Stage one: Emerging out of disillusionment
Mussolini and Hitler rose to prominence in the aftermath of World War I, capitalizing on the political and economic fallout of the Great War and popular dissatisfaction with their countries’ leaders˳
Hitler pointed to the harsh and humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which forced Germany to accept blame for the conflict, give up its overseas colonies and 13 percent of its European territory, limit the size of its army and navy, and pay reparations (financial damages) to the war’s winners˳ He would gain followers by promising to tear up the Treaty of Versailles and restore the country’s honor˳
Meanwhile, the economic crisis that followed World War I further eroded public confidence in the existing political establishment˳ In the immediate aftermath of the war, Germany suffered hyperinflation—a situation in which prices skyrocketed so quickly that German currency lost much of its value—and Italy experienced a two-year period of mass strikes and factory occupations, with millions unemployed˳
Stage two: Establishing legitimacy as a political party
Fascist leaders capitalized on popular disillusionment by creating their own political parties to challenge the ruling establishment through the ballot box and, often, violence in the streets˳
In 1919, Mussolini created Italy’s Fascist Party, which unabashedly supported Italian nationalism and opposed socialism (even though it often incorporated socialist values and goals at first, such as creating better conditions for the lower class and putting people back to work)˳ The group militarized politics by attracting fervent followers—including many returning World War I veterans—who organized armed militias known as the squadristi (or “Blackshirts,” per their uniforms) and skirmished with Italian socialists in the streets˳
Germany’s Nazi Party (originally founded in 1920 as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party) also emerged in the aftermath of the war˳ With many Germans shocked by the country’s defeat in World War I, the Nazis pushed a narrative that argued Germany could have won the war if not for unrest at home˳ This myth falsely accused Jewish people and left-wing activists of stabbing the country’s war effort in the back and blamed Germany’s new democratic government for giving up on the conflict˳ Propelled by this vision, the Nazis went from winning 3 percent of the vote in the 1928 parliamentary elections to 44 percent in 1933˳ They also received support from their own paramilitary wing known as the Sturmabteilung (or “Brownshirts”) who—like the Italian Squadristi (or “Blackshirts”)—clashed with the party’s rivals˳
Stage three: Gaining power via right-wing partnerships
During the interwar period, the economic collapse brought on by the Great Depression pushed many European centrists more to the political extremes of conservatism and socialism˳ A third option—fascism—would gain influence when its representatives partnered with conservatives, who advocated for traditional values, including nationalism and law and order˳ Conservatives recognized that Fascists wanted to overthrow the political establishment; however, the two groups found common cause over their shared hatred and fear of left-wing socialists˳
In Italy, conservatives combined forces with Fascists to form a governing majority in parliament in 1921˳ Meanwhile, in Germany, the country’s conservative leaders allied with the Nazis, believing it would be a temporary compromise to prevent socialists from taking power˳ After the Nazis won the largest share of votes in 1932, the country’s president appointed Hitler chancellor of Germany˳ Even still, conservatives expected to control government affairs while taking advantage of Hitler’s charisma˳ That expectation, of course, would turn out to be a miscalculation˳
Stage four: Using power to dominate institutions
Upon rising to power, Fascist parties attempted to consolidate political authority˳
Mussolini’s Fascist Party won elections in 1921 as part of a coalition˳ The following year, the Italian king appointed Mussolini prime minister after a mass fascist demonstration known as the March on Rome, which provoked fears of civil war if Mussolini were denied power˳ The Fascists, however, did not seize absolute authority, as traditional institutions like the Catholic Church still retained a certain degree of independence˳
The Nazis, on the other hand, took total control over government and society˳ Hitler removed all non-Nazis from government shortly after becoming chancellor in 1933˳ He would go on to pass laws stripping Jews of citizenship, expelling anti-Nazi professors from universities, banning rival political parties, and enabling him to rule by decree (meaning he could single-handedly—and without oversight—create future laws)˳ Germany became a one-party country: the Nazis claimed to have won more than 90 percent of the vote in subsequent unfree and unfair elections, and after 1938, they ceased holding elections altogether˳
Stage five: Implementing radical reforms
With near-total or absolute control over society, fascist leaders exercised their power in increasingly radical ways both at home and abroad˳
Mussolini’s Italy carried out violent colonial campaigns across Africa˳ In Libya, colonial troops employed chemical weapons against local resistance movements and imprisoned their members in concentration camps˳ And in 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), where virulent racism led to mass instances of rape and the indiscriminate killing of hundreds of thousands of people˳ Although Mussolini’s regime did not carry out the same scale of ethnic violence at home, his government proclaimed white, Christian Italians to be descendants of the Aryan race and banned Black and Jewish people from marrying them˳
Hitler’s Nazi Germany remains the only example of full radicalization of a fascist movement˳ As Germany’s absolute ruler, or führer, Hitler destroyed all political opposition; invaded countries across Europe; launched World War II in partnership with Mussolini; and ordered the genocide of millions˳ Three-quarters of a century after Hitler’s death, his rise to power and Germany’s fall from democracy into fascism serve as frightening reminders of the dangers of racism and extremism in politics˳
Does fascism exist today?
Most scholars understand fascism as a phenomenon that existed between World Wars I and II, with Mussolini and Hitler as its primary exponents˳ But that doesn’t mean that the characteristics of fascism can never reappear or that leaders and groups can’t replicate the fascist playbook to consolidate power˳
Even if a group or movement does not progress through all five stages of fascism, it can still exhibit elements of fascism˳ This is evident in authoritarian countries like Russia and also increasingly apparent at a time of global democratic backsliding, in which democracies are under siege—not by foreign invaders but by domestic leaders who are using their countries’ own democratic institutions to subvert and destroy political freedoms, civil liberties, and democracy itself˳
Although no full-fledged fascist movement has existed since World War II, it’s imperative to understand the stages of fascism in order to recognize when the conditions that once enabled the rise of such destructive regimes could be reappearing˳
