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Fascism and Political Theory: Critical Perspectives on Fascist Ideology (Routledge Issues in Contemporary Political Theory) By Daniel Woodley

Fascism and Political Theory offers both students and researchers a thematic analysis of fascism, focusing on the structural and ideological links between fascism, capitalism and modernity. Intended as a critical discussion of the origins and development of fascist ideology, each chapter deals with a core substantive issue in political theory relevant to the study of fascism and totalitarianism, beginning with an assessment of the current state of debate.

The emphasis on formal ideology in contemporary Anglo-American historiography has increased our awareness of the complexity and eclectic nature of fascist ideologies which challenge liberalism and social democracy. Yet in too many recent works, a programmatic or essentialist reading of fascist ideology as a ‘secular religion’ is taken for granted, while researchers remain preoccupied with the search for an elusive ‘fascist minimum’.

In this book Woodley emphasizes that many outstanding questions remain, including the structural and ideological links between fascism and capitalism, the social construction of fascist nationalism, and the origins of fascist violence in European colonialism. This volume consolidates the reader’s theoretical understanding and provides the interdisciplinary skills necessary to understand the concrete social, economic and political conditions which generate and sustain fascism.

A timely critique of culturalist and revisionist approaches in fascism studies which provides a concise overview of theoretical debates between liberalism, Marxism and poststructuralism, this text will be of great interest to students of politics, modern history and sociology.

Daniel Woodley teaches politics at DLD College in London. He holds a PhD in political

sociology from the University of Essex (2002), and is the author of numerous

articles and several textbooks on ideology and political theory including, most

recently, Conservatism (2005).

Contents

List of illustrations x

Preface xi

1 Fascism and political theory 1

Introduction 1

Fascism and historiography 3

Criticisms of typological approaches 10

Towards a critical theory of fascism 13

Conclusion 19

2 Fascism, rationality and modernity 21

Introduction 21

The dominant social paradigm of modernity 25

Philosophical anti-rationalism and the conservative revolution 31

The fascist synthesis: modernism and counter-enlightenment 38

Conclusion 48

3 Fascism and social structure 49

Introduction 49

Social stratification and political power 54

The class basis of fascism in the interwar period 58

Fascism and the contemporary far left 70

Conclusion 76

4 Fascism, sovereignty and the state 77

Introduction 77

Theorizing the state 79

From authoritarian liberalism to fascism 83

viii Contents

The political constitution of fascism 90

The prerogative state in Nazi Germany 96

The fascist aestheticization of politics 100

Conclusion 104

5 Fascism and violence 105

Introduction 105

Power, violence and modernity 106

The legacy of colonialism 112

The specificity of fascist violence 120

Neofascist violence 128

Conclusion 130

6 Fascism, capitalism and the market 132

Introduction 132

Fascism and postliberal capitalism 134

Economic ideologies of fascism 141

The political economy of fascism 146

Corporate liberalism in the United States 157

Conclusion 160

7 Fascism and nationalism 162

Introduction 162

Theories of nationalism 164

Integral nationalism 170

The nation form in fascist ideology 174

Neonationalism and the far left 181

Conclusion 185

8 Fascism and race 187

Introduction 187

Race and race-thinking in Europe 189

White supremacism and antisemitism 191

Eugenics and racial hygiene in the interwar period 196

Fascist racial ideology 200

Conclusion 209

Contents ix

9 Fascism, gender and sexuality 211

Introduction 211

The social construction of gender in late bourgeois culture 213

Fascism and the cult of masculinity 218

Representations of femininity in fascist ideology 222

Fascism and homosexuality 226

Conclusion 230

Notes 232

Bibliography 243

Index 269

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