Para-fascism

Para-fascism refers to authoritarian conservative movements and regimes that adopt characteristics associated with fascism such as personality cults, paramilitary organizations, symbols and rhetoric, but it diverges from conventional fascist tenets such as palingenetic ultranationalism, modernism, and populism. It often emerges in response to the need for a facade of popular support in an age of mass politics, without a genuine commitment to revolutionary nationalism, instead focusing on maintaining tradition, religion, and culture. Para-fascist regimes may co-opt or neutralize genuine fascist movements. Examples of para-fascism include the regimes and movements of Austrofascism in Austria, Metaxism in Greece, the “New State” of Salazars’ Portugal, and Francoism in Spain.

Austria
The Fatherland Front was an Austrian right-wing conservative, nationalist, and corporatist political organization founded in 1933 by Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. It aimed to unite Austrians across political and social divides, emphasizing Austrian nationalism and independence from Germany while protecting the Catholic religious identity. The Front absorbed various anti-Marxist groups, establishing an authoritarian and corporatist regime known as the Ständestaat. It banned and persecuted political opponents, including Communists, Social Democrats, and Austrian Nazis. Dollfuss was assassinated by the Nazis in 1934, and he was succeeded by Kurt Schuschnigg. The Fatherland Front's role in Austrian history remains a subject of debate, with some viewing it as a form of "Austrofascism" responsible for the decline of liberal democracy, while others credit it for defending independence and opposing Nazism.

Greece
Metaxism is an authoritarian nationalist ideology linked to Ioannis Metaxas in Greece. It aimed for the revitalization of the Greek nation and the establishment of a modern, culturally unified Greece. This ideology criticized liberalism, prioritizing the interests of the nation over individual concerns, and sought to mobilize the Greek populace as a disciplined collective in the pursuit of a "new Greece."

Metaxas proclaimed his 4th of August Regime (1936–1941) as the embodiment of a "Third Greek Civilization," aspiring to create a culturally refined Greek nation drawing from ancient Macedonian and Spartan militaristic societies, representing the "First Greek Civilization," as well as the Orthodox Christian values of the Byzantine Empire, seen as the "Second Greek Civilization." The regime maintained that authentic Greeks were both ethnically Greek and adherents of Orthodox Christianity, explicitly excluding Albanians, Slavs, and Turks in Greece from Greek citizenship.

While the Metaxas government and its official doctrines are sometimes labeled as fascist, scholarly consensus characterizes it as a traditional authoritarian-conservative administration akin to the regimes of Francisco Franco in Spain or António de Oliveira Salazar in Portugal. The Metaxist government drew its authority from the conservative establishment, staunchly supporting traditional institutions like the Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek Monarchy. It leaned towards a reactionary stance and lacked the radical theoretical elements associated with ideologies like Italian Fascism and German Nazism. Notably, the regime did not espouse antisemitism, considering it to be "distasteful."

Portugal
The National Union was the exclusive legal party of Portugal's Estado Novo regime, established in 1930 under the influence of António de Oliveira Salazar.

Unlike most of the one-party states during its time, it operated more as a political extension of the government rather than holding direct authority. Its membership primarily consisted of local elites like landowners, professionals, businessmen, and individuals with Catholic, monarchist, or conservative republican affiliations.

The National Union did not actively engage in militant activities. Under Salazar's leadership, it became the sole legally permitted party, but he emphasized that it should not function as a conventional political party. Instead, it served as a platform for conservatism rather than a revolutionary force.

The party's ideology centered around corporatism, drawing inspiration from Catholic encyclicals and Mussolini's corporate state. Unlike other ruling Fascist parties, it played a more limited role in governance, primarily focused on controlling and managing public opinion rather than mobilizing it.

Scholarly opinions vary on whether the Estado Novo and the National Union should be classified as fascist or not, with Salazar himself highlighting significant differences between fascism and the Catholic corporatism of the Estado Novo. Some scholars lean towards categorizing it as a conservative authoritarian regime, while others argue for its classification as fascist.

Spain
The Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista, commonly known as FET y de las JONS or simply "FET," was the exclusive legal political party of the Francoist regime in Spain. Established by General Francisco Franco in 1937, it was a fusion of the fascist Falange Española de las JONS (FE de las JONS) with the monarchist neo-absolutist and integralist Catholic Traditionalist Communion associated with the Carlist movement. Despite the amalgamation, FET largely retained the platform of FE de las JONS, preserving 26 out of its original 27 points, as well as a similar internal structure. This party remained in effect until April 1977, after which it was rebranded as the Movimiento Nacional in 1958 which caused it to transform into an Authoritarian Conservative movement. Some academics considered the pre-merge FE de las JONS to be Fascist and that the merger with the Traditionalist Communion caused it to lose its Fascist characteristics and thus become para-fascist.