CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Kelly, Andrew John |
|---|---|
| Title | The Political Identities of Austrofascism and Action Francaise |
| Summary | Although many attempts have been made to characterize the Austrofascist regime of Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg and the Action Française movement of Charles Maurras as political phenomena through the application of heuristic terms such as "fascist" and "clerical fascist", little consensus regarding the identity of these subjects is apparent within the relevant contemporary historiography. This thesis provides a revised characterization of these phenomena by means of a holistic analysis of their ideological origins, political visions, and power structures within a comparative framework. Through this analysis, the thesis contends that the Austrofascist state did not constitute an instance of fascism or clerical fascism as defined by Constantin Iordachi and Roger Griffin, respectively. Rather, Dollfuss and Schuschnigg's regime represented an example of Political Catholicism implemented through an authoritarian means influenced in its character by the "neoabsolutism" of Emperor Francis Joseph's early reign. The thesis argues also that Maurras's Action Française, despite the dynamism of its integral nationalism, remained bound to its "legitimist" or reactionary political identity, in contrast to its revolutionary fascist counterparts. Indeed, rather than epitomizing fascism or its clerical variant, both Austrofascism and Action Française acted, to varying extents, as proponents of an older counter-revolutionary tradition within their respective national contexts during the interwar period. |
| Supervisor | Iordachi, Constantin; Riedl, Matthias |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/kelly_andrew.pdf |
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