Proto-fascism represents the direct predecessor ideologies and cultural movements that influenced and formed the basis offascism.^[1][2] The termprotofascism is also used in a slightly more general sense to refer to any political movement whose activities make the emergence of fascism more likely.

Proto-fascist movements that preceded fascism featured some of the common characteristics of fascist ideology, such as the scapegoating of ethnic or religious minorities, the glorification of violence, and the promotion of theFührerprinzip, the belief that the party and the state should have a single leader with absolute power, but usually did not exhibit some characteristics of fascism, for example, were less radical or lacked totalitarian ambitions.

In relation to contemporary politics, the termprotofascist has been applied to movements which resemble fascist ones in certain respects, but cannot be defined strictly asneo-fascist.^[3]

French proto-fascism emerged from late-19th-centuryFin de siècle nationalist, xenophobic and anti-liberal currents that prefigured interwar fascistleagues.^{[4][page needed]} TheDreyfus affair galvanized antisemitic and anti-parliamentary forces, offering rhetoric and organizational models for the far right.^{[5][page needed]} Thinkers likeGeorges Sorel created an anti-bourgeois cult of violence and myth, whileCharles Maurras'sAction Française fused integral nationalism, monarchism and hostility to the French Republic.^[5] Aforementioned movements—along withBoulangism, theCercle Proudhon, andrevolutionary syndicalism—laid the ideological groundwork for later fascist leagues like theFaisceau,Croix-de-Feu, theParti Populaire Français, and for events such as the6 February 1934 crisis.^{[4][page needed]}

TheFinnish Civil War "offered a concrete arena for violent struggle, and the reprisals and purges following the war gave an opportunity to try to create a new society through redemptive violence": Finnish proto-fascists were invariably members of the anti-communistWhite Guard. The White Guard ideologue and proponent of eugenicsMartti Pihkala (1882–1966) is considered a clear example of proto-fascism.^[6] Fascism researcherRoger Griffin also described theFinnish irredentistAcademic Karelia Society as proto-fascist.^{[7][page needed]}

In Germany, theVölkisch nationalist movement which arose in the late 19th century became seen as one of the precursors of Nazi fascism; among the important elements ofVölkisch culture wasBlut und Boden romanticism.^[8] AfterWorld War I, the proto-fascist movements of theWeimar Republic included theFreikorps militias, which combatted the leftists between theGerman Revolution of 1918 and the Nazi seizure of power (seePolitical violence in Germany in 1918–1933), theStahlhelm, a revanchist and authoritarian nationalist World War I veteran organization, theGerman National Association of Commercial Employees (Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfen-Verband, DHV), theGerman National People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) from 1931 onwards.^[2][3]

A prominent proto-fascist figure isGabriele D'Annunzio, the best-known Italian poet of the first half of the 20th century, and anItalian nationalist whose politics influencedBenito Mussolini andItalian fascism. AfterWorld War I, D'Annunzio led a group ofArditi volunteers who occupied the port ofFiume and proclaimed theItalian Regency of Carnaro. TheItalian Nationalist Association (Associazione Nazionalista Italiana, ANI), which advocated for an authoritariancorporatist nationalist state is also considered an influential proto-fascist organization. TheItalian futurist movement in arts and culture, led by such figures asFilippo Tommaso Marinetti, also displayed certain key characteristics of Fascism, such as radical nationalism and cult of violence, destruction, and war.^[1][3]

According to some scholars,Japan, which has a tradition ofobedience,cooperation, andsolidarity, already had at least a proto-fascist and proto-totalitarian spirit, so unlike Italy and Germany, it was able to adopt a totalitarian attitude without radical change in the late 1930s.^[9]

Gen'yōsha (founded in 1879), and theBlack Dragon Society (founded in 1901), are representative proto-fascist organizations.^[10][11]

