Fascism

Was fascism a popular global social movement comparable to communism, or an elite ‘move’? Was pre-War Japan ‘fascist’? What is achieved by describing it as such? Are the roots of fascism better thought of as cultural or economic? What do the interwar years tell us about the compatibility of liberalism and democracy? BASE ANSWERS ON THE FOLLOWING READINGS: Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, The Political and Economic Origins of our Time, Beacon Press, Massachusetts, first published 1944. Chapter 12, ‘History in the Gear of Social Change’, pp. 245-268. URL Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism, 1914-1945, University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Chapter 10, “Fascism Outside Europe’: 328-355. (Introduction: ‘Fascism, a Working Definition’: 1-23 is also useful but is summarised in Kasza, below) URL Gregory J. Kasza, ‘Fascism from below? A Comparative Perspective on the Japanese Riqht, 1931 -1936’. Journal of Contemporary Historv. Vol- 1 9, No. 4. (Oct. 1984), DD.