Fascism

Fascism is an authoritarian system of government. It is not a system where you find people voting and/or making decisions together. The people making the decisions are the elite of society, government and the heads of big business. Fascists believe that people aren't capable of governing themselves and that they need a powerful leader to make all of their decisions for them. Of course, fascist leaders don't make decisions in favour of the people, they make decisions in favour of themselves and their kind. There are fourteen defining characteristics of a fascist society, all are scary, but we'll just look at seven;

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long imprisonments of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate an imagined common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

6. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

7. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

Germany, by the 1930's had all of these things going on and then some. Scary thing? Many democratic countries have some, or even all of these elements. Fascism is not dead and we must always be vigilant!

Make sure you UNDERSTAND what fascism is, and some of the characteristics of it (there are 14, but these are the 7 most important. This will be found on the FINAL EXAM!