ABSTRACT
The notion of fascism as the product of a crisis of European civilization was first advanced in the 1920s and came in several variants. Liberals regarded fascism as a revolt against "Europe", meaning the tradition of the Enlightenment and the idealism of the French Revolution. Equally, one should not exaggerate the role of fascism in the process of industrialization and modernization. After World War II the modernization argument took a different guise. Fascism had helped to modernize Germany and Italy by doing away with anachronistic social structures and by promoting economic development. As for the historical role of fascism, the debate over this continues with undiminished vigor. According to one school of thought, fascism developed in Europe as a result of the crisis of the liberal system in the 1920s and 1930s; it was a specifically European phenomenon; and it came to an end with the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
