Fascism as Political Religion

Abstract

In modern society, secularization has not produced a definitive separation between the spheres of religion and politics. With the development of mass politics, the boundaries between these two spheres have often become confused, and on these occasions politics has assumed its own religious dimension. At the same time as this process of secularization within both the state and society, there has also been a 'sacralization of politics', which reached its highest point in the totalitarian movements of the twentieth century. Nazism, fascism and romantic nationalism all made decisive contributions to the 'sacralization of politics'; but democracy, socialism and communism have also contributed to the birth of new secular cults. The religious aspects of mass movements such as nazism have already been studied, whilst we do not yet have an in-depth study of fascism from this point of view. This article does not claim to provide such a study; merely to put forward some considerations on the importance and function of political religion within fascism. There has always been an interest in this field: as early as the 1920s some researchers focused their attention on fascism's rituals and symbols, claiming that they were examples of a secular religiousness, which they viewed as one of the more original aspects of the movement, as well as being one of the factors behind its success. Fascism 'has the rudiments of a new religion', wrote Schneider and Clough in 1929, but 'whether or not these will grow remains to be seen, but certainly there can be no doubt that already this new cult has taken some hold of the Italians' heart and imagination'.' In 1932, Mussolini declared that the fascist state had not created its own god, as Robespierre had done, but it had recognized 'the god of ascetics, saints and heroes, and also the God which is seen and worshipped by the primitive and genuine heart of the people'. He also added that whilst the fascist state did not have its own theology, it did have its own morality.2