Fascism Jason A. Gregor Realizes

Fascism

Jason A. Gregor realizes in his "Interpretations of fascism" a critique of the existing fascist theories stating that there are two many theories dealing with this issue and therefore there can not be a comprehensive literature analyzing fascism.

The start point in analyzing and understanding any social phenomena requires unambiguous definitions, empirical generalizations, general explanatory theories and a method of moral evolution. Regarding fascism, one can not make a clear definition of what it means because there is no agreement between theories in any of these areas. As Gregor put it, "almost every specialist has his own interpretation." This is in Gregor's view a major flaw to fascist theories, that there is no order in all the fascist materials that exist and therefore it is hard to present a solid, well argument ed, single theory.

Trying to make some order in the huge amount of theories and materials, Gregor provides a list of categories in which he groups all the leading theories. There are six single-cause categories, in which fascism is viewed as (1) the product of moral crisis; (2) the result of psychosexual disorder in large groups; (3) as a function of social disorganization that produces anomic masses; (4) the product of the clash of class interests; (5) representing a stage of economic development; (6) an example of totalitarianism.

Analyzing the theories from this list, Gregor makes a critique of all theories, presenting their strong arguments, as well as their flaws. In his view, all of these theories, although they seem well organized, have a shortcoming that makes them unusable.

Taking into account the categorization of fascist theories into six categories, one can identify that a comprehensive theory of fascism would embody elements from all six categories. The only theory that Gregor identifies as being a solid fascist ideology is the ideology of Italian fascism, which uses some parts of all ideologies. As stated before, Gregor believes that there are many flaws in the theories developed so far, but there are also many elements that can be linked to what he believes to be the best representation of fascist ideas - Italian fascism under Mussolini.

One of the ideas from the six categories identified by Gregor that can be used to describe Italian fascism is that fascism is an example of totalitarianism. This feature of fascism is one of the features that presented fascism in a violent and tyrannic manner and this is one important reason why Italian fascism is considered an unfortunate period.

Italian fascism is viewed as an ideology that sustains revolutionary ideas and this ideology succeeded in redrawing the political and economic situation of Italy in the twentieth century.

Gregor believes and sustains in his works that fascism was the truly revolutionary doctrine of the twentieth century, representing a model for dictators in the Third World countries. Fascism, rather than Marxism, represented the model for dictatorships demanding liberation from foreign dominance and wealth redistribution. Fascism appealed at patriotic feelings and at national pride, but it was still an ideology of dictatorship.

The true model that applied the fascist ideology into a political program was Benito Mussolini, who used the relevance of fascist theories in Italy when the fascists came to power in 1922. According to Gregor, fascism is best pictured by Mussolini's program, who used the opportune moment of economic downfall, of domestic disputes and external hostility to introduce the fascist platform.

Italian fascism is not, according to Gregor, the ideal system of belief - it represented an ideology that was not less irrational than other revolutionary ideologies of the twentieth century.

Following fascism to its origins, Gregor presents how the fascist movement evolved and developed, starting from its origins in the socialist ideology in the time of the First World War. By the Second World War, there already was a split between socialism and fascism. The most important thing that Gregor outlines in his works is that Italian fascism was based on solid roots and on theories developed by important political personalities.

The Italian fascist movement is strongly based on a number of theories that Gregor categorizes in his "Interpretations of Fascism," having some characteristics of all these categories. But it is Gregor's belief that the one theory that really presented what fascism is all about was the Italian fascism theory, put in practice by Mussolini.