"Fascism and Nazism - Similarities and Differences of the Two Anti-Liberal Ideologies of the Mid-20th Century"

 
The paper "Similarities and Differences of the Two Anti-Liberal Ideologies of the Mid-20th Century" is a good example of a term paper on history. A look at world history shows that Fascism and Nazism were similar; both were based on the ideologies of dictatorship. However, there are some differences between the two anti-liberal ideologies (PecanGroup 1). Despite the fact that the modern consensus views Nazism as a form or an offshoot of Fascism, a few scholars such as A.F.K. Organski and Gilbert Allardyce, suggest that Nazism is not similar to Fascism.

This is in their belief that the differences are not too huge or because fascism cannot be generic (MobileReference 1).  Nazism differed from the Italian Fascism in the fact that it put more emphasis on race, in regards to economic and social policies. Despite the fact that both ideologies did not recognize the importance of the individual, Italian fascism viewed the individual as submissive to the state, whereas Nazism viewed the individual and the state as ultimately submissive to the race.

Fascism by Mussolini asserted that cultural factors were in the existent to serve the state and that not necessary was it for the state to interfere with the cultural aspects of the society. The only function of the government in Mussolini fascism to put the state as the supreme body above everything else, a concept referred to as statolatry. Fascism talked of the state while Nazism talked of the Volksgemeinschaft and Volk (MobileReference 1). As stated before, Fascism upheld the state above anything else.

Thus, the state will integrate all the values appropriate to making the state a superior power, either through militarism or nationalism. This indicates that Fascism used all the individuals within the State, despite their race. Important to note is that Fascism is perceived to be a more aggressive form of nationalism. It is also considered as not savage or brutal like Nazism. While “the militaristic laws of Fascism that were enforced ended a lot of liberties for most people, they rarely used brute force to get what they wanted” (Prabhu 1).

As indicated earlier, Nazism emphasized more on the race (and in particular, the Aryan race). The ideology of Nazism was still based on the state but they could not permit anyone from other races to exist within them. While Fascism would accept individuals from other races and religions as long as they were beneficial to the state, Nazism would not welcome such advances. Nazism conditioned the Aryan race as the standard on which they would unite the people. Nazism as a political ideology was regarded as very extreme.

The manner in which they enforced the superiority of the Aryan race was destructive and cruel. The main component of control was fear just like what Fascism did (Prabhu 1). On the other hand, Nazism viewed the class-based society as an enemy and it desired to unify the racial component above the established classes. However, the purpose of the Italian fascist was to preserve the class system and support it as the foundation of the desirable and established culture. On the other hand, the Italian fascists did not oppose the idea of social mobility and the central theme of the fascist government was a meritocracy.

Fascism heavily relied on corporatism, an ideology that was supposed to surpass class conflicts. There are remarkable similarities between Fascism and Nazism. In Germany and Italy, a movement came into power and it wanted to develop national unity through the oppression of national enemies and the integration of all the classes and each gender into a permanently mobilized state (MobileReference 1). Millions of people chose to follow these anti-liberal ideologies because of what they were based on; uniting the state and all the people.

The words that were mentioned by the leaders of these ideologies had a strong impact on the people who followed them. Though Nazism was purely based on race and Fascism on the state, both had a common ground; uniting all the people in the state. Another reason that led to many followers of these ideologies is that both Nazism and Fascism planned to make the lives of the people it lead to being better through the expansion of the government’s power (Nosotro 1). In conclusion, Nazism and Fascism were both based on the ideology of uniting all the people within their respective states.