Intellectuals and Fascism: The Case of Sociology.

Fascism is a defining phenomenon of the twentieth century. The term comes from the Fascisti, an Italian political organization founded in 1919 which, under Benito Mussolini, prime minister of Italy came to dominate that country. But the Fascisti drew their name from the ancient Roman custom of minor officers called lictors who bore the fasces, bundles of wood that symbolized submission to lawful authority; lictors cleared the way for magistrates in the public forum. Fascism came to mean a certain kind of political authoritarianism, specifically that which coordinates the state, industry, finance, labor, and commerce under strong nationalistic policies. Fascism, dressing modem science and technology in medieval garb, offered an anti-modernist revival of corporative coordination complete with traditional elitist values, an antidote for the corruption and fragmentation that is, it was argued, part and parcel of modern democracy.