6. The New Totalitarians: Fascism and Nazism

Abstract

In discussing the modern movements which threatened democracy, a distinction can be made between those which were anti-revolutionary and those which were counter-revolutionary. In practice, they often blur into one another. Differentiation between the two types does help to distinguish between those backward-looking elements which offered little more than mere negation of the democratic and radical movements of the preceding century, and those which used certain democratic devices against democracy itself. The Franco regime in Spain is essentially anti-revolutionary, except for the group running the single party, the Falange, which is counterrevolutionary. Latin American dictatorships generally belong in the first group, with Argentina\u27s Peron an exception. [excerpt