Words Matter

The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Georgia Institute of Technology or the Georgia Board of Regents.

I am taking the week off for Christmas, but the regular Weekly Economic Update will start again next Friday.

In the classic 1987 movie The Princess Bride, the evil mastermind Vizzini repeatedly uses the term “inconceivable” to describe very unlikely events that continue to foil his plans to start a war between Florin and Guilder. After one such exclamation, his hired hand, Iñigo Montoya, turns to him and says, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

This quote comes to my mind every time I hear someone utter the word “fascist.” In our vitriolic political culture, the word is routinely tossed about to describe those who may hold an opposing point of view. Unfortunately, such use is not new. In his 1977 article “The Political Economy of Fascism” (Economic and Political Weekly, June 18, 1977), Dipankar Gupta opens by writing “The concept of fascism has become a handy tool with which to lambast almost any shade of political opinion or policy which does not conform to one’s own.”

It appears not much has changed since 1977. In late August 2022, even the President of the United States called “the entire philosophy that underpins” the large majority of his political opponents “semi-fascism.” Business Insider claims that the entire Republican Party has “embraced American fascism.” Earlier this year, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich wrote that the Republican Party exemplifies elements of fascism. And it goes both ways. The Washington Times identified “The Democratic Faces of American Fascism.” Jeffrey Lord, in The American Spectator claims “Democrats are Fascists.” And on and on it goes.

So, what is “Fascism”? I taught Applied Political Economy at one of the top universities in the country, and when I did, I asked my students this very question every semester. And, like so many others, although they used the term freely, they had no idea what it actually means.

Italian Fascism (also known as Classical Fascism or simply Fascism) was originally developed by Benito Mussolini in 1932. In 1933, the Hungarian economist Karl Polanyi (in “The Essence of Fascism“) points out that “the guiding principle of all Fascist schools of thought of whatever description is the idea of anti-individualism.” In other words, by definition, Fascism rejects individualism and democracy in favor of corporatism. In fact, Classical Fascism would have a representative government, not of the people, but of corporations, with corporate interests running the government.

Think about that. Corporate interests running the government. That hits a little too close to home. Regardless of the party in power, there is a multi-billion dollar lobbying industry in Washington D.C. whose entire existence is based on trying to impose corporate interests on our government. But I digress….

Classical liberalism advocates for a free market, laissez-faire economics, and civil liberty with an emphasis on individual autonomy. Agree with them or not, a large number of Republicans are people who espouse these principles. In fact, the first major principle of conservatism is that there are “rights bestowed on individuals under natural law – life, liberty and property” and that governments role is “not only protecting the sanctity of life but defending freedom of speech, religion, the press and assembly, and the right of individuals to be treated equally and justly under the law, and to enjoy the fruits of their labor.” This sounds like the polar opposite of anti-individualism.

In addition to being anti-individualism, Fascism is also anti-capitalism. Like Socialism, Fascism seeks to control society’s economic processes – not directly through state operation of the means or production, but indirectly by requiring property owners to use their property in the “national interest.” Again, this hits a little too close to home. When the government seeks to control property owners through limiting their production/consumption of energy through regulatory policies; when they set a minimum wages for low skilled labor; when they regulate the cost of prescription drugs; when they collude with big-tech and social media companies to restrict access to ideas all in an effort to support the “national interest”… they come dangerously close to embracing the principles of classical fascism.

But it is more complicated than this. In August, Time ran an interesting piece on why both sides in our political landscape think the other is fascist. The author points out that fascism is a complicated economic theory and doesn’t fit neatly within our “left” or “right” political categories. He goes on to suggest that, to some extent, current use of the term is more an exercise in psychological moral equivalency….fascists are evil…our political opponents are evil…so our political opponents must be fascists.

But words matter. If we use terms like “fascist” we need to make sure we understand exactly what it is we are saying. Before we paint one-half of our fellow citizens with a term that represents a well defined political and economic ideology, perhaps the President, and others, should first understand what the term actually means.

And once people understand what the term “Fascism” actually means, will they quit using it as a cudgel with which to flog their political enemies?

Inconceivable.