I think this post makes a very important and useful claim, but one that is obscured by the use of the word 'fascism', which -- as the post itself admits -- has for decades had a very charged meaning and has been used in inconsistent ways. It seems as though it is usually used to draw an analogy with the WW2-era Axis powers, but the movements that you're highlighting lack some very important characteristics that those regimes had. Most importantly, under Modi/Orbán/Erdogan, control by the ruling party has never been total; opposition parties control the cap... (read more)
Yeah, I think you manage to pinpoint the differences accurately enough. I think "fascism" still describes the basic spirit of these movements well enough in absence of a more specific word, but it's true that if people hear it and they expect 1930s Germany they'll look for the wrong signs. "Right wing populism" doesn't quite roll off the tongue well enough. The immediate model for this approach might be Russia's Putin instead, who is in fact often suspected of or known to have funded at least some of these movements, especially in Europe as a way to weaken it. That said, he's still different due to Russia not having ever been a democracy in a meaningful sense, and as it turns out, he's very much an expansionist too (just not a very competent one).
I think this post makes a very important and useful claim, but one that is obscured by the use of the word 'fascism', which -- as the post itself admits -- has for decades had a very charged meaning and has been used in inconsistent ways. It seems as though it is usually used to draw an analogy with the WW2-era Axis powers, but the movements that you're highlighting lack some very important characteristics that those regimes had. Most importantly, under Modi/Orbán/Erdogan, control by the ruling party has never been total; opposition parties control the cap... (read more)