Fascism Essay Response: Why is Fascism often associated with Populism?

Why is Fascism often associated with Populism? (10 Marks)

Break down the question

Define and Explain:

• Populism is essentially the belief that the instincts of the people provide the principle legitimate guide to political action 
• Populist movements or parties are characterised by their claim to support he common in the fact or "corrupt economic or political elites who claim to know what is the best for the common people and good for the state as a whole."
• Populist politicians thus make a direct appeal to the people and claim to given expression to their deepest hopes and fears - they articulate the genuine interests of the people. Populist leaders distrust all intermediary institutions. 

Examples:

• In recent decades, the appeals made by extremist right wing movements to the "native" peoples of Western Europe and the USA to challenge the destruction of superior cultures and formerly healthier economies by on-white an non-Christian immigrants
• Mussolini and Hitler's direct appeal to "the people" emphasising solidarity and collective action as correctives to failing bourgeois liberal democratic regimes
• In Nazi Germany, emphasis on the "Volk" - the white, Aryan population and in Italy on true heirs of the Roman Empire. These groupings of people were regarded as noble, spiritual and creative, unlike the alien races and peoples who sought to undermine or failed to recognise such glorious heritages. 
• Distrust of the ruling classes on the basis of them being cosmopolitan, detached an elitist, in addition to being intellectually arrogant and ignorant of the needs and aspirations of the "ordinary' people.