Fascism, dictatorship and ruling classes

Abstract

In this classic text, taken from his work Fascism and Dictatorship: The Third International and Fascism (1971), Nicos Poulantzas examines the specificity of fascism as a form of capitalist state of exception, distinguishing it from Bonapartism and military dictatorships. Through a Marxist and historical materialist approach, the author analyses fascism as a political phenomenon linked to imperialism, understood as a higher stage of capitalism, as well as to the crisis of hegemony within the ruling bloc. Therefore, the text addresses the relationship between fascism and the ruling classes, emphasising the relative political autonomy of the fascist state and its support among the petty bourgeoisie, while at the same time “big finance” and monopoly capital establish their hegemony within the ruling bloc, reorganising the correlation of forces between factions. In line with these observations, Poulantzas criticises the excessive economism of the Third International in the face of fascism, resulting in an inability to correctly diagnose the offensive-defensive stages and phases of the class struggle. Therefore, this text offers a complex theory about the state, ideology and political strategy in contexts of political crisis, with notable current implications in the rise of far-right populism and other contemporary socio-political phenomena.