Talk:Economics of fascism

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This article was nominated for deletion on November 20, 2006. The result of the discussion was keep.

Archives
December 2005 — May 2006

Contents 1 Schmitt source 2 social Darwinism 3 Split 4 Hitler's political beliefs drew heavily upon Social Darwinism 5 General characteristics of fascist economies

[edit] Schmitt source

I went ahead and deleted the Schmitt source. As far as I know it's not published. It appears to simply be statements [1] on a personal website, hosted by "Franz and Jutta". [2] WP:V says: "Anyone can create a website or pay to have a book published, and then claim to be an expert in a certain field. For that reason, self-published books, personal websites, and blogs are largely not acceptable as sources. Exceptions may be when a well-known, professional researcher in a relevant field, or a well-known professional journalist, has produced self-published material. In some cases, these may be acceptable as sources, so long as their work has been previously published by credible, third-party publications. However, exercise caution: if the information on the professional researcher's blog is really worth reporting, someone else will have done so." RJII 19:40, 9 May 2006 (UTC) I also deleted the Anthony Gregory source. It too appears to be a self-published website thing. [3] RJII 20:05, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Somehow in the course of this deleting the latter footnotes became unmoored from the numeric sequence. --Christofurio 02:02, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] social Darwinism

Hitler did not practice any form of Darwinism, muchless "social Darwinism" and Darwin's books were banned from Germany. He believed in the "Great Chain of Being," with Aryans at the top. This is a POV violation and needs to be corrected, or supported with a citation from Hitler's writings - good luck with that. I'm changing it to eugenics until that time. -- wildlifer

There is a significant difference between the Theory of Evolution and Social Darwinism. Social Darwinism does not even have to be based on Darwin's writings - it is simply the view that human society is improved by unrestrained competition and by the survival of the strong at the expense of the weak. -- Nikodemos 23:58, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Split

There is already talk about the "Economics of fascism" in the Italian Fascism and Nazi Germany articles. It seems to me that this article is redundant. The economics of fascism (the ideology) should be discussed in the Fascism article. The economics of Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy should be foremostly discussed in the Nazi Germany and Italian Fascism articles. If the sections in those articles become too big, one can start talking about separate articles again. There is no need to talk about the economics of Italian Fascism and Nazi germany in the same article, neither the economics of fascist ideology needs to be discussed here. There is already a Fascism article and Corporatism article. Intangible 15:31, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

You may have a point. However, if you look in the archive, you will notice that other editors have argued very strongly for a very long time in favor of keeping this article as it is. It was their belief that wikipedia needs a dedicated article to compare the economic policies of fascist countries. -- Nikodemos 16:38, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hitler's political beliefs drew heavily upon Social Darwinism

This statement is WP:OR, because it is referenced to a primary source. I actually doubt Hitler was influenced by "Social Darwinism" proper. I think the term one is looking for is Eugenics. Intangible 16:08, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Actually, that statement, like the entire paragraph, is supported by the source I gave a few sentences down (Henry A. Turner, "German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler", 1985, p. 76). I can look in the book and find the exact quote if you wish. I also remember having another book that talks about the subject of social darwinism and Hitler. I'll look there too. Eugenics requires that you intentionally select "superior" breeding partners and persuade or force them to have many children; social darwinism requires that you create an environment where "superior" individuals select each other and have many children. Hitler supported both. -- Nikodemos 16:45, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Errh, the original meaning of Social Darwinism is simply that one looks at society from a biological perspective. There is nothing in that that asks people to have many children, or any notion of "survial of the fittest." Social Darwinism as you define it, has little to with Darwin himself or Spencer. Hodgson writes:

Overall, the label of “Social Darwinism” is unhelpful and misleading. In its established context it serves the purpose of tolerating “Darwinism” in biology but entirely excluding it from social science. It lumps together and dismisses a whole host of varied and important developments in the 1870–1914 period that in some way developed or maintained links between biology and the social sciences, including the careful use of biological analogies in the analysis of social evolution. We should be critical of racist, sexist and imperialist ideologies, but these emanate neither from the act of linking biology with the social sciences, nor from the principles of Darwinism...It would be better if the use as a descriptive term of the highly ambiguous and imperfectly grounded phrase “Social Darwinism” were discontinued. It would be clearer and more effective if authors criticized more directly the readily identifiable and less ambiguous ideological ills of racism, sexism, imperialism or eugenics.

Intangible 17:26, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

I absolutely agree with that quote. "Social Darwinism" is a misnomer, and gives an impression of intellectual legitimacy to a bunch of social theories that are complete hogwash. Not only that, but Social Darwinism is unrelated to Darwin. Unfortunately, here on wikipedia we cannot change the names of things... so we'll have to keep calling it Social Darwinism because that's what scholarly sources call it. And on that note, here are some quotes from my sources:

[Hitler's] commitment to economic competition and private property derived not from expediency but rather from his fanatically held Social Darwinist beliefs about the nature of mankind and human society. [source: Henry A. Turner, German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler, Oxford University Press, 1985. page 76. ]

In his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), published in 1926, Hitler drew on the ideas of the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest to provide a quasi-scientific justification for the need for racial purity, which became a core doctrine of the Nazi movement. [source: David S. Mason, Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1989: liberty, equality, solidarity, Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. page 88.]

-- Nikodemos 01:51, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Interesting quotes. But taken together they seems to be inconsistent. For example, in Mein Kampf, Hitler proposed that land-holdings should be nationalised (although this was latter removed from the Nazi programme). It seems to be me that Hitler's "commitment to economic competition and private property" derived much more from pragmatism than anything else.

Have you thought about the split of this article btw? Intangible 16:39, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

No reason to split this article. --Cberlet 18:36, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your constructive contribution. I think I will just have to file an AFD then. Intangible 15:38, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] General characteristics of fascist economies

This section might have some overlap with other articles such as Fascism and ideology, but simply deleting the section is hardly appropriate. Suggest some trimming and moving, maybe?--Cberlet 18:39, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Look, I don't agree with the section, and find the claims tiresonme and part of the baggage of marginal right-wing POV and superficial analysis that infects articles relating to fascism on Wikipedia. The material, however, is properly cited, and should not simply be deleted. Discuss please.--Cberlet 23:33, 19 November 2006 (UTC)