Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2966
Date of Award
6-2023
Degree Name
MA in History
Department/Program
History
College
College of Liberal Arts
Advisor
Andrea Oñate-Madrazo
Advisor Department
History
Advisor College
College of Liberal Arts
Abstract
Populism as a term is too ambiguous to describe the surge in far-right nationalistic leaders both during the Cold War and the present day. This paper proposes to solve this quagmire by proposing the term adaptive fascism. Adaptive fascism is the idea that far- right leaders using tactics that have legacies within fascist rhetoric have adapted the fascist rhetoric to fit more within the geopolitical situations of each leader’s respective time period. Looking at both leaders of the Cold War, including Jorge Videla of Argentina and Augusto Pinochet of Chile. As well as modern day leaders, Donald Trump of the United States and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, to show that fascism is not static and rather it is a living breathing ideology with the ability to adapt and shift to fit into the crises of different periods in geopolitical history.