ABSTRACT
The neo-fascist state shares several characteristics with conventional fascism as witnessed in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. Neo-fascist states are remarkable also for their inability to produce the "charismatic leader" capable of achieving any degree of mass mobilization, or of invoking popular support. While the neo-fascist state lacks a consistent and pronounced ideology, its origins lie in, and its existence is defined by, a pervasive ideological environment which favours the national security state. In the United States and Europe the neo-fascist state was generally viewed as promising stability in an unstable Third World. The neo-fascist state, more than any other in the Third World, is characterized by what A. Sivanandan has aptly described as "disorganic development." It is noteworthy that the neo-fascist system has emerged in societies which have developed a measure of economic stratification and class consciousness.
