Figure 1.--Thee Italian girls in the 1930s are ining the praises of the Duce--their country's Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Notice the 'M' pin on the girl's blouse. The other two girl's have Fascist pins. Throughout the Fascist era, Mussolini's portrait was everywhere and their were many 'M' emblems of all sizes errected throughout the country. Nussolini like Hitler was popular, at least until he joined Hitler in World War II.

Hitler as well as lesser Fascist figures promoted it. The idea that a gifted national leader should be given great power so that he could formulate and pursue policies wihout being questioned or limiting by democratic opposition. This was openly expoused by the Fascists. It had great appeal to large numbers of people not only buffeted by modernity, but by World War I and economic crises. This created a desperate need for security and leaders who offered simplistic answers to the crisis of modernity. Under different names (Führer, Duce, Caufillo, and others), Fascist leaders presented themselves as ntionlist father figures, as one historian puts it, "... a redeeming saviour figire, a man with healing power, a symbol for a new integration and unity." [Feldman, pp. 78-79.] This in contrast was not a feature of Marxist ideology. Marx, Engles, and other Communist luminaries, never mentioned it. Even so, it was adopted by most Communis leaders, including Castro, Ceaușescu, Chavez, Hoxha, the Kims, Mao, Minh, Pot, Stalin, Tito,and others. The term adopted by Khruschev was Stalin's 'cult of personality which he condemned in his Secret Speech at the XX Party Congress (1956). Rather than an element unique to Fascism, messianic leadership appears to be a feature common to all totalitarian regimes. There are instances in which Communist regimes did not become ruled by strongmen, such as the post-Stalinist Soviet leadership or the post-Maoist leadership, but this eventual leads to the weakening of totalitarian structures. Some figures like Castro, Chavez, Hitler, and Mao seem to have possessed unique personal traits like speaking ability that helped establish messianic leasership. Others like the Kims and Stalin seem to have relied more on their organizational abilities and control of a powerful totalitasrian state to create an aura of poweful leadership and indalibility.

Created: 9:33 PM 9/22/2016
Last updated: 9:33 PM 9/22/2016