Fascism is a Big Business-Big Government partnership that relies on propaganda to control its citizens. In the book titled Friendly Fascism, Bertram Gross argues that the United States and other capitalist countries practice a new form of fascism. Classical fascism can be defined as a government partnership with business that advances the political ideology of a nation. This political ideology advances with the help of big business and can be delivered through violence. Classical fascist states include Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, and Konoye’s Japan. Neo-fascism or friendly fascism is similar to classic fascism in that Big Government and Big Business create a partnership. The difference between classic and friendly fascism is that …show more content…
Classical fascism used business as a tool to advance a political ideology. In contrast, friendly fascism uses the government to advance an economic ideology. Gross states, “A major difference is that under friendly fascism Big Government would do less pillaging of, and more pillaging for Big Business” (Gross 169). Friendly fascism promotes stagflation and is pro recession. Gross called it the tradeoff policy, to fight inflation they must have slow growth. When inflation occurs, cuts are needed. Typically, the cuts would come from cutting government spending on education, health, police protection, fire protection, and public service. However, the deepest cuts come from the lower income where there is the least resistance. In addition, another important key to classical fascism is the need for shortages and scarcity. Big business cannot let the public know that there is a virtually unlimited abundance of a product or resource. It is important that business can control the appearance of shortages, droughts, and limited products. Gross states:
The new technologies that make abundance possible have the potentiality of abolishing scarcity, from the viewpoint of many large corporations this has always been a great disadvantage: it can create a shortage of shortages. It is only logical, therefore, that corporate executives do everything possible to get into situations in which shortages are available. (Gross
...ith this next statement: "The flexible hybrid of Capitalism and the welfare state pioneered in the United States had proven capable of military triumph over Germany, Italy, and Japan. Despite widespread fears and dark prophecies that the depression would return once the war was over, the economy weathered the transition away from the controlled economy of wartime with relative ease." The businessmen of the time continued to fight for conservatism even when liberalism seemed to be at its finest. This quote from the author made the businessmen of the day to once again seem as of they were out of though with the majority of society and were only seeking what benefit them and their bank accounts.
The New Deal sought out to create a more progressive country through government growth, but resulted in a huge divide between liberals and conservatives. Prior to the New Deal, conservatives had already begun losing power within the government, allowing the Democratic Party to gain control and a favoring by the American people (Postwar 284). With the Great Depression, came social tensions, economic instability, and many other issues that had to be solved for America’s wellbeing. The New Deal created a strong central government, providing the American people aid, interfering with businesses and the economy, allowing the federal government to handle issues they were never entrusted with before. The strong, emerging central government worried conservatives, who supported a weak federal government with little interaction, and resulted in distinct party divisions (285). By allotting the federal government more political control during the early twentieth century, the government now can reign over state governments and affairs. Today many conservatives are still opponents to the strong federal government, finding issues with its involvement in local affairs, whether that be educational involvement through common core or business involvement through labor unions (Diamond 2; Weber 1). While the New Deal formed a divide between
An economic and political system in which a country 's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state is known as Capitalism. Many components make up a capitalist society such as the factors of production are privately owned. The economic transactions take place in markets where buyers and sellers interacts, and many business and employees are free to pursue their own self interest. The United States is known to follow the ideals of a capitalism throughout the years but as many as 32 recessions have taken place in the last 150 years. The economy seems to be unstable and the question arises, why is capitalism so dynamic and unstable? In the novel “The Rise and fall of Neoliberal Capitalism”, David M Kotz analyzes and answers the many
In the book written by Adolf Hitler, while he was in prison, Mein Kampf, Hitler states that the Aryan race is the dominate race. While Benito Mussolini’s book The Doctrine of Fascism, shows the views of man in a fascist state. While both the essay by Mussolini and the book by Hitler both show what a person should be like in their country either it is their religion, race or political ideas. Only one shows a more convincing philosophies, because it clearly states what the person wants to get across the world.
Big business' influence in politics was aimed at preserve a nonsocialist government by forming nonsocialist parties, funding nationalist candidates and by supporting the conservative wing of the nazi party.
In the years immediately after the First World War, a promising new era of democracy seemed to be unfolding. The autocratic regimes in Russia, Germany and Austria, were all overthrown and replaced by republics. The seven newly created states in Europe all adopted the republican form of government. Democracy seemed triumphant in the post-war world. Yet within two decades, many democratic countries in Europe were taken over by some kind of dictatorship. Italy became a fascist state.
Fascism is one of the great political ideology in the 20th century. It is a kind of authoritarian government that, according to Wikipedia, “considers the individual subordinate to the interests of the state, party or society as a whole.” Two of the most successful and to be in the vanguard of fascism government is Italian fascism – led by Benito Mussolini, and Nazi Germany – led by Adolf Hitler. Fascism in Italy and Germany, though in many regards very similar - have the same political ideologies, still have many aspects to them that make them different from each other.
