Page - 307 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the spectre of fascism 307 intooneapparentlyunifiedforce.InBetweenTwoWorldWars,hedemonstrated that the birth of fascismwas the result of a synthesis of three different, yet coherent, socialprocesses: 1. The creation of fascistmilitias fromdeclassed formerwar combatants. In themain, theyweremembersoftheintelligentsiaandofficers.Thewarhad tornthemawayfromtheirquiet lives,confinedthemtothemarginsofcivil society, and imbuedthemwithamilitaristicandanti-democratic ideology. Hopingthattheywouldregainthepostsandsocialprestigetheyheldduring thewar, theycameout infavourofmilitaristicnationalism. 2. Thepauperisationofamajorityof thepettybourgeoisieandpeasantrydue totheeconomiccrisis.Fromtheselayers,disenchantedwiththegovernment and bourgeois democratic parties, emerged a nationalist, petty-bourgeois ideology.Theywerethesocialbasisof fascismasamassmovement,yet the movementcouldonlygrowwithsupport fromthecapitalistclass. 3. Factual constraints: the economic crisis affected the capitalists’ profits, whichcouldonlygrowthrough increasedexploitation.Hence, thecapital- ists sawthemselvesas forced toseek fascist assistanceagainst theworking class. In order to increase exploitation to satisfying levels, parliamentary democracywouldhave tobedestroyedand the tradeunionsandworkers’ organisationsdissolved.28 ForBauer, theseprocesses ledtotheemergenceofaneclectic fascist ideology rooted inGermanRomanticism, thewritings of Vilfredo Pareto andGeorge Sorel, and race theorists. It denied its class character andpresented itself as speakingfortheentirenation.Itmadeitssupportersbelievethattheywerepar- ticipatinginageneralrevolutionthatwouldmeetwhateverhopesandexpect- ations therespectivesocial groupsattachedto it. Itwasmilitaristic (basedon disciplineandthecultof theFührer),nationalist (glorifyingone’sownnation and race), anti-democratic (breakingwith the sovereignty of thepeople and formal democracy), but especially anti-bourgeois (opposed tobourgeois and civic values, and the bourgeois way of life in terms of freedom, individual- ismandpluralism).Bauerrightlyaccentuatedtwocharacteristicsof this ideo- logy: its ability toassumeanational colouration (inGermany, itmergedwith racismandanti-Semitism, inAustriawith clericalism, and in Italywith anti- rationalism), and its hostility towards the proletariat andmonopoly capital, 28 A similar understanding canbe found in a text by the Italian Social Democrat Filippo Turati,Fascismo,Socialismo,Democrazia (1928).CompareDeFelize1977,p. 197.