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Para-fascism areauthoritarian conservative movements and regimes that adopt characteristics associated withfascism such aspersonality cults,paramilitary organizations,symbols and rhetoric, while diverging from conventional fascist tenets such aspalingenetic ultranationalism,modernism, andpopulism.[1][2] Para-fascism often emerges in response to the need for a facade of popular support in an age of mass politics, without a genuine commitment to revolutionary nationalism, instead focusing on maintaining tradition, religion, and culture. Para-fascist regimes may co-opt or neutralize genuine fascist movements.[3]
The historianRoger Griffin defines the following regimes and movements as para-fascist:Austrofascism in theFederal State of Austria led byEngelbert Dollfuss andKurt Schuschnigg,[4]Metaxism in theGreek '4th of August Regime',[5] the "New State" ofAntónio de Oliveira Salazar's Portugal,[6] theBando nacional and theFET y de las JONS led byFrancisco Franco in theSpanish State,Kingdom of Hungary led byMiklós Horthy, and theRévolution nationale inVichy France led byPhilippe Petain;[7] the dictatorships ofCarol II andIon Antonescu in theKingdom of Romania,Miguel Primo de Rivera'sdictatorship in Spain andAntanas Smetona'sLithuanian Nationalist Union in Lithuania have also been referred to as para-fascist.[8][9][10] While most historians of fascism agree that these regimes were not totally fascist, many authors do acknowledge that they have some kind of connection with fascism, either by being partially influenced by it or by co-opting some genuine fascist groups.[11] The words used by different historians to characterize these conservative regimes include, apart from parafascism: semi-fascist, fascisant, fascistic, fascistized, quasi-fascist, and others.
The Fatherland Front was an Austrian right-wingconservative,nationalist, andcorporatist political organization founded in 1933 by Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. It aimed to unite Austrians across political and social divides,[12] emphasizingAustrian nationalism and independence fromGermany while protecting the Catholic religious identity. The Front absorbed variousanti-Marxist groups, establishing an authoritarian and corporatist regime known as the Ständestaat.[13][14] It banned and persecuted political opponents, includingcommunists,social democrats, andAustrian Nazis.[15] Dollfuss was assassinated by the Nazis in 1934, and he was succeeded byKurt Schuschnigg. The Fatherland Front's role in Austrian history remains a subject of debate, with some viewing it as a form of "Austrofascism" responsible for the decline ofliberal democracy, while others credit it for defending independence and opposingNazism.[16]
TheRévolution nationale (French pronunciation:[ʁevɔlysjɔ̃nɑsjɔnal],National Revolution) was the officialideological program promoted byVichy France (the "French State") which had been established in July 1940 and led by MarshalPhilippe Pétain, after whom the ideological underpinning of Vichy France has also been referred to as Pétainism,[17][18][19] also referred to as Vichyism[20][21] (Vichyisme).[22][23] Pétain's regime was characterized byanti-parliamentarism,personality cultism,xenophobia, state-sponsoredanti-Semitism,promotion of traditional values, rejection of the constitutionalseparation of powers, andstate corporatism, as well as opposition to the theory ofclass conflict. Despite its name, the ideological policies werereactionary rather thanrevolutionary as the program opposed almost every change introduced toFrench society by theFrench Revolution.[24] Vichy France is often described as traditional right-wing andauthoritarian conservative as opposed tofascism; at the same, the regime featured characteristics of fascism, and the definition of Vichy as fascist had been advocated by some historians.[25][17][26]
As soon as it was established, Pétain's government took measures against the “undesirables”, namelyJews,métèques (foreigners),Freemasons, andCommunists. The persecution of these four groups was inspired byCharles Maurras’ concept of the "Anti-France", or "internal foreigners", which he defined as the "four confederate states of Protestants, Jews, Freemasons and foreigners".[citation needed] The regime also persecutedRomani people,homosexuals, andleft-wing activists in general. Vichy imitated theracial policies of the Third Reich and also engaged innatalist policies aimed at reviving the "French race" (including a sports policy), although these policies never went as far asNazi eugenics.
