Brexit, Donald Trump’s US presidential election, the ascent of France’s Marine Le Pen, Italy’s Five Star Movement: The whole Western world appears to be in the thrall of populists. For many, this seems like a bit of a dejà vu, evoking the 1920s and 1930s, with their looming threat of fascism.
There are, indeed, similarities between today’s political landscape and what Europe experienced in the buildup to World War II, as well as with other times when populism eventually turned into fascism—such as Francoist Spain, or Peronist Argentina. But while fascism usually is rooted in populism, starting with populism doesn’t inevitably mean you’ll wind up with fascism. [...]
The adoption of violence to impose fascist authority is a key element of fascism both as a movement and as a regime, says Finchelstein. It expresses itself as street violence first, and then through the militarization of government. Fascist leaders take power not just through popular support, but thanks to the action of squads that violently attack opponents, and that are then incorporated into the running of the state as paramilitary formations.
On the other hand, Finchelstein explains, “populism combines low level actual violence with high level rhetorical violence,” applying it to “an authoritarian way of understanding democracy.” In that is another important distinction between fascism and populism: “fascism is never a democracy, while populism undermines democracy, but doesn’t remove it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment