ABSTRACT
The modern theory of the totalitarian fascist state was adumbrated by the political and social ideology advanced by Haeckel and his followers. In most areas of Monist policy and belief it was Ernst Haeckel once again who set down the broad principles upon which his followers were able to elaborate a more complete program of social and political action. Haeckel's strong defense and glorification of the division of labor was, in reality, an attack on both bourgeois liberal and socialist conceptions of society. His position implied opposition to the egalitarian individualism of the ideology of the French Revolution and to the Marxian theory of class conflict. In their program for political organization, therefore, and since men were naturally unequal, the Haeckelian Monists attacked the democratic franchise. For Haeckelian Monism, democracy had to fail because of the basic irresponsibility of the masses, who, it was insisted, are more conscious of their physical needs than of higher and more desirable spiritual matters.
