Examples of Clerical Fascism
Examples of dictatorships and political movements involving certain elements of clerical fascism include the Croatian Ustaše movement, Obraz in Serbia, António Salazar in Portugal, Engelbert Dollfuss in Austria, Jozef Tiso in Slovakia, Getúlio Vargas in Brazil, the Iron Guard movement in Romania (which was led by the devoutly Orthodox Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the Rexists in Belgium and Vichy France.
The government of General Franco in Francoist Spain had Nacionalcatolicismo as part of its ideology. It has been described by some as clerical fascist, especially after the decline in influence of the more secular Falange beginning in the mid-1940s.
Scholars who accept the term clerical fascism nonetheless debate which examples in this list should be dubbed clerical fascist, with the Ustaše being the most widely included. In the above cited examples, the degree of official Catholic support and clerical influence over lawmaking and government varies. Moreover, several authors reject the concept of a clerical fascist régime, arguing that an entire fascist régime does not become ‘clerical’ if elements of the clergy support it, while others are not prepared to use the term ‘clerical fascism’ outside the context of what they call the fascist epoch, between the ends of the two world wars (1918–1945).
Some scholars consider certain contemporary movements to be forms of clerical fascism, including Christian Identity and possibly Christian Reconstructionism in the United States; militant forms of politicized Islamic fundamentalism and anti-democratic Islamism; and militant Hindu nationalism in India.
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