ABSTRACT
The regimes of authority have been established by armed bands who, by force or intrigue or both, have seized the coercive machinery of the state. The fascist version of the collectivist principle is less explicit than the communist. For if the fascists attempt to select promising youths for special training, it may be too late to develop their promise. There is no doubt that the fascist revolutions were preceded by a severe class struggle in which the workers and peasants were threatening gradually to expropriate the industrial capitalists and the landlords. The whole promise of communism — that it can end class war, imperialism, national war, personal acquisitiveness and possessiveness — rests upon two suppositions: that equality of reward can be calculated and administered, and that it will be acceptable. The real principle of social harmony in communism is nothing but the paramount power of the new ruling class.
