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Nazism

National Socialism and Fascism

Fascism and national socialism are the powerful political ideologies that raised millions people. These ideas have spread the own power in a society in different periods. They were as a dominant political system in it due to the actions of politicians, earnestly guarding the interests of the ruling class and under this pretext establishing their personal dictatorship.

The existence of fascism and Nazism has posed a challenge to the liberal democracy. It has become one of the major ideologies. The study of these ideologies and a challenge is an aim of this assignment. The paper has been divided into several sections. There the following features will be explored: a culture survey, a strategy, a structure, controls, and recommendations for changes.

The Ideology of Fascism

In order to understand the differences between fascism and liberalism, first of all, it is necessary to understand the principles of these types of ideologies and highlight the fundamental basis for their origin. They can be described perfectly with an example of Italy.

Fascism is a political movement that has emerged in the countries, developed of building the basic of capitalism in the moment of the greatest crisis of the capitalist ideology. Fascism has represented primarily the interests of the high society. It was the bourgeoisie. Fascism stands out from the rest of ideologies, because it supports the concept of racism and chauvinism. It also allows the use of extreme violence to suppress the working class (Renton 15). In a foreign policy, fascism is manifested in its militaristic relation to other countries. Thus, it behaves very aggressively towards neighboring countries. The theory of racial superiority is one of the most striking manifestations of this ideology. A perfect example of the state, built on the basis of fascism, is Italy. This word, in turn, comes from the Latin fascis, i.e. bunch beam (Coldrey 15). Lictors, an honorary guard of higher magistrates of the Roman people, carried Fascia. Fascia symbolized the right to use force on behalf of people, i.e. including the death penalty (Coldrey 15).

It is also needed to remember the importance of traditionalism in this ideology. The whole concept is based on simplicity and an immediate solution of problems. All threats from dissidents were suppressed by brute force with violent means. Fascism is considered one of the most violent ideologies of the 20th century (Grigsby 15). Thus, having considered the ideology of fascism, we can proceed to the consideration of the similar ideology. It includes some of the key points of fascism.

National Socialism as the Ideology of the Third Reich

Nazism should be studied as a separate ideology for the possibility in the future to investigate its influence on liberal democracy. The main ideas of National Socialism were originated from the book Mein Kampf by A. Hitler. He has expounded National Socialism as an ideology that could lead the state to prosperity. The main principles are Nazism, racism, militarism, and anti-communism. National socialism is often confused with fascism because of similar ideas. But it can be differed from fascism. National socialism has the basic idea that is the purity of race (Grigsby 11).

One of important points to improve the state and race was the need to develop a healthy lifestyle and spread the sport and physical education. The history of Germany shows that the importance of the purity of race being the abstersion of the state from foreign elements. In particular, it concerns the Jewish people. Because of Hitler’s zeal to eradicate communism and Christianity, the Jews became his first enemy. According to his opinion, he brought and come up with both of these things. The main features of the ideology of fascism are extremism, anti-communism, and nationalism (Coldrey 11). National Socialism ideology included the preparation to war, although the possibility of this on two fronts had been excluded. National Socialism and Fascism ruled out the possibility of parliamentary democracy or communism development in the country. It should also be mentioned that the main difference between socialism and National Socialism (Nazism) is an idea of distributing benefits. According to National Socialism, all benefits are belonged to the certain race. It also confirms the brutality of Nazism and fascism in relation to a man (Blick 8). The rights and freedoms of one individual are absolutely not regarded fascism and Nazism.

The Ideology of Liberal Democracy and Its Basic Principles

In order to examine the influence of fascism and National Socialism on the ideology of liberal democracy, it is also necessary to consider liberal democracy as a distinct ideology and define its scope. It will enable a more detailed understanding of the differences among these ideologies and their impact on each other.

First of all, this ideology proclaims human rights and a maximum expression of the will of a person. It considers desires and needs of a person as the most important thing. Everything else is secondary. A free choice of faith and of the possibility to speak freely was the most pressing question. However, there are few unrealistic facts within our society in the concept of liberalism. They often relate to the economic part of the liberal theory (Grigsby 11). After liberal democracy examining, it becomes possible to understand the main differences among the abovementioned ideologies.

