The Search for Neofascism: The Use and Abuse of Social Science [Paperback]

A. James Gregor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521676398 | ISBN-13: 978-0521676397 | Publication Date: April 17, 2006 | Edition: 1

A study of the informal logic that has governed the half-century of academic writing devoted to what has been generally identified as 'neofascism', together with a careful assessment of those political movements and regimes considered the proper objects of inquiry. The intent of the study is both pedagogical and cautionary. Its central thesis of the work is that terms like 'fascism', 'generic fascism', and 'neofascism' are often used with considerable indifference, applied uniquely to political movements and regimes considered on the 'right' rather than the 'left', intended more often to denigrate rather than inform. The result has been confusion. Within that context some of the most important political movements of our time are considered, including, among others, the Alleanza Nazionale of Italy and the Bharatiya Janata Party of India, both of which have discharged leadership roles in their respective governments: identifying either as 'neofascism' has clear implications for international relations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A. James Gregor's forceful and highly informative book is mandatory reading for anybody interested in neofascism as a global phenomenon. Even those who do not agree with some of his conclusions will admire his scholartship, his analytical skills, and his rich insights. Gregor belongs to the endangered species of social scientists who have a deep knowledge of contemporary history; his work constitutes a most timely and valuable contribution to an often misunderstood subject."
Zeev Sternhell, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem

"This is a very instructive analytical tool in the study of neofascism, of what is not neofascism, and in the ways political terminology is abused. An important blow for scholarly precision and analytical clarity."
Stanley Payne, University of Wisconsin at Madison

"The Search for Neofascism, both methodologically accurate and conceptually rigorous, criticizes the extensive and ideological use that many scholars make of the word 'fascism.' By calling attention to the danger of 'neofascism' in contemporary China, this book offers an original, innovative, and sophisticated contribution to the study of fascism and contemporary political radicalism."
Alessandro Campi, University of Perugia

2007 Outstanding Academic Title -- Choice Magazine

Book Description

A critical study to identify 'neofascism' wherever it appears in the modern world. The work attempts to show that most contemporary efforts are flawed, often because the term 'neofascist' is used to defame, rather than identify a political movement or regime that shares some objectively identifiable properties.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (April 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521676398
• ISBN-13: 978-0521676397
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,266,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking interpretations, November 17, 2008

By 

Andreas Umland "SPPS" (ZIMOS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Search for Neofascism: The Use and Abuse of Social Science (Hardcover)

Gregor's book too is full of interesting observations and unusual perspectives on the history of anti-democratic movements and its scholarly study in the Western world in the 20th century. However, Gregor's approach to interpreting and decisions in classifying the ideas of Julius Evola, Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammed, and Gamal Abdel Nasser, as well as of the Movimente socialo italiano, Muslim Brotherhood, Bharatiya Janat Party of India and Communist Party of China will find only partly resonance within the community of students of classic and neo-fascism. While I found Gregor's thought-provoking book in so far useful as at it forces us to re-consider the empirical and methodological foundations of the terminology, concepts and classifications we use, this book should be read with caution and utilized in seminars with care. Not only would Gregor by, for instance, classifying contemporary China as fascist and Evola's ideas as non-fascist seem to move outside some basic classificatory consensuses that exist in the study of current international politics and ideas. He has also a disconcerting tendency to lump together in his presentations of others' views obviously politicized publicistic (or even manifestly propagandistic) texts, on the side, and more or less scholarly accounts of contemporary social phenomena, on the other. Sometimes, he treats colleagues, not the least Roger Griffin, in an altogether inappropriate manner.
It might be pertinent to question the various terminological lapses of superficial journalists, Soviet agitators, and free-lance writers by confronting them with standards of scientific conceptualizations. Yet, the book title's reference to an "abuse of social science" and Gregor's apparent confidence in the scholarlyness of his own approach become less apt when criticizing monographs published in learned book series, or papers that appeared in academic journals. The authors of such research are, presumably, trying to make a contribution to a scientific understanding of the issues in question as much as Gregor does. Here the dichotomy of scientific and non-scientific becomes unhelpful. Oddly, moreover, Gregor when turning away from "journalists and sensationalists" to scholarly approaches quotes as an example for the latter the infamous Communist International's 1933 "definition" of fascism (p. 16). All this creates an unnecessary obfuscation of the familiar misuse of "fascism" in journalistic and political debates, on the one hand, with legitimate academic discourse about how to usefully conceptualize generic fascism, on the other.
From Gregor's book, readers unfamiliar with fascist historiography might get a number of inadequate impressions about current comparative fascist studies. For instance, when Gregor on page 1 criticizes those who identify "the Silvio Berlusconi government of the Italian republic as neofascist," and in the footnote to this sentence refers to an article of Roger Griffin in the "Journal of Political Ideologies" one could be led conclude that Griffin and this journal are following political agendas. One would have to be familiar with Griffin's writings and the editorial policy of the "Journal of Political Ideologies" to appropriately interpret Gregor's claim. Also, Gregor repeatedly and affirmatively cites Payne and Eatwell in support of his own approach to neo-fascism that, sometimes, appears to be designed as an alternative to Griffin's. Yet, one would need to be aware that both Payne and Eatwell have more often than not cited Griffin affirmatively. Moreover, they have formulated definitions of fascism more compatible with Griffin's "palingenetic ultra-nationalism" than Gregor's "developmental dictatorship." In another context, Gregor writes that, allegedly, "[v]ery few [researchers of neo-fascism] chose to attempt comparative studies of historic Marxist-Leninist and fascist regimes as a preamble to their primary undertaking" (p. 24). German readers, in particular, will find this and other similar statements ironic as there is an entire German political science sub-discipline, "Extremismusforschung," that proceeds exactly from this preamble and operates several prolific publication series.
Readers of Gregor's book might get the impression that the use of "fascism" is infected with some extraordinary lack of scientific precision and absence of terminological discipline. While, of course, there have been many such instances, it would still seem that other normatively loaded terms heavily used in politics, journalism and political science - democracy, totalitarianism, socialism... - suffer from comparable semantic inflation as a result of their inappropriate application by politically engaged publicists and pseudo-scholars (for instance, the "historical materialists" at the former Soviet bloc's universities' Departments of Marxism-Leninism). The terminological confusion that Gregor here laments with regard to fascism is thus, contrary to the impression that his book gives, not that particular to the general field of political terminology.
Notwithstanding these critical remarks, Gregor does pose here some pertinent conceptual questions and presents a number of new putative cases of fascism to be considered by comparativists (if only to reject their classification as fascist). Therefore, I would still recommend his book - especially to those well-read in theories and cases of generic fascism - as a text which, though sometimes misleading, stimulates critical reflection on, and a fresh rethinking of, the current state of fascist studies.