Fascism: A Warning.

• Author: Donahue, Gilbert
• Position: Book review

Fascism: A Warning. Madeleine Albright with Bill Woodward, Harper Collins, 2018, 288 pages including index, $27.99.

Former Ambassador to the United Nations, Secretary of State, and professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Madeleine Albright has written a very readable, timely book on a subject that is both distant and current. Secretary Albright draws on her extensive knowledge of 20th century history and political events, many of which involved her and her family personally, to review the forces that brought several autocratic leaders into power.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines fascism as "a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition." Some people assume that fascism implies a right-wing government. However, Secretary Albright eliminates right-wing or left-wing ideology as being a requirement; both systems can foster governments with similar characteristics.

Among the factors and forces she pinpoints as often leading to the rise of fascism are economic hardship (e.g., war, economic depression) and political turmoil/social collapse. Albright reviews the aftermath of World War I and its impact on Germany and Italy, in particular. She charts the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy, and his influence on the parallel and eerily similar rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany, who copied many of Mussolini's symbols. She comments on the consequences during World War II of the personality conflicts between Hitler and Mussolini, on the one hand, and Hitler and Spain's Francisco Franco, on the other. Other European leaders of the time who took a fascist approach to government and society were Antonio Salazar of Portugal and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union.

Albright then compares and contrasts the fascist leaders of the past with modern day fascism or leaders inclined toward it: Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungary's Viktor Orban, Russia's Vladimir Putin, and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, among other recent and current leaders. The "warning" in the title has to do with detecting signs within a country that policies are failing and may bring about a draconian leader to deal with them in a heavy-handed way. Most such leaders seek, and if successful, obtain popular support...