Fascism and dictatorship : the Third International and the problem of fascism / Nicos Poulantzas ; foreword by Dylan Riley ; translated from the French by Judith White ; translation editors, Jennifer and Timothy O'Hagan.

First published as 'Fascisme et dictature' by Francois Maspero 1970.

New Left Books edition first published 1974.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: pt. ONE THE PERIOD OF FASCISM -- 1.Imperialism and Fascism. Monopoly Capitalism and the Imperialist Chain -- 2.The German and Italian Links of the Chain -- I.Germany -- II.Italy -- 3.The Period of Fascism and the Third International -- I.The Comintern's general view and its changes of course: the problem of the period and steps in the class struggle -- II.Immediate effects on the Comintern's analysis of fascism -- 4.Conclusion: the Transition to Monopoly Capitalism, and 'Economic Crisis' -- pt. TWO FASCISM AND-THE CLASS STRUGGLE -- 1.The Political Crisis: Fascism and the Exceptional State -- I.The problem and the Comintern -- II.Thalheimer, Gramsci, Trotsky -- III.The analytical framework: political crisis, class struggle and the institutional system -- 2.The Growth of Fascism -- pt. THREE FASCISM AND THE DOMINANT CLASSES -- 1.General Propositions -- I.Contradictions between dominant classes and dominant fractions of classes --

Note continued: II.The crisis of hegemony -- III.Modifications in hegemony -- IV.The breaking of representational ties, and the political parties -- V.The ideological crisis -- VI.The offensive by big capital and the power bloc -- a.On attack and defence -- b.The steps in the process -- VII.The fascist parties, fascism and the dominant classes and class fractions; domination, hegemony and the ruling class: the relative autonomy of fascism -- 2.Germany -- I.The economic contradictions -- II.Big and medium capital: was fascism 'economically retrograde' ? -- III.The crisis and the politico-ideological process -- IV.The Nazi Party, Nazism and the dominant classes and class fractions; hegemony and the ruling class -- 3.Italy -- I.The economic contradictions -- II.Big capital and landowners -- III.The crisis and the politico-ideological process -- IV.The fascist party, fascism and the dominant classes and class fractions; hegemony and the ruling class --

Note continued: pt. FOUR FASCISM AND THE WORKING CLASS -- 1.General Propositions -- I.Steps and characteristics of the 'process of defeat' and the working-class defensive -- II.Forms of the ideological crisis: the crisis of the revolutionary organizations -- III.Social Democracy: class nature and function, policy, and the thesis of 'social fascism' -- IV.The Communist Parties and their policy: the turns of the Comintern and the strategy of alliances -- V.The fascist organizations, fascism and the working class; the condition of the working class under fascism -- 2.Germany -- I.The process of defeat, the defensive and the politico-ideological crisis -- II.German social democracy -- III.The German Communist Party (K P D) -- IV.National Socialism and the working class -- a.The Nazi organizations and the working class -- b.The condition of the working class under Nazism; the questions of the fascist trade unions -- 3.Italy -- I.The process of defeat and the defensive --

Note continued: II.The politico-ideological crisis: Sorel and revolutionary syndicalism -- III.Italian social democracy and the Maximalists -- IV.The Italian Communist Party (PCI) -- a.The Bordiga tendency and party policy -- b.Gramsci and the workers councils: the Comintern, the trade-union question and the problem of the 'union-party' relation -- V.Fascism and the working class -- a.Fascist organizations and the working class -- b.The condition of the working class under fascism: the CGL and the fascist trade unionists -- Appendix: The USSR and the Comintern -- pt. FIVE FASCISM AND THE PETTY BOURGEOISIE -- 1.The Class Nature of the Petty Bourgeoisie and Petty-bourgeois Ideology -- 2.General Propositions -- I.Monopoly Capitalism and the petty bourgeoisie: its economic situation -- II.The political crisis and the petty bourgeoisie as a social force; the fascist parties and the interests of the petty bourgeoisie --

Note continued: III.The ideological crisis and `fascist ideology': Imperialist ideology and petty-bourgeois ideology -- IV.The condition of the petty bourgeoisie under fascism -- 3.Germany -- 4.Italy -- pt. SIX FASCISM AND THE COUNTRYSIDE -- 1.Classes in the Countryside -- 2.General Propositions -- I.The economic situation in the countryside -- II.The politico-ideological crisis -- III.The fascist parties, fascism and the peasant classes: town and countryside -- IV.Monopoly capitalism and the countryside: the condition of the peasant classes under fascism -- 3.Germany -- 4.Italy -- pt. SEVEN THE FASCIST STATE -- 1.The State Apparatus and the Ideological Apparatuses -- I.Gramsci -- II.Ideological apparatuses as State apparatuses -- III.Branches of the repressive State apparatus; characteristics of the ideological State apparatuses -- 2.The Exceptional State and the Fascist State: Type of State, Form of State and Form of Regime --

Note continued: 3.General Propositions on the Exceptional State -- I.Forms of State Intervention -- II.Modification in the relations between the repressive apparatus and the ideological apparatuses -- III.The displacement of the dominant branch or apparatus -- IV.Modifications in the juridical system: regulation and limits -- V.Significance of modifications in the electoral principle; on the single-party system -- VI.The extent of bureaucratization -- VII.Centralism and internal contradictions: parallel networks and transmission belts -- 4.General Propositions on the Fascist State as a Form of Exceptional Regime -- I.The established system -- II.The rise of fascism within the state apparatuses -- 5.Germany -- I.The rise of fascism -- II.The established system -- 6.Italy -- I.The rise of fascism -- II.The established system.

The resurgence of the far right across Europe and the emergence of the alt-right in the US have put the question of fascism urgently back on the agenda. For those trying to understand these forms of politics, there is no better place to start than Fascism and Dictatorship, the unrivalled Marxist study of German and Italian fascism. It carefully distinguishes between fascism as a mass movement before the seizure of power and what it becomes as an entrenched machinery of dictatorship. It compares the distinct class components of the counter revolutionary blocs mobilised by fascism in Germany and Italy; analyses the changing relations between the petty bourgeoisie and big capital in the evolution of fascism; discusses the structures of the fascist state itself, as an emergency regime for the defence of capital; and provides a sustained and documented criticism of official Comintern attitudes and policies towards fascism in the fateful years after the Versailles settlement. Fascism and Dictatorship represents a challenging synthesis of factual evidence and conceptual analysis, a standard bearer of what Marxist political theory should be.