Gain Immediate access to our Essays
FREE access exchanged for your work, or pay £9.99
... the failure of mass democracy in these countries.1 They argue that these countries were all historically, economically and politically pre-disposed to fascist forms of government. However, in this relatively short essay we do not have the time or space to examine this rather bold assertion, as it deals with too many countries and too many factors. Instead, we shall focus on the two key examples of fascism in Europe: Germany and Italy. As Merkl argues, 'The NSDAP and the PNF far surpassed other fascist movements in their impact on the domestic political system and the world; they proved more disastrous and brutal than most other similar movements.'2 Let us start by examining the classic story of the emergence of a fascist state: the rise of Nazi Germany. In The Rise of the Nazis, Conan Fischer asserts that 'Hitler's rise to power was neither straightforward nor inevitable'.3 This is an important idea ...