John J. Crocitti San Diego Mesa College
jcrocitt@sdccd.cc.ca.us
from http://www.h-net.org/~world/
I am unaware of debates about fascism's applicability outside of Europe.
However, I am familiar with the Brazilian fascist movement of the 1930s, Integralismo (Integralism). I consider Integralismo consistent with European fascism found in Italy and Portugal, with elements of the anti-Semitism and mysticism found in Nazism. Integralists defined Brazilians as a new race derived from the summation of the many racial, ethnic and cultural groups that had interacted throughout Brazilian history.
Hence, Integralists adopted the letter sigma, the mathematical symbol representing summation, as their movement's symbol. Integralists criticized both liberal democracy and socialism, proposing instead an interventionist state that would promote Brazilian economic development, but preserve capitalism and oversee labor's welfare. Although Getúlio Vargas outlawed all political parties, including Integralismo, in November 1937, he nevertheless adopted the corporatist state that Integralists had outlined, naming it the Estado Novo (New State) just as Salazar had done in Portugal.
Although Vargas certainly resembled a fascist between 1937 and 1945, he generally is not labeled as one, perhaps because he joined the Allies in the war against Germany. I usually refer to him, tongue in cheek of course, as a quasi-fascist.
I would also propose that Juan Peron's regime in Argentina incorporated fascist features, as did other movements in Latin America during the 1930s and 1940s. Linz (I cannot remember his first name) has examined Latin American fascism. For Brazil, check work by the late Robert M. Levine.
