Franco questions, January 4, 2010

1. Compare and contrast the views of Paul Preston and Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses on Franco. To what extent do they disagree with one another?

To a significant extent they disagree with each other, because the underlying thought behind what they have stated is contrasting - de Meneses believes that Franco was not a fascist because fascists want to provoke a change in society, but he says that Franco tried to preserve Spain from change, which is contrary to what fascism is - while on the other hand, Preston states that the only way it can be justified to state that Franco was not a fascist is if fascism is made synonymous with Nazism, since Mussolini's Italy is in many ways comparable to Spain under Franco.



2. Franco ruled Spain for nearly 40 years. Why does this make it more difficult to conclude whether he was a fascist or not?


Due to the different circumstances that Franco would have had to face and the influence of several leaders of other countries and the sharing of ideas between them (Franco, Hitler, Mussolini, etc.) and the fact that Spain under Franco, according to Source G on this paper, had "Fascist trimmings in the early years" but later on was rather modified over time and never became a totalitarian state, it is difficult to determine if Franco is fascist or not since the nature of his regime might have shifted focus for one reason or another.



3. In 1944 the English writer George Orwell wrote that the word fascism was "entirely meaningless". Does the word have any meaning or use in today's world?


From my experience I have only heard it used in reference to leaders who have existed in the past, mainly Hitler and Mussolini, but in today's world it is taught that fascism is the 'extreme right' on the political spectrum, thus it seems that someone with extreme right-wing views, if going all the way to the extreme with them, could be considered a fascist if they put these views into practice and ruled their country similarly to how established fascist leaders (Hitler, Mussolini, etc.) did. I have not heard any modern leaders referred to as fascist although this might be due to my limited experience.



4. List the characteristics of a fascist state. How does Franco's rule conform to these definitions?


- Right-wing views
- Brutality and a desire for war
- One political party exists
- Totalitarian
- Desire to create change in the society

Franco's rule conforms to the definitions of right-wing, brutal/war desiring, but not totalitarian or the existence of only one political party (since the Falangists only existed for a period of time before Franco diminished their importance and eventually they ceased to exist or be significant). The main difference is that Franco was said to have tried to preserve Spain from change, which is seen as un-fascist, as opposed to trying to create radical change the way someone like Hitler and Mussolini did.