Elements for a critical reelaboration of the concept of fascism

Abstract

The text aims to carry out a critical analysis of the concept of fascism and its implications for contemporary politics. The proposal is divided into three sections: the first, raises a critique of the interpretation of the so-called «catatonic fascism», in which a rejection of the re-emergence of contemporary fascism that returns to the political arena after being annihilated at the end of World War II is raised. The second section distinguishes fascism in its ‘exoteric’ and «esoteric» «forms». This distinction has to do with the understanding of the relationship between fascism and capitalism. Although these positions are to some extent complementary, the text tries to stress them, as well as to show the limits of the «exoteric» reading and the possibilities opened by the «esoteric» interpretation. The work concludes with some notes that serve to problematize the reworking of the concept of fascism in a critical exercise that seeks to add to the confrontation of one of the most terrible forms of domination of modernity.