Is Fascism Left Wing or Right Wing?
From time to time, the term “fascist” gets bandied about, but what is fascism? It’s always been difficult to pin down a definition, with some claiming it’s a right wing ideology and some claiming it’s a left wing ideology–ultimately in hopes of tarring their partisan rivals. In attempting to get to the truth, I decided I needed a more objective test–I decided to use the politics match quiz and plug in the answers based upon what–to the best of my perhaps poor scholarship–I believe to be the fascist position. For comparison, I also plugged in the Democratic and Republican party platforms. Below are tables comparing the positions, with my notes explaining the reasons for the answers I provided for the fascist position.
[Note: the Republican and Democratic parties' platform answers used in the quiz are based upon ontheissues.org's work. For an explanation of the Republican answers click HERE. For an explanation of the Democratic answers click HERE.]
| Individual rights | Republicans | Democrats | Fascists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abortion is a woman’s right | Strongly Oppose | Strongly Support | Strongly Oppose |
| Require Companies to Hire More Women/Minorities | Strongly Oppose | Strongly Support | Oppose |
| Sexual Orientation Protected by Civil Rights Laws | Strongly Oppose | Strongly Support | Oppose |
| Permit Prayer in Public Schools | Support | Oppose | Support |
Fascists ideology is anti-abortion since it is a strongly socially conservative and militant belief system–abortion being seen as a crime against the perpetuation of the state and race. While typical fascist ideology isn’t wholly against the idea of women working–it helps with the national mobilization–it is clearly against minorities being integrated into society. Fascist ideology is anti-homosexual, since homosexuality is not a traditional value, ans has no value in perpetuating the state by creating new generations. Fascism isn’t anti-religion–religion being a part of the tradition of the in group, as well as a useful tool for controlling the population–and can tolerate prayer in school, so long as it doesn’t contradict the government’s teachings.
| Crime and guns | Republicans | Democrats | Fascists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Death Penalty | Strongly Support | Support | Strongly Support |
| Mandatory “Three Strikes” Sentencing Laws | Strongly Support | Oppose | Strongly Support |
| Absolute Right to Gun Ownership | Strongly Support | Support | Oppose |
Since Fascism is a very authoritarian ideology, it is pro death penalty and “three strikes” style laws, as they are seen as strongly maintaining an orderly society. Fascism is anti-gun, because an unarmed populace is a more compliant populace.
| Medical/social security | Republicans | Democrats | Fascists |
|---|---|---|---|
| More Federal Funding For Health Coverage | Oppose | Strongly Support | Strongly Support |
| Privatize Social Security | Support | Oppose | Strongly Oppose |
Fascism is a system that relies to a great degree on central planning and the primacy of the state above the individual. For this reason, they are for a nationalized health system and against privatizing social security.
| Education | Republicans | Democrats | Fascists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parents Choose Schools via Vouchers | Support | Strongly Oppose | Strongly Oppose |
School vouchers erode the government’s central role in maintaining social order and planning the economy, fascists are against this.
| Other domestic issues | Republicans | Democrats | Fascists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reduce use of Coal, Oil, & Nuclear Energy | Oppose | Strongly Support | Support |
| Drugs Damage Society: Enforce Laws against Use | Strongly Support | Support | Strongly Support |
| Allow Churches to Provide Welfare Services | Strongly Support | Support | Oppose |
Fascists have historically been surprisingly pre-environment, since the environment is an important part of the in group’s heritage–thus they are against overusing polluting technologies like oil and coal. Drugs are seen as unproductive and socially damaging, so fascists are against their use. Since fascism insists on the central role of the government, it is mostly against churches filling a role that is rightfully the government’s.
| Taxes/immigration | Republicans | Democrats | Fascists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decrease Overall Taxation of the Wealthy | Strongly Support | Support | Strongly Oppose |
| Immigration Helps Our Economy – Encourage It | Oppose | Support | Strongly Oppose |
Fascism has historically been for progressive taxation and government management of surplus wealth. Fascism is a based on the idea of an in group or race, and therefore is strongly against integrating outsiders.
| Trade | Republicans | Democrats | Fascists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support and Expand Free Trade | Support | Support | Oppose |
Fascism is a protectionist ideology, preferring instead to get resources by conquest and colonization.
| Defense | Republicans | Democrats | Fascists |
|---|---|---|---|
| More Spending on Armed Forces | Strongly Support | Support | Strongly Oppose |
| Reduce Spending on Missile Defense (“Star Wars”) | Strongly Oppose | Oppose | Strongly Oppose |
Fascism is a very militant ideology, and therefore is against any cuts in the military.
| Foreign affairs | Republicans | Democrats | Fascists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Link Human Rights to Trade with China | Oppose | Support | Strongly Oppose |
| Seek UN Approval for Military Action | Support | Strongly Support | Strongly Oppose |
In any situation where trade with a foreign nation is necessary, fascists would not be beholden to considerations of human rights–since in the fascist world-view the state is superior to the individual. In fascism, the state is first and last, and would not allow its actions to be limited by other inferior organizations.
