Fascism

Fascism was a philosophy and political ideology originally developed in Italy at the beginning of the mid-20th century by Benito Mussolini. In the 1930s this ideology became a government style after Adolf Hitler took power in Germany and established the Nazi state. (TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever").

A key pillar of fascism was the so called "Leader Principal" which stated that a government should have a single leader as its head, with all others obeying this leader without question. In the 20th century fascist leaders were generally deemed evil and psychotic men and it was for this reason that fascism failed on Earth as a viable form of government. However, even in cases where a fascist leader governed for the good of the people, it was a fact that when any man held so much power then it was in turn irresitable that an urge to "play God" would corrupt the government. Such was the case on Ekos, where Federation historian John Gill founded a peaceful fascist government only to have his government turn evil just like its predecessors. (TOS: "Patterns of Force")

Quark called Odo a fascist, when the two got into a fight after crashing on an uninhabited Class L planet in 2373. (DS9: "The Ascent")

In 2374, Benjamin Sisko had a series of visions taking place in 1950s Earth, where Herbert Rossoff accused Douglas Pabst of being a fascist. (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars")

External Links

• Fascism at Wikipedia