Are they all fascists?

[General Ludd]

Actually, given that you think that is how the word is used, care to link to any book on fascism that uses it that way.

 

[Pickman's model]

Mussolini coined the word Facism to describe his regime's ideology. This ideology was shared by Nazi Germany and some of their puppets. As yet, no other regimes have had all their unique characteristics(and hopefully none ever will). To describe other regimes as Fascist is therefore inaccurate.

bolloxy bolloxy bollox!

i refer the honourable gentleman to walter laqueur, ed., fascism: a reader's guide.

 

[TAE]

Actually, given that you think that is how the word is used, care to link to any book on fascism that uses it that way.

Link to books on fascism (in the sense that you mean it) which use the word fascism in the way that I mean it? That seems unlikely.

However, a quick google brought up these links on the very first page:
http://www.hippy.com/php/article-226.html
http://www.able2know.com/forums/about62420.html
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/02/22/wools.shtml
and this rather amusing animation:
http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=1843

Just a few examples of how the word is used by (more or less) ordinary people.

 

[Pickman's model]

who the fuck was paul wellstone?

 

[TAE]

Regarding:
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/02/22/wools.shtml
Actually that would also fit the narrow definition, as Russia is merely "compared to" a fascist regime, not actually called a fascist regime.

So here are a few others calling Saddam's regime fascist:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,885140,00.html
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15722
http://www.strategypage.com/onpoint/articles/2004413.asp

 

[N_igma]

FAO: Pickmans Model. Why do you have SS-RUC as a title? It offends me alot. Sorry, you don't know but I've had family members killed by the RUC so please remove it.

 

[pilchardman]

I would suggest that Franco was more of a right wing, authoritarian conservative (He was Catholic, supported the established elites etc) than a Fascist.

In my view he was a classic fascist.

 

[General Ludd]

Just a few examples of how the word is used by (more or less) ordinary people.

None of those are examples of the use of your definition of fascism in a serious book (or indeed in an article in a respected periodical like Past & Present).

Head over to Amazon and you'll find that all interesting books on fascism use a specific definition.

 

[nino_savatte]

In my view he was a classic fascist.

In which case, so is Pinochet. But in my mind, though Franco was clearly a militarist, he wasn't fascist and he wasn't even a member of the Falange until 1962 (?) though he shared and promoted their 'vision' long before then.

 

[General Ludd]

Franco only supported the Falange publicly, in reality he undermined and sidelined them in favour of traditional elites as soon as he was in power.

 

[TAE]

None of those are examples of the use of your definition of fascism in a serious book (or indeed in an article in a respected periodical like Past & Present).

As I already stated, there is the 'historical' usage of the word and there is the 'common' usage of the word, and the two are clearly quite distinct.

Fascism could have remained simply a characteristic of a group of historically specific political formations. But the term rather quickly developed a life of its own.
Today it serves as what Alexander (2003) has described as a “bridging metaphor” that is a term that one uses independently of historical or definitional context when confronted with acts of arbitrary violence or authoritarianism in political and in some instances, social life.

http://www.soc.cornell.edu/faculty/berezin/Fascism.pdf

 

[pilchardman]

In which case, so is Pinochet. But in my mind, though Franco was clearly a militarist, he wasn't fascist and he wasn't even a member of the Falange until 1962 (?) though he shared and promoted their 'vision' long before then.

I think the term fascist is best applied to the European dictatorships of the 1930s. Indeed, primarily to two of those: Italy and Spain. Nazi Germany, whilst sharing enough to invite comparison, had enough particularities to warrant its own category.

"Fascist" as a term ought to be reserved for those states.

 

[In Bloom]

I think the term fascist is best applied to the European dictatorships of the 1930s. Indeed, primarily to two of those: Italy and Spain. Nazi Germany, whilst sharing enough to invite comparison, had enough particularities to warrant its own category.

"Fascist" as a term ought to be reserved for those states.

So you don't believe it would be accurate to describe, say, the BNP or the National Front as fascist?

 

[pilchardman]

So you don't believe it would be accurate to describe, say, the BNP or the National Front as fascist?

No.

The former is neo fascist, the latter neo Nazi.