Fascism is defined as, “an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.” Peter Hyland reports that throughout the 1920s and the 1930s, an economic depression was growing and becoming widespread throughout the world. People were losing faith in their democracies and in capitalism. Leaders who gained power supported powerful militarism, nationalism, and initiated the return of an authoritarian rule. J.R. Oppenheimer says that the rise of fascism and totalitarianism in Europe and Russia instigated a “critical step on the path to war.” In 1922, Benito Mussolini held leadership in Italy, promising a proficient and militaristic nationalistic state. During his control as prime minister, he gained a large group of followers, banned the disparagement of government, and used extreme violence against his enemies within the parliament.
The definition of communism is “ a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.” The definition of fascism is “A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.” Communism and Fascism are both forms of Totalitarianism, which is when the ruler has complete power over everyone. There is a fine line between the differences of Communism and Fascism, however these next three articles prove that there is a line and there is no gray space. People are either one side or the other, there is no in between, the goals and secular leading may be the same but the inner workings differ by a lot, Krupskaya, Mussolini, and Hitler explain the differences in their following articles.
During the Progressive Movement, government regulation of big business was a prominent theme. This theme was primarily shown in President Roosevelt’s idea of the ‘Square Deal.’ In 1904 he advocated this domestic reform program which called for government control of corporate abuses. The ‘Square Deal’ was his campaign slogan in the election of 1904. It basically meant that when big business abuses its power, the government will step in to make business equal on all sides, like a square. This ensured that business was fair for all. In 1902, Roosevelt put his idea into use during the United Mine Workers Strike when the workers wanted a raise, shorter hours and recognition of their union but their employers refused to give them what they wanted. Roosevelt called both sides to the White House and forced a compromise. The workers were given shorter hours and a raise but not recognition of their unions. In another instance, Roosevelt applied his plan when he passed the Elkins and Hepburn Acts in 1903 to give the Interstate Commerce Commission power to regulate railroads, prohibit better rates to ‘favorite’ customers, and allow the ICC to set ma...
Fascism is a form of counter-revolutionary politics that first arose in the early part of the twentieth-century in Europe. It was a response to the rapid social and political changes brought about by the devastation of World War I and the spread of socialism and communism. The name fascism originated in Italy. The term comes from the Italian word fascio, which referred to the names of radical new social and political organizations. “Fascism is a philosophy or a system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of aggressive nationalism”(Baradat pg.850). In other words, fascism is a form government that emphasizes a nation or particular race to rule over all other nations or races, simply because they are different. The fascism ideology will even use violent means to accomplish their goals and maintain the loyalty toward the fascist group. “Fascism approaches politics in two central areas, populist and elitist. Populist in that it seeks to activate “the people” as a whole against noticed enemies and to create a nation of unity. An elitist approach because fascism works by putting the people’s will on one select group, or most often one supreme leader, from whom all power precedes downward.”(Lyons pg.10)
Fascism may be described as an extreme right-wing movement in the form of a radical authoritarian nationalism. Fascism was first created in Italy by Mussolini in 1922 to 1943. Mussolini implemented force wherever necessary to ensure the continuation of the controlling environment he was trying to perfect. The Italian government was endeavouring to control nearly all aspects of life and had completely thrown the private and public spheres of life out of balance. A fascist state needs a strong leader who can motivate the nation to feel a huge sense of nationalism and thus increase the army’s size, have a nostalgia for the past, show a hatred of communism, no opposition parties or even perhaps create a scapegoat of the opposite party. A fascist state would also require state control over production and major banks to ensure control. In the beginning of 1933 when Adolf Hitler was given the chancellorship he began implementing these fascist ideals into the German society through propaganda speeches, passing legislation that banned certain practices and ignoring the binding clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and rebuilding the army to its former glory. Many historians have argued that the Nazi ruled Germany was a fascist state. This report will show that Nazi Germany was infact a fascist state in regards to women, children and the control of the government.
Each and every individual country has its own ideologies, economies, and ways of governing. In the early 1900’s Italy had developed its own ideology that had a huge impact on the lives of the Italian people. This ideology was known as Fascism. Fascism was not only a way of governing, but it was also known as a social organization. Fascism became what it was in response to the movement of social theories. There is much more behind the idea of fascism such as where it came from, who the creator of Fascism was, and why it was popular among many civilians.
Freedom and equality are intertwined with one another. Freedom is defined as the custom of being free, political independence, and the possession of civil rights. When reflecting upon the history of the twentieth century many people all over the world were not afforded the luxury of being born with freedom or born with equal rights. In most cases, those people were often oppressed or subjugated by various forms of systematic state sponsored authoritarianism and terror. In order to receive the freedom necessary to survive and the equality required to live a happy and successful life the oppressed people had to take action. Often times the action took on various forms such as, revolts or nonviolent campaigns. Because the governments reliance on authoritarianism and terror to control their citizens, often times revolts and/or nonviolent campaigns were the consequence. Therefore, any advances towards gaining freedom and equality cannot happen without some form of systematic state-sponsored authoritarianism and terror taking place first. It is no coincidence because the two phenomena are linked.
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.