Although Pétainism ended with the dissolution of Vichy France, such terms as Neo-Pétainism have been used to describe modern French far-right movements.Metaxism is an authoritarian nationalist ideology linked to Ioannis Metaxas inGreece.[27] It aimed for the revitalization of the Greek nation and the establishment of a modern, culturally unified Greece. This ideology criticized liberalism, prioritizing the interests of the nation over individual concerns, and sought to mobilize the Greek populace as a disciplined collective in the pursuit of a "new Greece."[28]
Metaxas proclaimed his4th of August Regime (1936–1941) as the embodiment of a "Third Greek Civilization," aspiring to create a culturally refined Greek nation drawing from ancient Macedonian and Spartan militaristic societies, representing the "First Greek Civilization," as well as the Orthodox Christian values of the Byzantine Empire, seen as the "Second Greek Civilization." The regime maintained that authentic Greeks were both ethnically Greek and adherents of Orthodox Christianity, explicitly excludingAlbanians,Slavs, andTurks in Greece from Greek citizenship.[28]
While the Metaxas government and its official doctrines are sometimes labeled as fascist, scholarly consensus characterizes it as a traditional authoritarian-conservative administration akin to the regimes of Francisco Franco inSpain or António de Oliveira Salazar inPortugal.[29][page needed][30] The Metaxist government drew its authority from the conservative establishment, staunchly supporting traditional institutions like theGreek Orthodox Church and theGreek Monarchy. It leaned towards areactionary stance and lacked the radical theoretical elements associated with ideologies like Italian Fascism and German Nazism.[29][page needed][30] Notably, the regime did not espouseantisemitism, considering it to be "distasteful."[31] WhileGeorgios Kondylis (who has been prime minister in 1935) was openly inspired by Mussolini and praised Hitler, it is "debatable" whether Metaxas attempted to establish a fascist regime. Metaxas deepened economic ties with Germany but rejected any "Nazification" his regime.[32]
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A member of the "Szeged Fascist"Hungarian National Defence AssociationGyula Gömbös[33] was appointed prime minister in 1936.Miklós Horthy required him to publicly renounce anti-antisemitism. He renamed the ruling party toNational Unity Party and adopted a pro-Italian foreign policy.[34] From 1938, the regime adopted anti-Semitic laws afterNuremberg Laws[35][36] and was a pioneer of antisemitic laws passing a numerus clausus back in 1920 but remained relatively safe for Jews compared to other Axis members.[37]Walter Laqueur calls him "not a rabid antisemite" who was unwilling to oppose the "popular mood".[38]
Miklós Horthy's regime is described as "moderate conservative",[34] "pro-fascist",[39] "ultra-rightist Christian-nationalist",[35] "right-wing",[40] "fascist-shaped",[41] or "half-fascist".[42] It allowed some open opposition[35] but was barely democratic[43] and sought to keep the fascist movements from power.[44] For instance, the1939 parliamentary election were probably rigged to weaken the fascistArrow Cross Party.[45]
Marxist historians regardedAntanas Smetona's regime as fascist but while his regime and theLithuanian Nationalist Union (LTS) were noted to have fascist characteristics, Romuald J. Misiuna notes that the LTS was "in essence it was hardly fascist." LTS founded theIron Wolf as a secret paramilitary organisation. They were seen as more fascist-leaning and were eventually reformed into a sporting organization after the dismissal of its leaderAugustinas Voldemaras. FormerIron Wolf members who remained loyal to Voldemaras became rebel group and the Iron Wolves banned in 1934.[46][47] LTS participated in the1934 Montreux Fascist conference.[48] In the late 1930s, the regime-loyal LTS became more influenced bycatholic corporatism and the dictatorship adopted more fascist-leaning characteristics.[47]
TheNational Union was the exclusive legal party of Portugal'sEstado Novo regime, established in 1930 under the influence of António de Oliveira Salazar.
Unlike most of theone-party states during its time, it operated more as a political extension of the government rather than holding direct authority. Its membership primarily consisted of local elites like landowners, professionals, businessmen, and individuals with Catholic, monarchist, or conservative republican affiliations.[49]
The National Union did not actively engage in militant activities. Under Salazar's leadership, it became the sole legally permitted party, but he emphasized that it should not function as a conventional political party. Instead, it served as a platform for conservatism rather than a revolutionary force.[50]
The party's ideology centered around corporatism, drawing inspiration from Catholic encyclicals and Mussolini's corporate state.[51] Unlike other ruling Fascist parties, it played a more limited role in governance, primarily focused on controlling and managing public opinion rather than mobilizing it.
