Fascism and dictatorship : the Third International and the problem of fascism

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. Table of Contents 4 Introduction 10 Part One: The Period of Fascism 14 1: Imperialism and Fascism. Monopoly Capitalism and the Imperialist Chain 16 2: The German and Italian Links of the Chain 24 I: Germany 24 II: Italy 28 3: The Period of Fascism and the Third International 35 I: The Comintern's General View and Its Changes of Course: The Problem of the Period and Steps in the Class Struggle 35 II: Immediate Effects on the Comintern's Analyses of Fascism 46 4: Conclusion: The Transition to Monopoly Capitalism, and 'Economic Crisis' 52 Part Two: Fascism and the Class Struggle 54 1. The Political Crisis: Fascism and the Exceptional State 56 I: The Problem and the Comintern 56 II: Thalheimer, Gramsci, Trotsky 58 III: The Analytical Framework: Political Crisis, Class Struggle and the Institutional System 61 2. The Growth of Fascism 64 Part Three: Fascism and the Dominant Classes 66 1. General Propositions 69 I. Contradictions Between Dominant Classes and Dominant Fractions of Classes 69 II. The Crisis of Hegemony 70 III. Modifications in Hegemony 70 IV. The Breaking of Representational Ties, and the Political Parties 71 V. The Ideological Crisis 74 VI. The Offensive By Big Capital and the Power Bloc 76 a. On Attack and Defense 76 b. The Steps in the Process 77 VII: The Fascist Parties, Fascism and the Dominant Classes and Class Fractions: Domination, Hegemony and the Ruling Class: The Relative Autonomy of Fascism 81 2: Germany 87 I. The Economic Contradictions 87 II. Big and Medium Capital: Was Fascism 'Economically Retrograde'? 93 III. The Crisis and Politico-Ideological Process 98 IV. The Nazi Party, Nazism and the Dominant Classes and Class Fractions; Hegemony and the Ruling Class 106 3. Italy 112 I. The Economic Contradictions 112 II. Big Capital and Landowners 116 III. The Crisis and the Politico-Ideological Process 121 IV. The Fascist Party, Fascism and the Dominant Classes and Class Fractions; Hegemony and the Ruling Class 129 Part Four: Fascism and the Working Class 135 1. General Propositions 137 I. Steps and Characteristics of the 'Process of Defeat' and the Working-Class Defensive 137 II. Forms of the Ideological Crisis: The Crisis of the Revolutionary Organizations 141 III. Social Democracy: Class Nature and Function, Policy, and the Thesis of 'Social Fascism' 145 IV. The Communist Parties and Their Policy: The Turns of the Comintern and the Strategy of Alliances 154 V. The Fascist Organization, Fascism and the Working Class; The Condition of the Working Class Under Fascism 163 2. Germany 166 I. The Process of Defeat, the Defensive and the Politico-Ideological Crisis 166 II. Germany Social Democracy 175 III. The German Communist Party (KPD) 178 IV. National Socialism and the Working Class 186 a. The Nazi Organizations and the Working Class 186 b. The Condition of the Working Class Under Nazism; The Question of the Fascist Trade Unions 189 3. Italy 196 I. The Process of Defeat and the Defensive 196 II. The Politco-Ideological Crisis: Sorel and Revolutionary Syndicalism 198 III. Italian Social Democracy and the Maximalists 202 The Italian Communist Party (PCI) 207 a. The Bordiga Tendency and Party Policy 207 b. Gramsci and the Workers' Councils: The Comintern, the Trade-Union Question and the Problem of the 'Union-Party' Relation 211 V. Fascism and the Working Class 216 a. Fascist Organizations and the Working Class 216 b. The Condition of the Working Class Under Fascism: The CGL and the Fascist Trade Unionists 218 Appendix: The USSR and the Comintern 221 Part Five: Fascism and the Petty Bourgeoisie 232 1. The Class Nature of the Petty Bourgeoisie and Petty-Bourgeois Ideology 234 2. General Propositions 244 I. Monopoly Capitalism and the Petty Bourgeoisie: Its Economic Situation 244 II. The Political Crisis and the Petty Bourgeoisie as a Social Force: The Fascist Parties and the Interests of the Petty Bourgeoisie 244 III. The Ideological Crisis and 'Fascist Ideology': Imperialist Ideology and Petty-Bourgeois Ideology 248 IV. The Condition of the Petty Bourgeoisie Under Fascism 253 3. Germany 256 4. Italy 262 Part Six: Fascism and the Countryside 266 1. Classes in the Countryside 268 2. General Propositions 275 I. The Economic Situation in the Countryside 275 II. The Politico-Ideological Crisis 275 III. The Fascist Parties, Fascism and the Peasant Classes: Town and Countryside 277 IV: Monopoly Capitalism and the Countryside: The Condition of the Peasant Classes Under Fascism 280 3. Germany 282 4. Italy 288 Part Seven: The Fascist State 294 1. The State Apparatus and the Ideological Apparatuses 296 I. Gramsci 296 II. Ideological Apparatuses as State Apparatuses 298 III. Branches of the Repressive State Apparatus; Characteristics of the Ideological State Apparatuses 299 2. The Exceptional State and the Fascist State: Type of State, Form of State and Form of Regime 307 3. General Propositions on the Exceptional State 310 I. Forms of State Intervention 310 II. Modification in the Relations Between the Repressive Apparatus and the Ideological Apparatuses 311 III. The Displacement of the Dominant Branch or Apparatus 315 IV. Modifications in the Juridicial System: Regulation and Limits 317 V. Significance of Modifications in the Electoral Principle; On the Single-Party System 321 VI. The Extent of Bureaucratization 324 VII. Centralism and Internal Contradictions: Parallel Networks and Transmission Belts 325 4. General Propositions on the Fascist State as a Form of Exceptional Regime 328 I. The Established System 328 II. The Rise of Fascism Within the State Apparatuses 330 5. Germany 333 I. The Rise of Fascism 333 II. The Established System 336 6. Italy 347 I. The Rise of Fascism 347 II. The Established System 348 Conclusion 354 Index 358