"Twentieth-century Fascism is a byproduct of disintegrating liberal democracy. Loss of
hope in the possibilities of existing order and society, disgust with their corruption and
ineffectiveness, above all the society’s evident loss of confidence in itself, all these produce
or spur a revolutionary mood in which the only issue lies in catastrophic action—but
always with a strong social tinge: ‘I place my only hope in the continuation of socialist
progress through fascisms,’ writes Drieu [a French Fascist author of the 1930s]. And the
editor of the French Fascist publication, the Insurgent, Jean-Pierre Maxence, would call
for insurgents of all parties to join ‘the front of united youth, for bread, for grandeur and
for liberty, in immense disgust with capitalist democracy.’ From this angle, as from many
others, Fascism looks very much like the Jacobinism of our time." - Eugen Weber, historian, Varieties of Fascism, 1964.
Which of the following would most contradict Weber’s thesis concerning the
fundamental character of Fascism?
(A) Mussolini’s membership in the Italian Socialist Party prior to founding the Italian
Fascist movement
(B) The spread of Fascism to eastern European countries in the 1930s
(C) The growth of National Socialism in Germany during the economic crisis of the
early 1930s
(D) Franco’s support for traditional Catholic values in his Spanish Fascist movement