The historiansPaul Preston andJulián Casanova, who treatFrancoism as a Spanish variant of fascism,^[12] note that "Spanish fascism" was established by the unity of the right-wing groups and parties and the military rebels, which formed theNationalist faction of theSpanish Civil War. According to them, the Spanish anti-republican right which would later support the rebellion, including the cultural associationAcción Española which propagated the idea of an anti-republican military uprising, the nationalist authoritarian corporatist partyCEDA, the organizationSpanish Renovation, and theCarlistRequetés, shared a political culture, similar to the Italian proto-Fascism and the GermanVölkisch movement. In the Civil War, the Spanish right, including the military rebels, underwent further political radicalization and fascisation; as Preston writes, "throughout the Civil War, the politics of the army were indistinguishable from contemporary fascisms."^{[13][14][page needed]}

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In theRussian Empire, pro-Tsaristreactionary groups have been viewed as proto-fascist in nature, especially theBlack Hundreds movement and theUnion of the Russian People (Russian:Союз русского народа,romanized: Soyuz russkogo naroda; СРН/SRN).^[15]

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Proto-fascism in the United States dates back to the 19th century with slavery in the Antebellum South and theConfederacy,^[16] the subsequent passage ofJim Crow laws in theAmerican South, the rise of theeugenicist discourse in the U.S., and the intensification ofnativist andxenophobic hostility towardsimmigrants. During the early 20th century, several groups were formed in the United States that contemporary historians have classified as fascist organizations – with a prominent example being theKu Klux Klan.^[17]

Prominent historic individuals who have been labeled proto-fascist because they shared an ideological basis with fascism include:

• Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821)^[18]
• Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)^[19]
• Paul de Lagarde (1827–1891)^[20][21][22]
• Hermann Goedsche (1815–1878)^[23]
• Goldwin Smith (1823–1910)^[24][25]
• Georges Ernest Boulanger (1837–1891)^[26]
• George Fitzhugh (1806–1881)^[27]
• Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854–1936)^[28]
• R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz (1887–1961)^[29][30]
• Charles Maurras (1868–1952)^[31]
• John Ruskin (1819–1900)^[32][33]
• Ion Dragoumis (1878–1920)^[34][35]
• Vladimir Purishkevich (1870–1920)^[36][37][38]
• D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930). The English philosopherBertrand Russell characterized Lawrence as a "proto-German fascist".^[39] This characterization is useful as a demarcation point between fascism and proto-fascism. The former hastotalitarian uniformity as its paradigm, but Russell is referring to Lawrence as a "nonconformist prophet" struggling with individual alienation, looking to the shared identity of ancestral blood and soil for reconnection i.e. an evolution of the German 19th-centuryVölkisch movement,^[40][41] an ideology that was adopted by the Nazis.
• Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872). The famous Genoese patriot strongly influenced Italian fascism, especially in its early years. In particular, fascism inherited from Mazzini the ferventirredentism, the concept ofclass collaboration, the pedagogical vocation and the spirit of solidarity. Mussolini himself was a great Mazzini admirer, and many fascist exponents wereMazzinian such asItalo Balbo,Giovanni Gentile,Giuseppe Bottai, andDino Grandi.^[42]
• Francesco Crispi (1818–1901). The known Sicilian statesman was admired by the dictator Mussolini and considered by many scholars as a precursor of Italian fascist regime due to hisauthoritarian policies, the nationalist character, his strongman reputation, and the aggressive colonial policy implemented during his government.^[43][44]
• Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925)^[45]
• Georges Sorel (1847–1922). French revolutionary syndicalist whose theory of political “myths” and celebration of “proletarian” violence influenced anti-parliamentary currents later drawn on by fascist ideologues; after 1909 he and close associates engaged with the royalistAction française milieu and national-syndicalist circles, and he published anti-capitalist antisemitic polemics.^[46]
• Édouard Drumont (1844–1917). Prominent French antisemitic and nationalist author who synthesized racial, economic and religious antisemitism, was a leading anti-Dreyfusard voice and founded theAntisemitic League of France in 1899.^[5]
• Maurice Barrès (1862–1923). Notable French nationalist author, one of the main anti-Dreyfusards, anti-liberal, anti-individualist popularizer of the termnationalisme which refers to an organic notion of nationalism and proponent of mass emotional politics.^[5]

• Clerical fascism
• Para-fascism
• Proto-Nazism

• Proto-fascism
• Fascism

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