ABSTRACT
At the centre of sociological debates on fascism is the question of class: to what extent is fascism linked to social-structural modernization, and to what extent is fascist ideology linked to the material interests of specific socioeconomic groups? At the heart of this debate is the class identity and political evolution of the bourgeoisie in capitalist society: is fascism, as traditional Marxist and functionalist theorists maintain, a militant mass organization of the middle class? Or, is fascism a new type of activist politics – a ‘catch-all’ anti-movement which appeals to a cross-section of voters perplexed by the ‘onrush of modernity’ and disillusioned by parliamentary politics? To progress beyond simple class reductionism (the assumption of an unmediated relation between class and ideology), our task is to explain the link between stratification and power in the political sociology of fascism. At least part of the explanation for the appeal of fascism is that intermediate strata seek to assert their relative sociopolitical power by supporting radical-populist ‘outsider’ parties who promise to defend social order and re-establish the authority of the state. Where a misalignment exists between groups and existing channels of representation; where established authorities fail to deal with unrest; and where employers fail to control organized labour through economic compulsion alone, fascist parties employ violence to impose extraparliamentary rule in an uneasy alliance with elites. This raises three issues, namely: the crisis of bourgeois hegemony in the transition to postliberal capitalism, the tension between capitalist and petty bourgeois interests, and the crisis of socialist ideology.
