Fascism remains a topic that fascinates both academic and general audiences. This is the first book to look systematically at the leaders of fascism and related movements in the inter-war era. It shows how fascist leaders came to personify their movements and why the Fhreprinzip was applied in all fascist organizations. It also explains how fascist leadership was of a very particular kind: It was almost unlimited in political discipline and required complete subordination. The legitimacy was based on a very vague notion of 'the organic unity of the state and the people', giving the leaders competence to rule without accountability to a party organization or state bodies. Thus, we can observe in all fascist parties/movements a practical form of leadership where policies of 'split and rule' were common in absence of principles of representation and opposition feedbacks. The fascist fhrer was the leader, the party, the ideology - and when in power: the state itself.This book was previously published as a special issue of Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions.

Preface, Antonio Costa Pinto Introduction: New Styles of Dictatorship and Leadership in inter-war Europe, Roger Eatwell Part 1: Approaching Charisma Chapter 1: The Concept and Theory of Charismatic Leadership, Roger Eatwell Chapter 2: Hitler, Charisma and Structure: Reflections on Historical Methodology, Michel Dobry Part 2: The Leaders Chapter 3: Mussolini as the Prototypical Charismatic Dictator, Emilio Gentile Chapter 4: The Model of Charismatic Leadership and its Applicability to the Rule of Adolf Hitler, M. Rainer Lepsius Chapter 5: Franco, the Spanish Falange and the Institutionalization of Mission, Stanley G. Payne Chapter 6: 'Chaos' and 'Order': Preto, Salazar and Charismatic Appeal in Interwar Portugal, António Costa Pinto Chapter 7: Charisma and Hybrid Legitimacy in Pétain's État français (1940-44), Marc Olivier Baruch Chapter 8: Ante Pavelic, Charisma and National Mission in Wartime Croatia, Ivo Goldstein Chapter 9: Charisma from Below? the Quisling Case in Norway, Stein Larsen Chapter 10: Codreanu, Romanian National Traditions and Charisma, Stephen Fischer-Galati Conclusion, António Costa Pinto and Stein Larsen Index