From the love of freedom to the cult of force: Continuities and discontinuities between liberalism and fascism

In the following essay, we will seek to explore the ties of kinship between liberalism and fascism, both in their ideas and in their concrete political practice, with the intention of, through the contrast, shedding some light on the category of fascism. In the first part, we will consider the category of totalitarianism, so wide-spread in the political imagination that seeks to understand fascism (often pairing it with communism), and why we find it of little use to think about this political phenomenon; in the second, we will take a tour through the ideas and concrete practice of liberalism, relying largely on the historical genealogy prepared by the Marxist philosopher and historian Domenico Lo-surdo, exploring its links with modern colonialism and the form of Eurocentric hegemony that Aníbal Quijano calls coloniality; finally, in the third part, we will return to the category of fascism, to review its characteristics, and verify to what extent the history and practice of the liberal tradition allows us to clarify it, making vis-ible the continuities and discontinuities between the two. Our work seeks to contribute to a conceptual-ization of fascism that is useful for understanding the current political landscape, highlighting the relevance and centrality of this category for contemporary political reflection.