ABSTRACT
When it is so hard to reach agreement about the nature of Fascism and Nazism,1 it is obviously difficult to make comparisons between the movements. This is further complicated by the fact that among political scientists and historians there is serious disagreement about the extent to which the history of pre-1914 Italy and Germany is relevant to the evolution of Fascism and Nazism. While all are agreed that both international and domestic factors are relevant, it is the question of relative importance which is crucial. Some commentators have emphasized the significance of the international situation, in particular the rapid social and economic development throughout the Western world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As Organski put it, ‘three related societal changes are important in the study of fascism: political mobilization, social mobilization, and economic development. All three are increasing rapidly in the period preceding a fascist episode.’2 Others have stressed the importance of the uniqueness of Fascist movements in particular countries, viewing them primarily as unrelated to each other, and certainly not linked with other totalitarian movements. In Germany this debate has become entangled with that of Sonderweg (the unique form of the evolution of Germany),3 thus making interpretations still more hazardous.
