Fascism and Dictatorship: The Third International and the Problem of Fascism

Description

Poulantzas’s book is the first major Marxist study of German and Italian fascism to appear since the Second World War. It carefully distinguishes between fascism as a mass movement before the seizure of power and fascism as an entrenched machinery of dictatorship. It compares the distinct class components of the counter-revolutionary blocs mobilzed by fascism in Germany and Italy; analyses the changing relations between the petty bourgeoisie and big capital in the evolution of fascism; discusses the structures of the fascist state itself, as an emergency regime for the defense of capital; and provides a sustained and documented criticism of official Comintern attitudes and policies towards fascism in the fateful years after the Versailles settlement. Fascism and Dictatorship represents a challenging synthesis of factual evidence and conceptual analysis that has been rare in Marxist political theory to date. Cover Page......Page 2 Halftitle Page......Page 3 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Foreword......Page 10 Introduction......Page 37 Part One: The Period of Fascism......Page 40 1. Imperialism and Fascism. Monopoly Capitalism and the Imperialist Chain......Page 43 I. Germany......Page 50 II. Italy......Page 53 I. The Comintern’s general view and its changes of course: the problem of the period and steps in the class struggle......Page 59 II. Immediate effects on the Comintern’s analysis of fascism......Page 67 4. Conclusion: The Transition to Monopoly Capitalism, and ‘Economic Crisis’......Page 72 Part Two: Fascism and the Class Struggle......Page 74 I. The problem and the Comintern......Page 75 II. Thalheimer, Gramsci, Trotsky......Page 77 III. The analytical framework: political crisis, class struggle and the institutional system......Page 79 2. The Growth of Fascism......Page 81 Part Three: Fascism and the Dominant Classes......Page 84 I. Contradictions between dominant classes and dominant fractions of classes......Page 86 III. Modifications in hegemony......Page 87 IV. The breaking of representational ties, and the political parties......Page 88 V. The ideological crisis......Page 90 a. On attack and defence......Page 92 b. The steps in the process......Page 93 VII. The fascist parties, fascism and the dominant classes and class fractions; domination, hegemony and the ruling class: the relative autonomy of fascism......Page 96 I. The economic contradictions......Page 101 II. Big and medium capital: was fascism ‘economically retrogade’?......Page 106 III. The crisis and the politico-ideological process......Page 110 IV. The Nazi Party, Nazism and the dominant classes and class fractions; hegemony and the ruling class......Page 117 I. The economic contradictions......Page 122 II. Big capital and landowners......Page 125 III. The crisis and the politico-ideological process......Page 128 IV. The fascist party, fascism and the dominant classes and class fractions; hegemony and the ruling class......Page 135 Part Four: Fascism and the Working Class......Page 139 I. Steps and characteristics of the ‘process of defeat’ and the working-class defensive......Page 141 II. Forms of the ideological crisis: the crisis of the revolutionary organizations......Page 145 III. Social Democracy: class nature and function, policy, and the thesis of ‘social fascism’......Page 148 IV. The Communist Parties and their policy: the turns of the Comintern and the strategy of alliances......Page 156 V. The fascist organizations, fascism and the working class; the condition of the working class under fascism......Page 162 I. The process of defeat, the defensive and the politico-ideological crisis......Page 165 II. German social democracy......Page 172 III. The German Communist Party (KPD)......Page 175 a. The Nazi organizations and the working class......Page 180 b. The condition of the working class under Nazism; the questions of the fascist trade unions......Page 183 I. The process of defeat and the defensive......Page 189 II. The politico-ideological crisis: Sorel and revolutionary syndicalism......Page 191 III. Italian social democracy and the Maximalists......Page 194 a. The Bordiga tendency and party policy......Page 198 b. Gramsci and the workers’ councils: the Comintern, the trade-union question and the problem of the ‘union-party’ relation......Page 202 a. Fascist organizations and the working class......Page 206 b. The condition of the working class under fascism: the CGL and the fascist trade unionists......Page 207 Appendix: The USSR and the Comintern......Page 210 Part Five: Fascism and the Petty Bourgeoisie......Page 220 1. The Class Nature of the Petty Bourgeoisie and Petty-bourgeois Ideology......Page 222 II. The political crisis and the petty bourgeoisie as a social force; the fascist parties and the interests of the petty bourgeoisie......Page 230 III. The ideological crisis and ‘fascist ideology’: Imperialist ideology and petty-bourgeois ideology......Page 233 IV. The condition of the petty bourgeoisie under fascism......Page 238 3. Germany......Page 240 4. Italy......Page 246 Part Six: Fascism and the Countryside......Page 249 1. Classes in the Countryside......Page 252 II. The politico-ideological crisis......Page 258 III. The fascist parties, fascism and the peasant classes: town and countryside......Page 260 IV. Monopoly capitalism and the countryside: the condition of the peasant classes under fascism......Page 262 3. Germany......Page 265 4. Italy......Page 271 Part Seven: The Fascist State......Page 277 I. Gramsci......Page 279 II. Ideological apparatuses as State apparatuses......Page 280 III. Branches of the repressive State apparatus; characteristics of the ideological State apparatuses......Page 282 2. The Exceptional State and the Fascist State: Type of State, Form of State and Form of Regime......Page 287 I. Forms of State Intervention......Page 290 II. Modification in the relations between the repressive apparatus and the ideological apparatuses......Page 291 III. The displacement of the dominant branch or apparatus......Page 294 IV. Modifications in the juridical system: regulation and limits......Page 295 V. Significance of modifications in the electoral principle; on the single-party system......Page 299 VI. The extent of bureaucratization......Page 301 VII. Centralism and internal contradictions: parallel networks and transmission belts......Page 302 I. The established system......Page 305 II. The rise of fascism within the state apparatuses......Page 307 I. The rise of fascism......Page 309 II. The established system......Page 312 I. The rise of fascism......Page 321 II. The established system......Page 322 Notes......Page 327 Conclusion......Page 355 Index......Page 358