”thus: authority from above as the result of leadership, conscious of its responsibility; confidence and discipline from below.” He justified this principle by referring to the German military traditions. ’The principle which made the former Prussian army an admirable instrument of the German nation will have to become the basis of our State structure,  that is to say, full authority over his subordinates must be invested in each leader and he must be responsible to those above him”. This required a Leader 

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(Fuhrer) at the top and the nation at the bottom with a chain of lesser Fuhrers in between the two. 

The Nazis made the Germans adore Hitler. The people were taught to believe that some are born to rule and others to obey. Obedience to the Leader was a sacred duty, rigidly enforced by all methods of discipline and propaganda. The Nazi slogan was: Duty, Discipline, Sacrifice, The Nazi ideal was: One Fuhrer (Leader), One Reich (Stale). One Vok (Nation). Hitler was worshipped as a god. ”We of the German religion”, so wrote a Nazi Professor, Ernest Bergmann, ”today turn to the Nordic, Indo-Germanic Light-Hero figure and get rid of the false and diseased Christ picture created by the Christian Pope and Church to the hurt of humanity. The high priest of the new German paganism is Hitler himself. He is the real Holy Ghost. Hitler is lonely. So is God. Hitler is like a god. Hitler is a new, a greater and a powerful Jesus Christ.” The worship of Hitler was preached in the schools, in the churches, on the stage, in the cinema, radio and the press. The Nazis made the Germans to use a new salutation, Heil Hitler a phrase which they used from 50 to 150 times a day. They were taught to believe that Hitler was infallible: ”what Hitler decides is right and will remain eternally right,” said Herr Wagner, the Bavarian Minister of the Interior. But Nazi principle of Fuherism was really the idolisation of the arbitrary, absolutist and irresponsible power of an autocrat, as the disasters and consequences of the World War II were to show. Nationalism and Racialism. 

Nazism was intensely nationalistic. But it equated the national with the race. In the racial theory of Nazism, there were superior and inferior races. The ’white’ races were superior and the ’coloured’ races inferior. Among the superior white races, the Aryans or the Germanic race, also called the ’Nordic’ or the Teutonic’ race, was the most superior—the ”Herrenvolk”—the master-race and among the white races, the German was above all. Imperialism and Lebensraum. 

Hitler and the Nazi Party had come to power with the avowed purpose of conquering colonies and foreign lands for the Germans. They must have a ”living space”—’Lebensraum’ as the Nazis called it—in order to settle surplus German population and find raw materials and markets for German industrial goods. ”There can be,” declared Hitler, ”no economic life unless behind this economic life there stands the determined political will of the nation absolutely ready to strike—and strike hard.” Just as British Imperialism always declared: ’Trade follows the Navy,” so the Nazi Imperialism  cried, ’Trade follows the tank.” ”Our task,” cried Hitler, ”is to organise on a large scale the whole world so that each country produces what it can best produce, while the white race, the Nordic race, undertakes the organisation of this gigantic plan ..... the lower race is destined for tasks 
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different from those of the higher race: the latter must have in its hands the control, and the control must remain with us.” For this purpose, the Nazis planned for a war on the eastern countries especially Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and Russia, which were, according to them, peopled by the inferior ”Slav race”. But finally they aimed at the world conquest. These Nazi dreams and designs of world conquest led the world straight to the Second World War. One-Party State. 

Like Italian Fascism, Nazism also created a single-party State, headed by one supreme leader, the Fuhrer. The party was the National Socialist Party which alone was legally recognised when Hitler captured power in 1933. All other parties were abolished by law. There was, therefore, no opposition party. Further, the law declared the Nazi Party as ”the bearer of the idea of the German State and inseparably connected with State.” The Nazi slogan was: one Leader, one Party and one State. The emblem of the Nazi Party was the crooked cross, the Swastika—adopted for its Aryan origins, Nazi Party exercised several powers, such as ”the right of appointing municipal councillors, selecting jurors and members of the school boards, investigating public records and consulting with State authorities on practically every matter.” Its members enjoyed various privileges in respect of employment, railway fares, etc. Nazi Militarism. 

