Brazilian Integralism as a Variant of Fascism

The ideology of the leaders of the Brazilian Integralist Action

Abstract

The existence of fascism outside of Europe is something that the majority of researchers now takes for granted, being the Brazilian AIB one of the cases that is generally seen as a manifestation of this phenomenon in the American continent. However, all the recent studies did not exhaust the pertinence of a detailed analysis focused on the ideology of this movement within the scope of studies about “generic fascism”. For this reason, the goal of this essay is to approach the ideology of the AIB as a manifestation of fascism, seeking to establish in a more thorough way which were the components that allow for us to insert it in the wider phenomenon to which Hitler and Mussolini also belonged, as well as the elements that made it a variety with unique characteristics. Thus, using the conceptual morphological approach, this essay first presents an ideological pattern of “generic fascism” composed of six core concepts (nation, state, synthesis, revolution, authority and violence), and then proceeds to a close reading of texts written by integralists like Plínio Salgado, Miguel Reale e Gustavo Barroso with the goal of finding in them the same concepts and the way how they interlink, creating some meanings which are common to the generic pattern, as well as other that are unique to the Brazilian variety. 

Keywords: Fascism; Integralism; Ideology.