After plugging in all these answers to the politics match quiz, the answers are plotted out as follows:
Note: the term “populism” is somewhat misleading, for it really means is “authoritarianism”–a large degree of government intervention in both social and economic affairs.
As can be seen from the graph, there is a world of difference between Fascist, Democratic, and Republican ideologies. It would be fair to say that fascism takes the social stance of the right, and the economic program of the left and combines it with more than a splash of racism–to create something that we don’t have in America, aren’t even close to now, and hopefully will never see.
A study of Fascism has much more to offer than crowding it to one corner of a 10 by 10 plot. Were the results really that surprising? Getting past the anti-liberal assumptions in its philosophy, Fascist thought is presented quite thoroughly and coherently by its intellectuals. All told, the results of the politics test really isn’t very interesting.
On the other hand, it’s nice to see all that white space between America and fascism. Were our nation’s circumstances very different than they are today, I might support a pacifistic fascist regime, but as a member of the richest, most powerful country in the world, I enjoy my freedom.
To all: thanks for the comments. Let me clarify a few points.
The model of fascism that I worked off of was based on an amalgam of sources–not any one historical state or party. I tried to reconcile the positions of different historical and contemporary fascist states/parties and find common broad ideological threads, and not just a snapshot of one state at one time.
I’m aware of the weakness of applying the politics match questions to fascist ideology–we simply have no contemporary mainstream American party to work off of. The politics match quiz also doesn’t account for fascist ideas about an “in group” (usually race-based). Nonetheless, using the modeling of general ideological threads that fascist parties have had in common, we can come to a fairly decent understanding of where they fall within a broad spectrum.
I used the profiles of the Democrat and Republic platforms to give a sense of perspective and scale to the results. It was in no way an attempt to declare an equivilence between them or to tar one or the other as being closer ideology. This was an honest (if amature) attempt to understand fascism’s “place” in a spectrum. I was somewhat surprised by the result–it came out further to the right than I expected (Disclaimer: I’m a libertarian-leaning conservative/Republican).
FreeRepublican’s comment about the Nazi stance to abortion is true enough. Yet one must realize that in the fascist ideology, abortion among the “in group/race” is strongly opposed–other minorities not being considered as citizens and thus not worthy of the same legal consideration. This is a broad feature of the fascist ideology that is present not only in one state/party/historical context, but in many.
I think that’s a good point. I could see a facists dictator supplying things like “free health care” and “right to an abortion” to the public if they thought it solidified their position.
Dave–the image is being hosted off of blogspot because I can’t upload images to Rob’s server. Maybe Rob could copy it to his server and edit the IMG tag…
Seth: Your very last image shows up as a little red “x” on my computer, yet several other commenters have referenced it. Come to think of it, I’m not sure why I addressed you directly. Any idea what may be causing this?
The main fallacy with your post is that you don’t have a current model of facism to compare Republicans and Democrats with.
Where are you getting your defination of facism from: Nazi Germany? Pre-war Italy? Some Tin-Pot Third world country?
The Republican Party of the 1930’s believed in a lot of different things than the party does in the 21st century. Same thing for the Democrat party. A third world party cannot be compared with either the Democrats or the Republicans.
The only defination of a facism that ever really made sense was that it’s an economic/political system of central planning while leaving industry in the hands of private owners. Basically it’s a model where big government, big labor and big business supposedly work together. You can make up your own mind what party this is near to.
Oh, I didn’t take it as berating. Your comments have been constructive.
Seth: It might be even more interesting to run a comparison of Republicans and Democrats on the Bill of Rights.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I think Seth is aware of the limitations of his exercise, but it was interesting nonetheless.
docdave: in my defense, fascist parties and candidates have been elected, and to this day run in elections (even here in America)–so it’s not a completely crackpot idea.
The model I used is too limited, that’s clearer to me now (I knew it was from the start, but I probably didn’t appreceate that as fully as I should have).
MI, my comment wasn’t meant as a dig, or maybe it was.
Seth, understand what you were doing, however I think a comparison of freely elected political systems e.g. liberal, conservative, socialist, communist, etc. would be more meaningful using your comparison criteria.