Like the Fascists, the Nazis also sang hymns in praise of war, so dear to the German heart. Indeed, before Hitler attained power, a German General, Bernhardi wrote, ”war is a biological necessity without which all culture would vanish.” The Nazis reciprocated these sentiments in these words: ”war is the measure  of all things. Every human social activity is justified only when it aids the preparation for war.” When accused of barbarism, they replied, ”What is called barbarism is the power of renewing itself. We must be ready to fight, and we are ready, not only for ourselves and our people but for Europe whose heart we are.” Hitler philosophised on war thus: ”If men wish to live, they are forced to kill others. Strife is always the means of developing the species and is consequently a primary condition in its progress.” One of his subordinates, Ernst Junger, put this philosophy of war in a nutshell: ’The meaning of life is to kill”. Thus the Nazis turned Darwinian principles of  the natural selection and survival of the fittest into the diabolic plea for mass-extermination of non-German races and nations. This German philosophy of war led mankind straight to the concentration camps, gas chambers, and World War, for which the Nazis planned so much. 

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Criticism of Fascism and Nazism. 

(1)        Both lacked humanism. 

Both Fascism and Nazism lacked humanism; they were not meant for humanity and human happiness. They established a ”closed society” from which all those who could not belong to it by race or nationality, were to be liquidated by extirpation or concentration camps. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany could only exist by enslavement, exploitation and extermination of all other peoples and nations. Hence they preached war on the world. Hence they sang hymns of hate in pseudo-scientific terms of racialism, biology and evolution, which turned the fair Germans into a race of ”blue, blonde beasts.” (2)        Both were based on force and violence as essential weapons of 

politics and government. Fascism and Nazism were based on no political philosophy or 

system: they relied on force and force alone. As Joad says, ”Once the democratic concepts of popular consent, majority rule and equality before law are abandoned, once the test of happiness is rejected and individual  I freedom required to be subordinate to State necessity, there seems to be no way of determining controversial issues except, in Bertrand Russell’s words. 1 ”the appeal to force and the arbitration of the big battalions,” Fascists assert I that force and not will is the basis of the State. But such a theory is to bel 

ruled out of Political Science as a political philosophy of the State. (3)        Fascism and Nazism uphold the rule of the few and the 

Dictatorship of one man. Fascism and Nazism establish a single party government, 

government of the few, headed by one supreme ruler, the Duce or the I 

Fuhrer. They were based on the dictatorship of one man. Yet they provide ] 

us with no criterion on which the rule of the few or the dictatorship of thel 

one is to be judged and the rulers are to be chosen. Really the Fascist 

Nazi leaders selected themselves. But this idea of political aristocracy is I 

only undemocratic it is also impracticable in modern times. It could ex 

only in the static societies of the past ages, or for a temporary period 

times of crisis such as war, etc. In a State of siege, as Napoleon said, evez 

fool can rule. Fascism and Nazism were based on the presumption 

mankind as a whole comprised of ignoramuses and fools. But such 

attitude is quite untenable in the present days, when science, learning, 

and culture have become popular and mass education is the order of ne 

day. (4)        Fascism and Nazism which based on unreason, hate and 

prejudice. 

Fascism and Nazism distrusted reason and relied upon iE 

prejudice, hate and superstition. They made powerful appeal to sentin 

4.4mok. 
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and emotions, making use of such means as military uniforms, party pageantry, rituals and rhetorics. They assumed that the masses had no interest in politics and no capacity to govern them. Their lack of culture and reason and the emphasis on emotions and myths is aptly presented by Bertrand Russell in these words: ’There is no philosophy of Fascism; there is a psycho-analysis,” In short, they were based on the fear of reason, and on the philosophy of despair. 

(5)        Force and fear were the only basis of the Fascist and Nazi 

States. Human reason and good-will had no place in their philosophy of State and politics. Meetings and conferences, discussion and theory were replaced by action of strong men and obedience by the masses. The ideal of Fascism and Nazism was a national State, ”well-ordered internally, aggressive and bent upon expansion externally.”