Scholarly opinions vary on whether theEstado Novo and the National Union should be classified as fascist or not, with Salazar himself highlighting significant differences between fascism and the Catholic corporatism of theEstado Novo. Some scholars lean towards categorizing it as a conservative authoritarian regime, while others argue for its classification as fascist.[52]
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After the1937 general election which were likely rigged against the fascistIron Guard,[53] KingCarol II appointedOctavian Goga of the fascistNational Christian Party as prime minister to keep the larger Iron Guard at bay.[54] However, the government was unstable because it did not hold a majority in parliament and was soon replaced by an autocratic government.[55] The king suspended theconstitution and created theNational Renaissance Front which held the antisemitic policies of Goga in place.[56] The party was later renamed to "Party of the Nation" and moved closer to fascism. The regime failed to gain support from the Iron Guard and in 1940, Carol II resigned.[57]
In 1940, theNational Legionary State was created underIon Antonescu and the Iron Guard.[57] In 1941 however, the Iron Guard staged anunsuccessful coup and Antonescu stayed in power until1944.[58]
There is a historiographic dispute about whether Antonescu's regime wasfascist or more genericallyright-wingauthoritarian, itself integrated within a larger debate about the aspects and limits of fascism.Zeev Sternhell andHagen Schulze describes Antonescu, alongside his European counterpartsPierre-Étienne Flandin,Franco,Horthy,François de La Rocque,Pétain,Józef Piłsudski,Salazar, andItalian KingVictor Emmanuel III, as "conservative" in contrast fascist states.[59][60]
Other sources call him para-fascist.[61]Dennis Deletant notes that the fascist label relies on both Antonescu's adoption of some fascist "trappings" and the "dichotomy of wartime and postwar evaluation" of his regime, that post-1960 interpretations "do more to explain his behaviour than the preceding orthodoxy" and contrasts the lack of "mass political party or ideology" with the type of rule associated withNazism orItalian fascism.[62]Juliana Geran Pilon describes Romania's "military fascist regime" as a successor to Iron Guardist "mystical nationalism", while mentioning that Antonescu's "national ideology was rather more traditionally militaristic and conservative."[63]
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In 1923,Miguel Primo de Rivera stagedcoup d'état. Mussolini called him "chief of Spanish Fascism" but noted the difference between the two. Primo de Rivera's regime was opposed to Mussolini's revolutionary and anti-clerical tendencies.[10]
The regime of Franco in Spain has been described either as fascist or as an authoritarian conservative military dictatorship; throughout the ongoing debates, some historians offered middle positions which still underlined the fascist traits of Francoism:Roger Griffin, for example, defined it as para-fascism;Ismael Saz defined it asdictadura fascistizada, a regime which underwent a period unfinished period of rapid fascization, and afterwards, of unfinished de-fascization after World War II; the regime has been described as 'the most fascist of all non-fascist regimes and the least fascist of all the fascist regimes'. While WhileEnrique Moradiellos contends that "it is now increasingly rare to define Francoism as a truly fascist and totalitarian regime", although he writes that the debates on Francoism haven't finished yet, Saz notes that "it has also begun to be recognised that" Francoism underwent a "totalitarian or quasi-totalitarian, fascist or quasi-fascist" phase.[64][65][66] The definition of Francoism as a fascist regime is defended byPaul Preston: according to him, it was a specific kind of fascism lacking Fascist "style and ideology", but serving the fascist "social and economic function".[67]
The Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista, commonly known as FET y de las JONS or simply "FET," was the exclusive legal political party of the Francoist regime in Spain. Established by General Francisco Franco in 1937, it was a fusion of the fascistFalange Española de las JONS (FE de las JONS) with the monarchist neo-absolutist andintegralist CatholicTraditionalist Communion associated with the Carlist movement. Despite the amalgamation, FET largely retained the platform of FE de las JONS, preserving 26 out of its original 27 points, as well as a similar internal structure.[68] This party remained in effect until April 1977, after which it was rebranded as theMovimiento Nacional in 1958 which caused it to transform into an Authoritarian Conservative movement.[68][69] Some academics considered the pre-merge FE de las JONS to be fascist and that the merger with the Traditionalist Communion caused it to lose its fascist characteristics and thus become para-fascist.[70][failed verification]
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In 1929, aroyal dictatorship had been established in Yugoslavia which had barely any fascist characteristics.Milan Stojadinović attempted to "fascistize" the regime with little success which was described as unconvincing and even "operetta-like" by historians.[71] TheYugoslav Radical Union adopted green shirts and Stojadinović adopted the title "Vodja", however they officially denied any fascist intent.[72] Stojadinović was authoritarian and anticommunist but did not destroy the constitution.[73] He sought align with Italy and the Axis[48] and claimed in 1938 that he would develop a Yugoslav version of fascism before being dismissed the following year.[72]
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TheBlue Shirts Society (BSS) was aChinese ultranationalist faction within theKuomintang (KMT) that was influenced by GermanBrownshirts and ItalianBlackshirts, it is debatable whether this can be seen as a fascist organization in the pure sense: unlike the Nazism andItalian Fascism, which isimperialist,[74]populist, and partly anti-conservative, the ultranationalism of the BSS wasanti-imperialist,[75]elitist,[76] andultra-conservative. Historians Paul Jackson and Cyprian Balmires, have classified the BSS as a ‘fascistic’ ultranationalist group rather than a ‘fascist’ group.[77] As an extension of theSecond Sino-Japanese War, KMT served in theAllies in World War II and was openly an anti-fascist,[78] and the BSS aided the political activities of the KMT.
