Britt's List of 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism at Law & Society Blog

Britt’s List of 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism

Published by Hanno Kaiser January 6th, 2006 in Law and Society

Here is an interesting short article by Laurence Britt about common characteristics of various fascist regimes, namely Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia. The basic characteristics, as identified by Britt, are as follows:

Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
Disdain for the importance of human rights.
Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
Rampant sexism.
A controlled mass media.
Obsession with national security.
Religion and ruling elite tied together.
Power of corporations protected.
Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
Obsession with crime and punishment.
Rampant cronyism and corruption.
Fraudulent elections.

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One Response to “Britt’s List of 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism”

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1 Dennis J. Tuchler Jan 6th, 2006 at 4:21 pm

You forgot one thing that was common to Naziism and Fascism — grievance against the world (and particular groups, in Germany) arising out of the low status of a people. Italians and Germans both had this grievance and the leaders promised to raise the estate of the people.