Der Lehrling und sein Meister

European fascism is typically described as an attack on liberal politics, culture, and economy. Ishay Landa, a professor of history at the Open University of Israel, emphasizes the long-neglected affinity between liberal tradition and fascism. Far from being the antithesis of liberalism, fascism was dialectically tied to liberalism in both its ideology and practice, particularly its economic variant. Landa supports his thesis with a concise reading of political thinkers from Locke and Burke to Proudhon, Bagehot, Sorel, and Schmitt. According to Landa, fascism was the organic result of developments that largely took place within liberal society and ideology. It was the extreme attempt to resolve the crisis of liberalism by breaking through its internal contradictions in order to save the bourgeoisie from itself.