Abstract

The Social Conditions of Italian Fascism

The article intends to prove, that the fascist movement is a phenomenon, which is in principle reducible to social conditions. This intention is, at the same time, implicitly the specific sociological claim, because it is alleged, that - from a possible explanation of fascism from social conditions - it is possible to draw conclusions with regard to its real foundations as well as to ihe general genealogy of all possible fascisms. The combination of phenomenological and etiological method, which is explained at the beginning of the article, unites methods of the science of history and sociology. After introductory remarks on the most important political powers in Italy until World War I, the effects of this war on society and state are considered. The “middle class” proves to be, mainly in the cities, the social grouping, where the consolidation of the economic and social situation met with the strongest obstacles, Moreover, the old liberal system was not able to force the new arising constrasts between great-bourgeoisie and proletariat into the channels of parliamentary-political disputes. State authority decreased, fascist terror activities against the socialists grew stronger. Thus the ideological conflict focused on the anti-thesis socialism-nationalism. In another main chapter fascism is explained from its characteristics as social synthesis of different classes and doctrines. It becomes obvious, that the fascists did not succeed in accomplishing this synthesis of the conglomeration of social groups by means of a program, whose aims did unite many, but on the contrary by the rejection of ideologies, which steered the political process of the postwar period, and whose enemies, though coming frequently from opposite sides, united under the flag of fascism against it. The only document of a common positive aim was nationalism, while socialism and liberalism were main adversaries