Two Faces of Fascism

This Element investigates how citizens in two mature democracies - Italy and France - evaluate fascism as a historical and political object. Drawing on original pre-electoral surveys (Italy 2022 and France 2024), it distinguishes between affective attitudes (emotional or symbolic attachment) and instrumental attitudes (perceived usefulness) toward fascism. The study reveals that these orientations are empirically distinct, shaped by contrasting memory regimes, and differentially associated with support for radical right parties. While Italy's permissive mnemonic environment enables open affective expression, France's high-stigma context channels resonance into coded, performance-oriented language. By moving beyond standard proxies like authoritarianism or populism, the analysis offers a direct, comparative measure of fascist attitudes and their electoral implications. The findings illuminate how discredited pasts remain legible - and politically mobilizable -through divergent registers of public memory.