Page - 315 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the spectre of fascism 315 insteadgrantingunlimitedpower tobigcapitalandbig landowners.40Hence, fascismtransferred its social basis fromthemiddle classes tomonopoly cap- ital.41 Bauer explained this state of affairs through the fascist dictatorship’s dependencyonbig capital,which continued tohold economicpower in the fasciststateandthusmaintaineditsinfluenceuponpoliticaldecisions.Inother words, the fascist state leftpropertyrelationsuntouched–classpoweralways remainedinthehandsofthecapitalists,eveniftheirpersonnelchanged.Bauer concludedthat fascismwasa totalitariandictatorshipof thepro-warsections of the big bourgeoisie and big landowners. Its establishment completed the processofbourgeoiscounter-revolution,whichhadbegunin1920.Thevictory of fascismwas evidenceof the importanceof themiddle classes in the class strugglebetweenbigcapitalandtheworkingclass. Another fundamental component of Bauer’s 1936 analysis of fascism de- servesmention–namelyitsunderstandingoffascistruleasadivisionbetween the economic rule of big capital and the political rule of the fascist bureau- cratic caste,whichconsistedofdeclassedelementsofall classes.42According to Bauer, this division had far-reaching consequences both for fascism itself and for thepotential direction inwhich thehistory of Europewould evolve. Conflicts of interest between the ruling and the dominant class are inevit- ableinafascistregime–the‘commandeconomy’developedbyfascismforces the fascist bureaucracy tomakedecisions that contradict the interests of the respectivegroupsof capitalists. It thusbecomesanopponentof thesegroups andreinforces statepoweroverall social classes.On theotherhand,pro-war fractionsofbigmonopolycapitalgaintheupperhandunderfascismandbuild thearmamentsindustryattheexpenseofotherbranchesoftheeconomy.Mil- itarismandexpansionism,accordingtoBauer, inevitablyculminate inwar. This analysis is neither entirely accurate nor convincing. Of course, one might agreewithBotz that the analogybetween fascismandBonapartism is a stage in Bauer’s analyses of fascism – if only because Between TwoWorld Wars, ofwhich ‘Fascism’wasbuta fragment, containedaseriesof statements on the imperialist roots of fascism.43 If one, however, treats ‘Fascism’ as an autonomoustext, itbecomestrulyquestionable.Fromahistoricalstandpoint, 40 Thespdleadershipupheldthebelief that fascismserves the interestsofbigcapital from 1934onward.CompareZmierczak1988,p.88. 41 Botz argues that Bauer’s differentiation between the role of big capital and that of the pettybourgeoisie in the fascistmovement servedapolitical purpose, namely to extend theinfluenceofSocialDemocracytothemiddleclasses.SeeBotz1980,p. 171. 42 SeealsoTasca2010;compareBloch1972,p. 189. 43 CompareBotz1980,p. 174.