The word “Fascism” is derived from the Roman fascias, that is, a bundle of rods and an axe with which the Romans represented unity and discipline. Fascism has derived much of its philosophy from the political doctrines of the Nationalist Association founded in Italy in 1913. Like the Fascists, the Nationalists were opposed to parliamentary government. They were for the expansion of Italy on the Mediterranean. They believed in the doctrine ‘Nothing for the individual, All for Italy’. According to Otto Dietrich, Fascism is essentially a reaction to western individualism – to what is considered ‘corrupt, hypocritical and decadent bourgeois democracy’. Besides, three virulent movements the revival of Catholicism, Syndicalism and Nationalism gave spiritual nourishment to Fascism which was born due to unsatisfied ambitions of the disillusioned heroes of the First World War. All Italian patriots felt that Italy had won the war but had lost the peace.

Fascism may be defined generally as a political and social movement having as its object the reestablishment of a political and social order, based upon the main current of traditions that have formed our European civilization, traditions created by Rome, first by the Empire and subsequently by the Catholic Church. Conversely, fascism may be described as the repudiation of that individualist mentality that found expression first in the Pagan Renaissance, then in the Reformation and later in the French Revolution.

Fascism has recognized the following principles:
1. A nation is born out of the state. Fascism as an embodied will to power state has absolute authority over an individual that the individual exists for the sake of the state, the state is conceived as a spiritual and moral fact in itself.

1. War is essential for the development of human personality. According to Mussolini, “Perpetual peace is neither possible nor desirable. War is necessary to man as maternity to woman.”




2. According to Hitler, “War is universal. There is no beginning and there is no peace. War is soul. Any struggle is war”. Staunch faith, blind obedience and war are the three sharp weapons of Fascism.




3. Unopposed government with omnipotent character is essential for the common good of the society.




4. The system which is beneficial in the economic sphere should be adopted for the whole nation.




5. Fascism believes that the institution of private property strengthens family ties and is very helpful in production.




6. It opposes all kinds of capitalism because Fascists believe that capitalism was responsible for the decay of the society.




7. Fascism repudiates pacifism, socialism, individualism and democracy. Democracy, for them, is a mere mirage bringing unaccountable ills in the society.




8. Fascism believes in the policy of Imperialism. Mussolini’s slogan was “Italy must either expand or perish”. Mussolini also wanted that Italy must militarily be strong and powerful to bring about laurels to his expansionist designs.




9. Fascism is opposed to socialism which teaches class conflict. Mussolini says that no one is without state and every one is within the state.
   
   

Salient features of Fascism:
There are several features of Fascism which stand out.
1. Fascists assign a very high place to the state. To them, the state is the highest form of association and is the agency of the fulfillment for all members of the ‘Volk’. State is the super entity and individuals are subordinates to it.

1. Fascists totally discard the institutions and practices of democracy. In other words, they believed that majority has no right to rule the state and parliaments are mere talking shops from where not wisdom but follies emerge. They claim that nation must be conceived of qualitatively and not quantitatively.




2. Fascists believe in strong leadership, a rare brain which boundless susceptibilities and the heroic figure who will lead the nation to the paths of glory and progress. They believe in hero-worship and a personal dictatorship. Mussolini, the Duce was adored like a mortal god by his followers.




3. They plead for the frequent use of violence and force for the attainment of their political ends. They think that a man with a milder nature having antiwar brain cannot lead the nation towards development.




4. Fascists deny human equality. Women are denied certain rights. Mussolini appealed to the women of Italy to be prolific for the purpose of defending the security of the state. Procreation was the cardinal principle of Fascism. Women are excluded from leadership positions in government or party.




5. Fascism is a will which recognizes that the state dies if its expansion is arrested. This leads us to contemplate that the state is not only the authority which governs and gives the form of laws and the value of spiritual life to the wills of the individuals, but it is also the power that makes its will feed abroad, making it known and respected, in other words, demonstrating the fact of its universality in all the necessary directions of its development.




6. Fascism endeavors to present itself as a third alternative distinct either from capitalism or socialism to the workers. Fascism insists that it does not stand for capitalism or socialism.




7. Fascism accepts the basic theory of individualism that the possession of private property is an essential postulate of economic progress. It must be preserved if the productive energies of the nation are to be maintained at the highest pitch.

Fascism did achieve some success due to the accomplishments which it made.
1. It sugarcoated raw material with a mystical idealism.
2. It supplied a moral justification to force and violence.
3. It exploited patriotism to the maximum.
4. It subtly rationalized minority rule.
5. It capitalized the widespread fear of communism.
6. It offered the masses a new religion with a new god to adore wholeheartedly.

Fascism has been criticized far and wide for its doctrines on the following grounds:
1. Fascists completely arrested the individual liberty and hence individual progress was ruthlessly suppressed. They believed that individuals were subordinately meant for the state and they had no right of resistance or revolt against the state. We cannot think of human welfare in these circumstances.

1. The general public has no voice in Fascism. They have to blindly follow the dictations of the people who portray themselves as the savior of the nation.




2. Fascists have a faith over dictatorship. But such a totalitarian form of government cannot run in this age of democracy. Man has become more conscious of his political and administrative rights in the formation and governing of the state bodies. The era when the voice of an individual proved to be a cock’s crow in the desert is long gone. No one is willing to surrender his fundamental rights nowadays. We cannot expect anyone to worship heroes blindly and follow a leader like a donkey.




3. Fascists were perennial wreckers always dreaming of destruction and war. They planned systematic massacres of all channels of civilization and to give birth to a new civilization on the ruins of the former. They declared war as essential for the development of personality. They pleaded for naked expansionism for the glory of the state. We reject this principle of permanent violence and mutilation of peaceful traits of human civilization on the reason that Fascism being the product of insanity, aggression and despotism completely ignored the other side of human nature which longed for peace and order.