The ideological dispute transposed to interpretation field

Marxist vision and liberal view about the concept of fascism

Abstract

This article proposes a theoretic discussion to understand fascism, based on a dialogue between marxist and liberal interpretations and understanding it as the simultaneous manifestation of four other concepts, namely reactionarism, populism, authoritarianism and nationalism. Finally, the analysis of Robert Paxton is taken as theoretical framework, working on a notion of fascism as a process inherent to contemporary mass politics, a degenerated version of mass democracy. Thus, from this analysis, it will be possible to elucidate some of its main characteristics and use Paxton's explanatory key as a way to apprehend contemporary fascisms.