The Main Differences among Nazism, Fascism and Liberal Democracy

Differences among liberal democracy and fascism, i.e. National Socialism, are very bright. Firstly, they have a different attitude to the person as an identity of any society. If the person should do everything possible for the prosperity of the country and race, according to Nazism and fascism, liberal democracy proclaims the following: the individual is controlled by the own desires. The differences also are in the fact that liberal democracy takes into account the desire of everyone. At the same time, the ideology of fascism and Nazism is manifested in the wish of getting rid of all dissenter individual nations. Liberal democracy includes free personal choice of religion. Fascism and Nazism do not accept the faith in God. They encourage some faith in a state or leader. A cult of the leader is an integral part of the National Socialism as an ideology (Renton 10). Also, Nazism and fascism do not recognize the liberty of speech. It is this way as it could undermine the authority of the state or the leader. Therefore, in the history of Germany (National Socialism) and Italy (fascism), dissenters were destroyed because of their disobedience. The liberal-democratic ideology includes some respect and diplomacy towards neighboring countries and other nations, when the fascist and nationalist ideology involves a hostile and belligerent attitude towards other peoples and countries.

To illustrate the difference between the ideologies of fascism, Nazism and liberal democracy the following table should be considered.

nazism.png

From this table, the difference among these ideologies is evident. The priority of Nazism and Fascism is to clean the entire race and increase the power of the entire state. Also, it is necessary to mention the indifference of fascism and Nazism, compared with liberal democracy, to the human life. It is absolutely not appreciated by these ideologies. While liberal democracy puts human life as a supreme value of humanity, the ideology of National Socialism, fascism believes that a person must pass the life in agony and pain and take it with pride (Goldberg 7). Only a disease will lead the way to the supreme goal, according to them. This aim is a conquest of territories, strengthening the military base and increasing the purity of the race, while none of these goals is inherent in the ideology of liberal democracy. It completely avoids a possibility of a military action and militaristic attitudes towards other countries, unlike fascism and Nazism. Thus, some differences among the above described ideologies were dismantled.

The Challenge that the Emergence of These Ideologies Posed before Liberal Democracy

Examining alternately the values of fascism, Nazism and liberal democracy have been made possible to consider the challenge before the liberal democracy. The advent of fascism and Nazism as the ruling ideology has made the alteration in the consciousness of the humanity. The challenge after that has been a total change of thinking of entire nations and turning them towards a more liberal approach to freedom of every citizen. The ideology of liberal democracy after its existing has become the antithesis of fascism and National Socialism. However, they have made a strong need of a differently new ideology. It was the very beginning of the liberal democracy formation. For example, an idea of race purity had a large number of people supporting it with a cruel method. The real challenge was in the way to tolerance, patience and peace. It has been passed by all mankind. It has taken a lot of efforts to create a liberal-democratic ideology of these people. The principles of liberal democracy sought to prove to the world that Fascism and National Socialism are the inhuman and cruel methods of governance, being racial and chauvinistic. The challenge has been made to prove the impossibility of using the genocide to a different race or nation. The liberal democratic ideology has had to bring to everyone the concept that people are equal regardless of their race or ethnicity. The challenge was also in the confrontation to people following the ideology of Nazism and fascism, as follows:
– an inability to bring prosperity to one country using the oppression of others;
– a definition of equal human beings with no matter of the color of skin, religion, and the racial identification;
– excluding the possibility of genocide and racial discrimination in relation to other nations;
– an inability to determine the total power of one person on the life of other people.

Because of this, the work of Alexis de Tocqueville has become a turning point for liberalism. He tied liberalism and democracy, thus, relieving liberalism from weaknesses. His work Democracy in America has given an opportunity to see the future of the USA with a different ideology, called liberal democracy. After the coup of Napoleon and the revolution, the liberal society has increasingly felt the need for help of democratic forces. Some of Democrats did not believe in the creation of a justice society. It has led them to the creation of the movement for social democrats.

Conclusion

The existence of the Nazi and fascist ideology has been a great challenge to the existing and to the development of liberal-democratic ideology. It has changed the notion of humanity on racial ideology. Fascism and Nazism, during their reign, have raised the need to resort to a completely opposite ideology. There the rights and freedoms of a person will stand in the first place. So, the ideology of liberal democracy has begun to find more and more of its adherents. It has enabled to encourage the society to fight for the rights and freedom of every person. Thus, the existence of fascism and Nazism has posed a challenge to the liberal democracy, through which it has emerged and become one of the major ideologies.

Works Cited

  1. Blick, Robin. Fascism in Germany: How Hitler Destroyed the World’s Most Powerful Labour Movement. London: Steyn Publications, 1975. Print.
  2. Coldrey, Jeremy. “The Rise of Fascism: Assessing the Constitution of the Weimar Republic.” POLIS Student Journal 1 (2007): 8-10. Print.
  3. Goldberg, Jonah. Liberal Fascism the Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton. New York: Doubleday, 2007. Print. 
  4. Grigsby, Ellen. Analyzing Politics. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2015. Print.
  5. Renton, Dave. Fascism Theory and Practice. London: Pluto Press, 1999. Print.