Fascism’s and national socialism’s influence on the development of the post-war extreme right in Germany and Italy

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Western Europe, grade: B1, University of Aberdeen, course: The Extreme Right in Western Europe, language: English, abstract: This paper wants to argue that initially fascism and national socialism still greatly influenced the development of the post-war extreme right (ER). However, this degree of influence gradually declined and nowadays these ideologies cannot be said to exert much influence on the political landscape anymore. Therefore, this essay will proceed by firstly looking at the case of Italy and especially the Movimento Socialist Italiano’s (MSI) ideological development over the years. Secondly, the German political landscape after the Second World War (WWII) will be examined before proceeding with a comparison. This essay will argue that the development of the ER in their relation to the interwar ideologies was similar to a certain extent.