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CHAPTER 5:
FASCISM
Fascism, the political and economic system of
Germany and Italy between the world wars, has
sometimes been characterized as a capitalist economy
ruled by an authoritarian government. An examination
of how the system actually worked shows that political
connections ultimately determined economic success
in fascist Germany. Those with connections prospered
while those without lost their businesses, sometimes
because of the tilted playing field of cronyism, but sometimes
through out-and-out confiscation that transferred
economic resources to the control of cronies.
The rise of fascism in Germany in the 1930s was a result
of the economic uncertainties and nationalistic upwelling
of its weary populace after the collapse of the Weimar
Republic. Adolf Hitler channeled the popular rage against
the humiliation of the Versailles treaty and the anxieties
of a nation that faced a 30 percent unemployment rate
into developing and implementing a philosophy of total
deference to the good of the nation-state. To make the
Nazi vision a reality, the Third Reich exerted unprecedented
control over Germans’ private and economic
affairs. The government implemented the actualization
FASCISM 39