Towards a Definition of Fascism

Abstract

Fascism, we are told, is a tool of the capitalist class, a reaction against socialism and communism, a Marxist deviation, a psychotic fever that eventually passed after taking a terrible toll on European civilization. The debate is lengthy and complicated and despite claims of an emerging consensus, the question is still unsettled. 1 Generally speaking, definitions of fascism have left something to be desired, for they are generally too vague, too specific, or too tortured, to be of much use. It is no wonder then that some scholars seek to bury the word, and the concept, declaring it “precisely dated and meaningless.” 2