The Search for Neofascism : The Use and Abuse of Social Science

A critical study to identify 'neofascism' wherever it appears in the modern world. The work attempts to show that most contemporary efforts are flawed, often because the term 'neofascist' is used to defame, rather than identify a political movement or regime that shares some objectively identifiable properties.

A study of the informal logic that has governed the half-century of academic writing devoted to what has been generally identified as ''neofascism'', together with a careful assessment of those political movements and regimes considered the proper objects of inquiry. The intent of the study is both pedagogical and cautionary. Its central thesis of the work is that terms like ''fascism'', ''generic fascism'', and ''neofascism'' are often used with considerable indifference, applied uniquely to political movements and regimes considered on the ''right'' rather than the ''left'', intended more often to denigrate rather than inform. The result has been confusion. Within that context some of the most important political movements of our time are considered, including, among others, the Alleanza Nazionale of Italy and the Bharatiya Janata Party of India, both of which have discharged leadership roles in their respective governments: identifying either as ''neofascism'' has clear implications for international relations.