Definitions of Fascism - Dimitri Kitsikis

Dimitri Kitsikis

Dimitri Kitsikis Greek historian and Emeritus professor at the University of Ottawa proposed a scientific model of fascism and defined 13 categories by which fascist ideologies, movements and establishments can be analyzed and contrasted with others:

1. The idea of class and the importance of agrarianism
2. Private ownership, the circulation of money, the regulation of the economy by the state, the idea of ethnic bourgeois class, economic self-sufficiency
3. The nation and the difference between nation and state
4. The attitude towards democracy and political parties
5. The importance of political heroes, i.e. the charismatic leader
6. The attitude towards Tradition
7. The attitude towards the individual and society
8. The attitude towards equality and hierarchy
9. The attitude towards women
10. The attitude towards religion
11. The attitude towards rationalism
12. The attitude towards intellectualism and elitism
13. The attitude towards the Third World

As an example, Kitsikis applies the model to the Peruvian communist party, Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), which claims to follow Maoist ideology. The results of the analysis show that the party's ideology satisfies all the criteria of 9 categories (to which a score of 9 points is given), some of the criteria of 3 categories (1.5 points) and none of the criteria of one category (0 points). A total score of 10.5 out of a possible 13 shows that Shining Path actually follows a Third-World fascist ideology. An objective analysis is thus obtained, not being tainted by any ideological presupposition.

With this model Kitsikis was also able to show that philosopher and father of the French Revolution, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, laid the foundations of French Fascism.