David E .

Brabante

BAPOL 4B

Midterm Paper
FASCISM AND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONALISM
SUPPORTED BY JOHN STUART MILL, JEREMY BENTHAM AND FRIEDRICH HEGEL

Fascism – a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above
the individual and that stands for a centralized government headed by a dictatorial leader.

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill were still of some influence to opposition to fascism.
Bentham favored laws for the greatest good for the number and Mill had written “On Liberty”
Nietzsche and associated them with what he called a “pig Philosophy “,which seems not to
have substantially diminished their influence. Mill believed that a person should be sovereign
“over himself, over his own body and mind” and he believed in protecting minorities against
the majority of special value to minorities living in states where the majority were supporting a
fascist dictatorship.

Fascism has also been connected to the ideals of Plato, though there are key differences
between the two. Fascism styled itself as the ideological successor to Rome, particularly the
Roman Empire. From the same era, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's view on the absolute
authority of the state also strongly influenced fascist thinking. The history of fascism begins in
the same period. While the philosophical pre-history of Nazism owes much to the German
intellectual context, there is no doubt that Hegelianism also contributed to the first, non-
German forms of Fascism, perhaps most conspicuously in the adaptation of Idealism in Italy,
notably by Giovanni Gentile. Gentile managed to connect Hegel to Mussolini’s project within a
new system he named “actualism”. By emphasizing the corporative element in Hegel’s
Philosophy of the Right, Gentile could provide a rationale for Mussolini’s state and leadership.

There was then a neo-Hegelian lineage leading into the new ideological category of ‘Fascism’;
not just for Gentile, but for various intellectuals of Mussolini’s Italy, adaptations of Hegel
provided a logic for the reconciliation of the individual, the industrial communities, and the
state under Fascist rule. As Gregor goes on, “the community as the state that served as the
grounds of individuation for the individual was not a construction that was inter hominies,
between members of the community, but an immanent reality that arose out of members
themselves. It was interiore homine. The community was understood to be at the core of the
individual.” (Gregor 2005: 114). Italian fascism thus provided a practicable model for a
totalitarian regime based on a Hegelian tradition as the Nazi movement reached its maturity in
the 1930s.
Industrial Revolution

John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher who had a significant impact on the Industrial
Revolution in England as an advocate of liberty. He argued that freedom is necessary to achieve
happiness because it allows people to make their own choices based largely on their own
personal preferences rather than what is dictated by law or tradition. He was an influential
British philosopher, economist, political theorist, and civil servant. was a proponent of liberty
and the highest form of social organization, which is individualism. Mill argued that it was in the
best interest of society to give people as much freedom as they could handle while still
maintaining social order. He coined the phrase "the greater good" to describe this ideal.

John Stuart Mill lived through one of the greatest revolutions in European history. During his
lifetime new technological developments in manufacturing, transportation, and
communications played a powerful role in transforming Europe’s economy from one largely
dependent upon agriculture to one that revolved around the production of goods, or industry.
Known as the Industrial Revolution, the era proceeded in two stages. The initial Industrial
Revolution began in the textile industry in Britain in the mid-18th century and later spread to
the European continent. Britain’s natural resources, including coal andiron, combined with its
social, economic, and political structure, made it ideal for industrial development. By the 1850s,
Britain had achieved industrial dominance in Europe and the world.

Between 1850 and 1870, France and Prussia were becoming more industrialized as well. Yet
industrialization proceeded more slowly in those two countries, so governments took a more
prominent role in supporting change. From about1870 to 1914, a second industrial revolution
occurred. Often called the Age of Steel, it featured more complex technologies, such as the
internal combustion engine. It extended the reach of industrialization through Russia and
Eastern Europe. Up to that time, Russia’s reliance on serfdom had delayed industrialization in
Eastern Europe, as tsars such as Catherine II and Alexander I did not support industrialization.
Eastern European countries also lacked the raw materials such as coal, which limited their
ability to industrialize. By 1914, industrialization had spread throughout Europe and was
increasing in other parts of the world. In particular, the United States and Japan were heavily
industrialized.

Within England, the industrial revolution was meanwhile having its full transformative effect.
Average income and population numbers rose steadily – a hitherto unknown phenomenon.
Large cities grew around factories, and the working class emerged as a political actor. Where
Mill fit into this picture is up for debate. Although he often advocated for laissez-faire policies,
he was also sympathetic to many socialist ideas and causes.
On the verge of the British Industrial Revolution, in the late 1700s and early 1800s, English
philosopher Jeremy Bentham called for significant political and social change. Bentham
developed the utilitarian philosophy, which holds that an action's value is determined by how
it turns out. According to utilitarianism, these consequences are primarily defined as the
overall pleasure or satisfaction that a behavior brings to society. Bentham contends that a
country must

maximize happiness for its people in his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and
Legislation, widely known as the greatest happiness principle. In order to scientifically
determine the level of pleasure experienced as a result of a certain activity, Bentham
developed his own procedure, known as the felicific calculus. Even while Bentham promoted
economic liberty, equal rights.

Bentham is well known for his mechanistic view of human happiness, along with his support
for women's rights and other liberal reforms. Carlyle mocks Bentham's beliefs in "Signs of the
Times" for being highly mechanical and quantitative. First, Carlyle contends that the present
moment rather than the future is what matters most. Although Carlyle also strongly believes in
social change that will result in a better civilization, he contends that Bentham's reformism
cannot improve current conditions and counsels his readers to "instead of gazing idly into the
obscure distance, Bentham and his followers should] look calmly around themselves, for a
little, on the perplexed scene where we stand," saying that Bentham and his radical followers'
ambitions are lost within the "rage of prophesy.

Although Carlyle also strongly believes in social change that will result in a better civilization,
he contends that Bentham's reformism cannot improve current conditions and counsels his
readers to "instead of gazing idly into the obscure distance, [Bentham and his followers
should] look calmly around [themselves], for a little, on the perplexed scene where we stand,"
saying that Bentham and his radical followers' ambitions are lost within the "rage of prop
Carlyle laments how the world has become entirely mechanical, devoid of any spirituality,
morality, or personal understanding. Carlyle mocks Bentham for turning human happiness to
an algorithm, calling his conception of morality "pure mechanical and calculating.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher whose life spanned the last third of
the eighteenth and the first third of the nineteenth centuries. For Western Europe this was a
period of great commercial expansion combined, especially in England, with industrial
revolution. Politically, European history at this time was dominated by the French Revolution
of 1789. Hegel was greatly interested in the significance of the Revolution for the German
states and especially for Prussia where, at the end of his life, he taught philosophy at the
University of Berlin. In this chapter I shall consider some of the different interpretations that
have been given of the mature Hegel’s political thought as expounded in the Philosophy of
Right (Hegel, 1979), which Hegel published in 1821.