Jason Stanley’s How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them presents a meticulously researched exploration of the mechanisms by which fascist politics operate within modern democracies. Being a professor of philosophy, Stanley systematically outlines the major strategies that fascists employ to gain and consolidate power. His work is organized around ten key themes: the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, rural nostalgia (Sodom and Gomorrah), and the glorification of labour (Arbeit Macht Frei, trans for Work Makes You Free), that makes it a comprehensive contribution to the critical understanding of contemporary fascist politics. Nevertheless, while Stanley’s approach is lucid and timely, certain areas—particularly his treatment of global historical processes and the broader socio-economic underpinnings of fascism—deserve deeper exploration.

            Stanley opens with the invocation of a ‘Mythic Past’, a central fascist stratagem. He argues, “In the rhetoric of extreme nationalists, such a glorious past has been lost by the humiliation brought on by Globalism, Liberal cosmopolitanism, and respect for universal values such as equality” (p.13). However, while Stanley adequately presents this tactic, he overlooks the complex historical backdrop of globalism itself, particularly its roots in colonialism and industrialization—processes that subjugated weaker nations and entrenched global inequalities. This historical oversight weakens the analysis, particularly when considering how postcolonial nations often nurture suspicions towards globalization’s continuing effects. Moreover, Stanley does not fully distinguish the fascist manipulation of the past from traditionalist ideologies, which also idealize lost societal structures, especially concerning gender roles that confine women to domestic labour and childbearing.

            The role of ‘Propaganda’ is another major theme of the book, where Stanley illustrates how fascists weaponise accusations of corruption within democratic systems to create a political vacuum which they can easily exploit. One should remember the inexorable relationship between democracy and propaganda. As Jacques Ellul argues, “historically, from the moment a democratic regime establishes itself, propaganda establishes itself alongside it under various forms. In order to come to power, parties make propaganda to gain voters” (Ellul 1965: 232). Penetrating the existing fragilities of democracy led fascists to furnish their goals more swiftly. Further Stanley argues, “the role of Political Propaganda is to conceal politicians and Political movements’ clearly problematic goals by masking them with ideals that are widely accepted” (p.28). Stanley illustrates this tactic by providing historical and contemporary examples such as Richard Nixon’s “war on crime” and Donald Trump’s portrayal of Barack Obama as a usurper of traditional American values. Considering the intricate relationship between propaganda and ideology, it is very difficult to draw a total correspondence between a particular government using propaganda and its ideological backing. As again argued by Jacques Ellul, “propaganda no longer obeys an ideology. The propagandist is not and cannot be a believer. Moreover, he cannot believe in the ideology he must use in his propaganda” (Ellul 1965: 196). While Stanley notes the dangers of this dynamic, he could have undertaken a deeper examination of broader phenomenon of propaganda as a general political tool, employed across ideological divides. An intriguing perspective from Plato’s Republic comes to mind: “Democracy is a self-undermining system whose very ideals lead to its own demise” (p.33). Moreover, the author could have provided a concrete measure by which liberal democracies might defend themselves against this tactic.

            In the chapter, ‘Anti-intellectualism’, Stanley highlights the nationalisation of Hungarian schools and universities under Viktor Órban and Charles Koch Foundation’s support for conservative and dominant academic programs and argues, “fascist politics seek to undermine the credibility of Institutions that harbour independent voices of dissent until they can be replaced by media and universities that reject those voices” (p.22). This discussion would have been strengthened by closer engagement with Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent, which traces how elite interests shape intellectual production even in ostensibly liberal societies.

            In the chapter, ‘Unreality’, the author demonstrates how “fascists undermined and condemned universities as sources of bias, replaced reasoned debate with fear and anger and truth with power” (p.52), thereby underscoring the examples of ‘Pizza-gate’, ‘Birtherism’, and ‘love jihad’ to delegitimize independent media and distort public perception. Here, again, stronger parallels could have been drawn to critiques of capitalist media ownership structures advanced by Chomsky and Herman, highlighting how economic elites can also promote unreality for profit and power.

