fascism: Fascism in the 21st Century

In 2018, the elected governments of eight countries within the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia) were headed by far-right political parties. Some political parties in Europe, such as the Golden Dawn in Greece, Jobbik in Hungary, and the National Party in Slovakia, explicitly draw on 20th century fascistic rhetoric and political aims. Since the turn of the century, far-right movements gained significant electoral ground in France, Germany, and Italy.

The international rise of far-right authoritarian tendencies in the 21st century—the elections of Donald Trump in the United States and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, in particular—caused some scholars and political commentators to reexamine the concept of fascism and whether or not the term is still analytically useful. The following qualified concepts have been used by historians and political theorists in order to try to examine and understand this contemporary phenomenon: new fascism, post-fascism, neofascism, late fascism, racial fascism, and inverted totalitarianism. All of these terms have been used in order to differentiate the rise of the far-right in the 21st century from classical fascism, or what Pier Paolo Pasolinicalled paleofascism.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Fascism in the 21st Century
• Fascism since World War II
• Emergence after World War I
• Origins of Fascism
• The Fascist State
• Characteristics of Fascist Philosophy
• Bibliography

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