MI: I think the bottom line is that attempting to discuss fascism on a policy level is an execise in futility. Once an autocratic state is established, the policies it pursues are secondary
I can hardly believe it but I’m agreeing with MI on something. I think the overriding principle of individual freedoms trumps all other comparison items. Fascism has virtually no individual freedoms as compared to all other systems. Seth, this would have become obvious if you had used the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution for comparative values. For instance, taking the first amendment, fascism typically does not permit the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right of the people to protest and/or assemble or the right to petition for redress of grievances. I think if you go down the entire list of what we consider our constitution rights, none would be permited under fascism.
Seth: in my defense, fascist parties and candidates have been elected,
Well, there are elections and then there are free elections. There were elections in Iraq under Saddam but how free are election when there is only one candidate. Another example is the recent elections in Iran when only a limited number of candidates were allowed to be on the ballot. Granted, Hitlers National Socialist were initially elected but that was before he assumed dictatorial power. Maybe the real test of free elections is once one elects a scondrel can they unelect him in some future election.
Anyway, Seth, my comments were not intended to berate you in any way. Actually, your post was excellent if only for the responses it provoked.
I was just kidding
Nope, even I can’t see it sometimes.
John: of course there’s more to learn about fascism than a 10X10 grid–but does that make the work that I’ve done pointless? Yes, I’ve presented a simplification, but don’t make the mistake of thinking this is something I cranked off in 30 minutes. I actually spent weeks researching for this–anything more detailed would make a lousy blog post, and is going to require some funding. Baby needs a new pair of shoes and all that.
Seth: I figured it was something like that, but when John said:
I assumed I was the only one who couldn’t see the last image.
Individual Independence:
Fascists: Strongly oppose
Republicans: Strongly support
Democrats: Wishy-Washy
Sigivald–yes, I do mean that. Thank you for pointing out my mistake.
FreeRepublican: following is some evidence to support my contention that fascism is a generally anti-abortion ideology.
Anti-abortion fascists in history:
Anti-abortion fascists in contemporary times:
My research indicates to me that the evidence of fascist support for abortion is quite lacking.
Well, you post just states things in a slightly different way. I understand what you were trying to do. Although, your analysis of the anti-abortion stance of facists doesn’t really jive with history.
Using the Nazi model of facism (which is different from textbook defined facism, but is the easiest to point back to) obviously they were against citizen rights for abortion. But there are clear cases of force abortions on Jewish and non-Jewish women. Some as part of the eugenics projects, other part of general torture techniques.
The problem that I have with an appoach like this is that you are citing common beliefs between facism and republicanism as if these similarities should be pointed out. In my view, by doing this you are giving the other side ammo.
It may be academicly and intellectually true that there are similarities, but to bring them out detracts from the credibility of out positions today which do not originate in anyway from the origins of facism.
Good post. I think the bottom line is that attempting to discuss fascism on a policy level is an execise in futility. Once an autocratic state is established, the policies it pursues are secondary.
Interesting post Seth and I generally agree with your conclusions. Right vs. Left has so many different meanings now that it really isn’t of much value anymore. I had always viewed Fascists as ultra right wingers but the argument for lumping them in with Russian Communists is certainly valid when you’re using a totalitarian vs. freedom scale. Good work.
My point is that fascism is a unique ideology that lies in its own political “space”–a space that is not in the mainstream of American politics. I can’t think of a single mainstream politician in America that you could accurately call fascist.
Thank you for the comment, but did you read the post? I’m not talking about a strictly linear model. I ask because you seem to gloss over my conclusion.
Using the linear Left vs. Right political model where nationalism is given Right Wing value Facism has always been placed on the Right.
Of course, this linear model was created by a follower of Karl Marx.
What many people don’t understand about this Linear Model is that nationalism is not the overiding factor as the Russian Soviets were possibly more nationalistic than the German’s under Hitler.
The Left vs. Right is a over simplified model as it does not take into account things like nationalism and authoritarian nature.
Under this model libertarianism is generally placed in the Left wing based on the lack of nationalism in traditional civil libertarians.
There are Left and Right Wing versions of nearly every ideology. Right-libertarians, left-libertarains, right-socialists, left-socialist, and so on.
Whole books have been written about this subject so go buy one if you are a capitalist (or borrow, check-out or steal one if your a communist.)
I suspect you mean Fascists “Strongly Support” spending more on the military, not the reverse.
I’ve always viewed fascists as being like serial killers–they can come from either party, and it’s foolish and naive to believe that fascism will come from just one party.
Opportunity:
Republicans: Equal opportunity for all
Democrats: Special opportunities for favored groups
Fascists: Opportunity only for favored groups
docdave: that was sort of my point. It’s becoming obvious to me I need a better model of “political space” that can express levels of authoritarianism. Mea culpa–I went into this with no preconcieved notions about what the result should be (although, I did have notions about what the result might be).