Differences Between Democracy and Fascism

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Fascism: Yesterday & Today

Around the world the ideology known as “fascism” is commonly related to two men, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. This tradition of political thinking has long been argued by political scientists and many others on what exactly defines a fascist state. According to Webster’s dictionary the term is defined as, “a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government.” Although this definition would be contested by many scientists it is a good compromise.
This ideology wasn’t around until the early 1900’s and was started in Italy around the time of World War I. Italy was in shambles then and many parties were trying to take control, Benito Mussolini became Prime Minister following the March on Rome in 1922. With this he gained the role of “ed duce” through legal means and created a one party system with him as the leader. This was the first time a fascist government had been in power. Many individuals confuse the ideologies of socialism, and communism with fascism. However, they are all different in the way they manipulate, and control the people. In regards to socialism Benito Mussolini said, We declare war against socialism, not because it is socialism, but because it has opposed nationalism. This is a major part of fascism because through nationalism is how the country will become powerful both economically but also militarily. *** Along with Mussolini, Germany during the same time period went under a great change to fascism.
This change was instituted by the Nazi’s and their leader Hitler. Germany’s change to fascism was similar to Italy as it was done following ...

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...the government owning the corporations completely. Traditionally democracies have a great sense of nationality and often reflect to the past days for a sense of “glory”. For instance the U.S. is a very nationalistic state as a vast majority of the country supports its troops occupying countries abroad. Also, not many countries in the world have citizens who proudly hang their countries flag outside their door. Though national pride for one's country shouldn’t be compared to the Nazi regime it is still an interesting look at modern nationalism.

Works Cited
"Fascism." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. .

Sheldon Richman, "Fascism." The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. 2008. Library of Economics and Liberty. 3 December 2013. .

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