If liberalism steps into the fascist synthesis: the diverging views of Zeev Sternhell and Ishay Landa on the origins of fascist ideology

Abstract

This article aims to find common ground between two highly diverging interpretations of fascism, drawing on the recent debate promoted by Roger Griffin and David D. Roberts on the need to reconcile opposing camps in the field of fascist studies. One of the article's two foci is the interpretation proposed by Zeev Sternhell, which sees fascism as a violently anti-liberal synthesis of a ‘heretical’ brand of socialism and a new radical right-wing nationalism. The other, put forward by Ishay Landa, instead places fascism's origins precisely within the liberal tradition. Although these two views appear to be incompatible, this article argues that they can be at least partially harmonized. To do so, liberalism must be considered not as a mere opposing force, but rather as an active player in the complex process of ideological permutation, change and borrowing of competing ideologies that was to produce fascism. In pursuit of this goal, the article uses some of Landa's insights to reconsider Sternhell's interpretation of the ideology of the ‘new left’ and the ‘new right’ that, in his view, represent the combined origin of fascist ideology. In particular, the article focuses on the Italian case, where these two major currents were embodied, respectively, by the national syndicalist movement and the Italian Nationalist Association.