            In the chapter, ‘Hierarchy’, the author argues that societal hierarchy is a vital for fascist politics, writing that, “their principal justification of hierarchy is nature itself” (p.68). By citing Alexander H. Stephens ‘Cornerstone Speech’, where Stephens “denounces the principles of liberty and equality enshrined in the U.S. constitution as violations of the laws of nature”, Stanley shows how myths of racial and cultural superiority are used to present inequality as a natural order. However, instead of analysing this tactic at macro (institutional) level, micro agents are worthy of real concern, who nurture the edifice of super-structure of fascist hierarchy. For instance, internal religious divisions such as Brahmanical casteism in India, and domestic patriarchal structures that radical feminism sought to expose through slogans like ‘the personal is political’, reveals fascist tendencies can be found entrenched at micro-social level as well.

            In the chapter, ‘Victimhood’, Stanely argues, “fascist leaders employ a sense of collective victimhood to create a sense of group identity that is by nature opposed to the cosmopolitan ethos and individualism of liberal democracy”(p.85). Demands of level playing field are framed as existential threats to traditional order like Hindu khatre main hai (Hindus are in Danger), a narrative that is amplified by sympathetic media corporations, who share symbiotic relations with fascists.

            In the chapter, ‘Law and Order’, Stanley demonstrates how fascists valorise law-abiding members of the ‘in-group’ while criminalizing ‘out-group’ populations. Although he convincingly illustrates this dynamic by providing the völkisch (popular nationalist) movement as an example from Austria and Germany during the early 1880s that relied upon “a romanticized notion of ethnic purity”, and painting minority groups “as threats to law and order” (111), there is room for a more critical engagement with the role of institutions themselves. As Michel Foucault argues, “discipline produces subjected and practised bodies, ‘docile’ bodies”, and “the production of such bodies is ensured in prisons or prison like institutions such as schools, hospitals and factories etc” (Foucault 1977: 138). Fascists are not unique in exploiting institutions; rather, they weaponise pre-existing structures for exclusionary ends.

            In the chapter, ‘Sexual Anxiety’, Stanley explains sexual anxiety as another recurring tool in fascist rhetoric. He argues “fascist Propaganda promotes fear of interbreeding and race mixing, of corrupting the pure nation with inferior blood” (p.101). This led to the lynching of black men in the U.S. and the upsurge in anti-immigrant elements. By underscoring the examples of “Bathroom Bill of North Carolina” (p.106), the “Rohingya genocide” (p.103) and the conspiracy theories like “love jihad” (p.104), the author reflects on the role of sexuality as a site for political control throughout fascist regimes.

            In the chapter, ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’, Stanley discusses the fascist glorification of rural life and disdain for urban centres. By providing examples of “Hitler’s denunciation of large cosmopolitan cities” (p.112), Stanley argues, “fascist politics feeds the insulting myth that hardworking rural residents pay to support lazy urban dwellers” (p.115). This mythologizing helps to portray the rural population as virtuous and hardworking, while city dwellers are depicted as lazy, parasitic, and corrupt. The romanticising of agrarian life serves not merely to valorise the people of the chosen nation, but to justify the exclusion and oppression of marginalised urban groups, reinforcing the binaries of “us” and “them”.

            In the final chapter, Stanley uses the theme of labour and meritocracy, encapsulated by the slogan ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ (Work Makes You Free), and by exemplifying the treatment and attitude of Nazi Germany towards Jews, he reveals, “in fascist ideology, in times of crises and need, the state reserves support for members of the chosen nation, for “us” and not “them”. The justification is invariable because “they” are lazy, lack a work ethic, and cannot be trusted with state funds and because “they” are criminal and seek only to live off state largesse” (p.121). The author could have drawn the historical examination of perpetuating problems in third world countries, where colonial-era knowledge production, such as James Mill’s The History of British India and the scholarship of other orientalists laid the groundwork for religious and racial divisions. This would have provided a deeper understanding of the lasting legacies particularly in erstwhile colonies that fascist ideologies are exploiting today.

            In times of the rising fascist regimes around the globe, Stanley’s framework for understanding fascist politics and use of contemporary examples becomes immensely relevant. However, a deeper engagement with the historical roots of globalism, the economic underpinnings of propaganda and hierarchy, and the colonial origins of racial and religious divisions would have provided a richer, more historically grounded analysis. Despite these limitations, How Fascism Works stands as an important resource for scholars and citizens seeking to comprehend and resist the authoritarian temptations of the contemporary era.

Please buy the book here.

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Ellul, Jacques (1965):Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. New York: Vintage.

Foucault, Michel (1977): Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated from the French by Alan Sheridan. Vintage Books Edition, New York: Vintage Books