By Shinjini Biswas
Fascism in the 21st century is widely recognized as a term that is used to describe a mass political ideology or movement that can often be pervaded by characteristics like extreme elitism, militarism, nationalism, dictatorship, and unquestioning loyalty towards a country’s leader. Today, there are seldom any countries that openly support the ideology of Fascism, or would characterize themselves as being Fascist. However, this was certainly not the case back in the 1930s and 1940s, when Fascist countries and Fascist political parties were a rather commonplace occurrence in the eyes of the public. Many of the countries that are now renowned for their representative or parliamentary democracies in the present day were actually previously Fascist countries, some of which are Brazil, Hungary, and Norway. However, amongst the wide array of previously Fascist countries, Germany and Italy are the countries that are arguably the most well-known for their past in Fascism due to infamous leaders like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Both Italy and Germany have undergone numerous changes and adjustments in the past in order to reach the successful governments that they have today.
Fascist Italy throughout the 1930s and 1940s can be described as a time period within Italy’s history that possessed great terror, discrimination, and violence. Benito Mussolini originally managed to gain widespread popularity and recognition as an editor of an acclaimed socialist article. However, only a few years later Mussolini was expelled from his position due to his support of certain decisions Italy was making at the time. From very early on, Mussolini formed a group of other like-minded individuals who also believed in extreme fascist and nationalist ideas. In 1922, together, Mussolini and what had now grown into his large “Fasci Italiani di Combattimento” gradually started to showcase more and more violence towards Socialist institutions and thinkers, using intimidation and fear to slowly but surely take control over Italy’s politics. By the early 1920s, the large majority of Socialists had been completely eradicated by Mussolini. It was not long before Mussolini began to virtually deconstruct Italy’s government from the inside out, and by 1925, Mussolini had officially declared himself as a dictator and the official leader of Italy.
Some of the primary aspects that were most influenced by Italy’s sudden uproar of Fascism in the 1930s and 40s included the power of the police, economy and labour, and education. During this period of Fascism in Italy, Italy’s police force was tasked with the responsibility of eliminating any forms of political oppression or defiance and maintaining control and fear over Italy’s population. Italian citizens were monitored and controlled much more strictly and so much as an accusation of betrayal or oppression could lead to ruthless consequences such as imprisonment or exile. The police force at the time was overall viewed as simply another mean for Mussolini and other Fascists to inflict further terrorization and trepidation amongst citizens to maintain control. Another component of Italy that was heavily affected by the politics occurring at the time was the economy and labor. In the preface of trying to further “nationalize” components of Italy made many drastic changes to Italy’s economic system, with the main concept behind these changes being that rather than having to deal with the previous disagreements occurring between employers and employees, everyone should rather be “producers” or “workers” for the nation. Overall, this new method proved to be extremely helpful to larger companies that were on the verge of failing and it helped prepare for situations like possession of foreign territory and warfare. However, despite the large-scale efforts being made by the country, these new efforts seemed to overall negatively affect the lower-class citizens specifically and led to many workers and families experiencing a significant decline in living standards.
The finally category that managed to be largely influenced by Mussolini’s Fascist principles was the education system. The primary purpose of education in Mussolini’s view was to create a future generation of Fascists and to instill Fascist beliefs and principles in children at a young age. Fascist officials ensured that only teachers who could be “trusted” politically were particularly hired and that concepts regarding sacrifice, heroism, nationalism, and the preservation of the Italian race were heavily emphasized. These concepts were not only drilled into students throughout their school life but also when they reached university and were highly encouraged to participate in Fascist Youth Part Organizations, where Fascist principles would only be more stressed. Education was mainly viewed by Fascist leaders as simply another way to control the minds of children and teenagers and to further integrate Fascist ideologies into daily life.
On the other hand, Adolf Hitler began his rise to power in 1919 when he became part of the German Workers’ Power which would soon become known as the Nazi Party to Germany and the rest of the world. Hitler was then appointed officially as chancellor in January of 1933, and on March 23rd the Enabling Act was passed, and Hitler was finally given full control over Germany. During World War II, the Nazi army executed and brutally murdered over 6 million Jews, homosexuals, Slavs, people with mental or physical disabilities, and anyone else that they deemed as “unworthy”. Similar to Italy, during this period of Fascism Hitler and the Nazi party also tried to instill more fascism and nationalist principles that they believed would help improve the economy by incorporating tariffs on imports, the privatization of state-owned businesses, and efforts to attain autarky. These attempts, however, were not effective and the number of people in poverty only continued to increase. Propaganda was also something that was highly used in Fascist Europe, particularly by the Nazis. The Nazis used propaganda to help with the persecution of the Jews and to promote and encourage the genocide and war that was happening. It can be inferred from the evidence providence that generally, Fascist Europe was perhaps one of the worst time periods in the history of Europe and it was a time of great destruction and horror.
Today, Italy is home to a parliamentary republic government while Germany has a parliamentary democracy. In Italy’s government, there are two houses: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic, both of which have the main purpose of creating laws to govern the country. The Government is also accountable to the Parliament and the members of the houses are elected every 5 years and the President is elected every 7 years. Meanwhile, in Germany the Bundeskanzler (federal chancellor) heads the Bundesregierung (federal government) and the members are all elected by Germany’s parliament. In addition, there are also federal ministers, which are selected by the Chancellor. Finally, the U.S. has a representative democracy system in which citizens elect representatives of their choice and the officials lead on behalf of the citizens in order to fulfill their needs and wants. Presidents in the U.S. are elected every 4 years while representatives are typically elected every two years. As can be seen from the types of government that Italy and Germany now have, they both made the decision to incorporate parliamentary governments rather than presidential governments likely to feel more connected to citizens. Since some of the long-term impacts that a dictatorship can have on its citizens is that it can typically reduce trust and confidence within the government and it can occasionally manipulate people that they are being taken advantage of by their government, even when they truly are not. It is also important to recognize that it is, in fact, a good thing that the U.S. and Europe have more similar governments today than they did before because it means that European countries are now really able to start letting go of the effects that their once Fascist governments had on them and it means that U.S. diplomats and diplomats from European countries can now really understand and work together on a deeper level then they were able to in the 1930s and 40s.
In conclusion, both Italy and Germany were extremely different countries from the United States and they were in a much more arduous and threatening political position prior to today due to their previously Fascist governments. However, today there are actually innumerable amount of similarities between the governments of European countries and the United States. Italy, Germany, and many other European countries that used to have Fascist governments in the past now have much more successful and triumphant governments and we can only hope that they continue to grow and advance in the future…
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