Fascism and Racism

Nazism has often been distinguished from fascism on account of its murderous and territorially expansionist racism. Certainly anti-semitism did not feature in early Italian Fascist ideology, which focused more on delineating a new socioeconomic Third Way. However, the fascist quest for economic power was intimately linked to the belief that Italy had the right to rule over a great empire. Moreover, fascism later turned to anti-semitism, partly in an attempt to halt the atrophy of fascist domestic radicalism. In France and Romania fascists did not seek territorial expansion, but war was seen as endemic in a world in which superior nations ruled over lesser people. Moreover, whilst socioeconomic radicalism featured in their programmes, anti-semitism was never far from the surface in France, whilst in Romania it was pervasive. These cases show that although there were different conceptions of nation, and especially race, among fascists, they were intricately interwoven in both thought and practice.

Criminology · Economic history · Empire · Expansionism · Ideology · Nazism · Political economy · Political radicalism · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Racism · Sociology · European history and politics · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law

• European fascism and nationalism, 1919–1945

  Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas•National Identities•2025

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