A comprehensive assessment of the nature and evolving character of authoritarian regimes, their changing character and the main theoretical explanations of their incidence, character and performance. The third edition covers the rise of new forms of disguised dictatorship and semi-competitive democracy in the 21st Century.
The Faces of Fraternalism is the first comparative sociological study of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. Brooker focuses on the very similar and highly unusual social policies of these three regimes. He uses the term "fraternalism" to describe their unique social policy ofattempting to instill in a modern society the primeval type of social solidarity found in clans and tribes, and known to sociologists as "mechanical solidarity." He describes the implementation of this policy by examining the three national or racial solidarity-building cults-National Socialism,Fascism, and State Shinto--and the dozens of indoctrinating organizations used to propagate them. This original examination throws fresh light on the efforts of three major twentieth-century powers to create and maintain social solidarity, and will enhance our understanding of the phenomenon offascism.