The Rise of Fascism and National Socialism

Abstract

In the early 1930s, Hendrik de Man and Marcel Déat had helped blaze a trail for a new kind of post-Marxist left that would eventually become known as social democracy. But by the end of the decade, they had become known for something much different. Having lost faith in the SFIO in particular and the mainstream socialist movement more generally and becoming convinced that liberal democracy was on the verge of collapse, Déat and many other neosocialists started to look more closely at the communitarianism and anticapitalist critiques of Nazis and Fascists – and liked what they saw. Over time, they decided that these movements were the only ones willing and able to fix capitalism's problems and provide the collective purpose and identity they felt France and Europe desperately needed. In this shift, they were hardly alone. Frustrated by the socialist movement's traditionalism and passivity, disillusioned with the liberal, democratic, capitalist order, and impressed by the vitality of the radical right – particularly its ability to merge communitarian appeals and strategies for controlling capitalism – a surprising number of socialists during these years made the journey from (revisionist) left to (fascist or national socialist) right. By the late 1930s, even de Man had become convinced that neither the mainstream socialist movement nor liberal democracy had a future, and so began advocating authoritarian revisions to the reigning political order in the service of something he called socialisme national.