Post-fascism

Ideological shift from fascism to more mainstream conservatism

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Post-fascism is a label that identifies political parties and movements that transition from a fascist political ideology to a more moderate and mainline form of conservatism, abandoning the totalitarian traits of fascism and taking part in constitutional politics.^[1]

Creation

Its creator Gáspár Miklós Tamás stated in 2018:

I have coined the term post-fascism to describe a cluster of policies, practices, routines and ideologies which can be observed everywhere in the contemporary world. Without ever resorting to a coup d’etat, these practices are threatening our communities. They find their niche easily in the new global capitalism, without upsetting the dominant political forms of electoral democracy and representative government. Except in Central Europe, they have little or nothing to do with the legacy of Nazism. They are not totalitarian; not at all revolutionary; not based on violent mass movements or irrationalist, voluntarist philosophies. Nor are they toying, even in jest, with anti-capitalism.
I should define what I mean by the term “post-fascist”. I take the term “fascism” to refer to a break with the enlightenment tradition of citizenship as a universal entitlement; that is to say, with its assimilation of the civic condition to the human condition.
It is this concept of universal citizenship that underpinned the notion of progress shared by liberal, social democrat and all the other assorted progressive heirs of the Enlightenment. Once the Enlightenment equated citizenship with human dignity in this way, its extension to all classes, professions, both sexes, all races, creeds, and locations was only a matter of time. Universal franchise, the national service, and state education for all had to follow. National solidarity demanded, moreover, the relief of the estate of Man, a dignified material existence for all, and the eradication of the remnants of personal servitude.^[2]

In Italy

The Italian Social Movement (Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party established in Italy in 1946 by former members of the National Fascist Party and the Republican Fascist Party. Despite being an explicitly fascist party, the MSI included a post-fascist faction headed by Arturo Michelini and Alfredo Covelli, who favoured political cooperation with moderate conservative parties, such as the Christian Democracy, the Monarchist National Party and the Italian Liberal Party.

In 1977 a moderate faction of the MSI led by Covelli split away and established National Democracy (Democrazia Nazionale, DN), the first real post-fascist party in Italy. Covelli attempted to create an alliance between DN and the Christian Democracy, but electoral results were very poor and DN was eventually disbanded in 1979.^[3]

The MSI eventually repudiated fascism in a party congress held in Fiuggi in 1995, where the party voted to disband itself and transform into National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale, AN),^[4]^[5] a party which has been labeled by several scholars and journalists, including academic Roger Griffin, as a "post-fascist" party.^[6] A minority faction in the MSI, led by Pino Rauti, refused to abandon fascism and created a new party called Social Movement Tricolour Flame.^[7]

The far-right party Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d'Italia, FdI), which was established in 2012 by several former members of AN and currently leads the government of Italy, has also been described as post-fascist party.^[8]^[9]

References

^ "Post-fascist". thefreedictionary.com. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021.
^ Tamas, G. M. (18 November 2018). "Gáspar Miklós Tamás: Post-fascism". Retrieved 3 May 2024.
^ Veneziani, Marcello (30 December 2003). "I percorsi della destra" [The paths of the right]. Marcello Veneziani (in Italian). Archived from the original on 12 May 2021.
^ "Lo strappo di Fini, il post-fascista" [The tear of Fini, the post-fascist]. La Repubblica (in Italian). 12 December 1993. Archived from the original on 13 April 2022.
^ Baldoni, Adalberto [in Italian] (2009). Storia della destra. Dal postfascismo al Popolo della libertà [History of the right. From post-fascism to the People of Freedom] (in Italian). Florence: Vallecchi. ISBN 978-88-8427-140-2 – via Google Books.
^ Griffin, R. (2007). "The 'post-Fascism' of the Alleanza Nazionale: A case study in ideological morphology". Journal of Political Ideologies. 1 (2): 123–145. doi:10.1080/13569319608420733.
^ D'Esposito, Fabrizio (2 November 2022). "Pino Rauti, chi era il missino e fascista 'rivoluzionario' che si oppose alla svolta di Fiuggi. Oggi la figlia Isabella è sottosegretaria" [Pino Rauti, who was the 'revolutionary' MSI and fascist who opposed the turnaround in Fiuggi. Today the daughter Isabella is undersecretary]. Il Fatto Quotidiano (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2 November 2022.
^ "The Guardian view on Italian post-fascists: heading for the mainstream? | Editorial". The Guardian. 31 May 2021. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
^ Winfield, Nicole (26 September 2022). "How a right-wing party of neo-fascist roots became poised to lead Italy". PBS NewsHour. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022.