Chiang Kai-shek started theNew Life Movement underConfucian ideals. It was a government-led civic campaign in the 1930sRepublic of China to promote cultural reform andNeo-Confucian social morality and to ultimately unite China under a centralized ideology following the emergence of ideological challenges to the status quo.Frederic Wakeman suggested that the New Life Movement was "Confucian fascism", but Wakeman is ambivalent about whether the New Life Movement was in fact fascist.[79] Jay Taylor, argue thatChiang's ideology does not espouse the general ideology of fascism despite his growing sympathies with fascist ideas in the 1930s.[80] China later declared war onfascist countries, including Germany, Italy, and Japan, as part of theDeclarations of war during World War II and Chiang became the most powerful "anti-fascist" leader in Asia.[78][81] When it comes to categorizing fascist regimes, KMT and Chiang's regime is often not categorized as fascist.[80][82][83]
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After the Russian revolution in 1917, several rivalproto-fascist and fascist movements developed inJapan, and these activities helped increase the military's influence on the Japanese government.[84] Despite the failure of theFebruary 26 incident,Japan'sultranationalist military forces became the driving force of the fascist movement, gradually playing a central role in national politics.[85]
Empire of Japan, along withNazi Germany andFascist Italy, was the three major countries of theAxis powers. In theSecond Sino-Japanese War and World War II, Japan committedwar crimes on a large scale, including rape, slaughter, slavery, and biopsy, so compared toGerman war crimes, including theHolocaust,[86][87][88] Japan is often referred to as "fascist" during this period. However, the system of the Empire of Japan is more para-fascist regimes like Dolfuss' Christian Social Austria, Salazar's Estado Novo in Portugal, and Vichy France, not genuine fascism like Germany and Italy.[89]
From 1940 to 1945, Japan established aone-party system by the para-fascist[90][91][92]Imperial Rule Assistance Association to efficiently carry out the Second Sino-Japanese War and thePacific War;[90] theEncyclopedia Britannica defined the military dictatorship led byHideki Tojo (1941–1944) asfascist regime.[84]
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During the 1930s and 1940s, most dictators in Latin America adopted corporatism or other fascist characterists includingJuan Perón inArgentina,Getúlio Vargas inBrazil,Carlos Ibáñez del Campo inChile,Rafael Trujillo in theDominican Republic,José María Velasco Ibarra inEcuador,Maximiliano Hernández Martínez inEl Salvador,Jorge Ubico inGuatemala andArnulfo Arias inPanama.Progressive and left-wing movements and regimes like the regime ofLázaro Cárdenas in Mexico, theAmerican Popular Revolutionary Alliance or theRevolutionary Nationalist Movement also adopted such policies.[93][94][95] Ubico supported Franco but was not pro-Germany and did not adopt a pro-fascist foreign policy.[96][97]
TheEstado Novo in Brazil ruled by Vargas and Perón's Argentina are classified by Griffin as the best candidates of fascist regimes but both fell short of it. The Estado Novo shared the para-fascist aspects its Portuguese counterpart. Peronism came closer to fascism but it was not radical enough to qualify as fascist according to Griffin.[98] TheBrazilian Integralist Action are seen by him as an "authentic" fascist movement but they were less successful than other fascist opposition movements like RomanianIron Guard and were easily cracked down by Vargas' regime.[99]
There is a debate ifPeronism classifies as fascist despite being inspired by fascism. Some likeFederico Finchelstein orDonald C. Hodges put into contrast as they lead to democratic reforms and Perón distanced himself from Italian fascism.[100][101] Some includingSeymour Martin Lipset,Eugen Weber andPaul H. Lewis classifyJuan Perón as a fascist.[102] Others classify it as "left-wing fascism"[103] or a "national populism".[102]
The Blue Shirts hated the fascist Japanese and were fiercely anti-imperialist—as, understandably, were most Chinese.
Chiang Kai-shek, as the commander of the Chinese front and leader of the anti-fascist fight in the Orient
