[Concentrating on the interwar period, the book is divided into three parts, offering a synoptic overview of the latest developments in the field, exploring different definitions of fascism, and grounding these theoretical debates in their historical context. The three parts correspond to distinct methods and levels of comparison. They focus on:
debates over ideal-type models of generic fascism used as instruments of comparison, and evaluation of historic case studies
cross-national and trans-national comparisons of historical examples of fascism, measured against each other or against theoretical models of generic fascism
debates over totalitarianism and political religions and their relevance for studying fascist movements and regimes. Comparative Fascist Studies
New Perspectives Edited by Constantin Iordachi ISBN: 9780415462211
Published July 14 2009 by Routledge.]
[On the way down Arun Shourie IE » Story: Tuesday , Jul 14, 2009 ... the weakness of the political system... Birth to senility
A movement, an organisation is originally inspired by an ideal: to undo what is wrong, to establish what is right.
Whether it triumphs or fails in its initial objective, over the years it becomes a political party.
At its inception, the party too is impelled by ideals. The crusade from which it has taken birth is still vivid, the idealists who led the movement, who then founded it and toiled to raise it are a living presence. Propelled by these memories, the party seeks to change the order, it wants to recast the polity of course, but more: it wants to recast society into the ideals to attain which it has been formed.
Over time, it forsakes this idealism, and becomes a mere electoral machine.
Soon, it putrefies into a machine that fails to win even elections... Why does this degeneration take place? Why do efforts to arrest its decline come to naught? By what symptoms may we know that a particular organisation is on its way down?
In one of the greatest works of history, Ibn Khaldun chronicled the founding, rise, decline and eventual disintegration of dynasties... the symptoms are true of all our political parties today.
Hence, our real problem: there is nowhere to turn for an alternative... (To be concluded)
The writer is a BJP MP in the Rajya Sabha]
Let us remind Arun Shourie that Savitri Era Party is the alternative. [TNM]
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