The Imperium has practically nothing to do with fascism. The Imperium is feudalism at its worst, but not fascism. Individual planets in the Imperium may be under the rule of a fascist government. The Imperium as a whole has hardly more to do with it than Medieval France. The abomination of the life of the Imperium is based not on a conscious desire to worsen the life of the population (with all due respect, but the Imperium is not sadists who cause evil simply because they can), but on the inability of the central authorities to control the planets due to the characteristics of the Warp, as well as the lack of accountability of planetary governments in front of the population.
Is the Imperium a tyranny? Yes, more than. Is it fascism? Not at all, because fascism has criteria, and the Imperium does not fall under them.
Right. So. I'm gonna blow your mind, right, and tell you something.
The Imperium is 100% fascist. I don't call it fascist just because 'fascist' is the 'cool word' to use on things you don't like. Words have meanings, and I mean to say that the Imperium is fascist.
But I also believe that assertions need to be backed up. So, let's go over what the definition of Fascism is.
Wikipedia defines Fascism as a 'far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterised by a dictatorial leader, centralised autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.
Encyclopedia Britannica defines Fascism as having characteristics of extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in a natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a strong Volksgemeinschaft (German: 'People's Community').
World 101 defines fascism as a mass political movement that emphasizes extreme nationalism, militarism, and the supremacy of both the nation and the single, powerful leader over the individual system, while going further to state that fascist regimes, once in power and when it advances their interests, are also highly conservative in their championing of traditional values related to the role of women, social hierarchy, and obedience to authority. Notably, although fascist leaders typically claim to support the everyman, in reality their regimes often align with powerful business interests.
So, from those various sources - and yes, I know Wikipedia is a bad source, but I'm also not writing an academic paper here - we can gather a few key criteria for Fascism, and from there we shall measure whether or not the Imperium meets each of these criteria. These are
Authoritarianism,
Ultranationalism, being
Militaristic, having a
Belief in a Rigid Social Hierarchy,
Subordination of Individual Interests for the Perceived Good of the Community, and finally a
Strong Regimentation of Society and the Economy.
Let's begin, shall we?
Authoritarianism And The Imperium
The Imperium is nominally ruled by the God-Emperor of Mankind, who has appointed the Senatorum Imperialis to manage the affairs of the Imperium in His stead while he sits deathless upon the Golden Throne for all time. Amidst the Senatorum Imperialis, of which its members are the highest ranked officials of the various divisions, departments, and organisations that manage various arms of the Imperium, the twelve most powerful members are appointed to become High Lords of Terra. These officials then make unilateral decisions on policy and governance that then trickle down to the rest of the Imperium, largely filtered through their subordinates such as the various Segmentum Lords, the Sector Lords, all the way down past Planetary Governor.
Nowhere here did I ever mention that these officials were elected.
Once you get past the Sector Lord level - and honestly even most Sector Lords, Subsector Lords and Planetary Governors work this way - all of these officials are
appointed, not elected, at best through bureaucratic processes where people are promoted upon merit and more likely because they're friends with the boss who promotes them, have a powerful family, or are just filthy fucking rich. No one ever elected the Master of the Administratum. Only Cardinals get to vote in the Ecclesiarch. They settle the position of Fabricator-General of Mars through
axe duel. At no point do normal people get to choose who rules them, nor do they get any say in what policy is going on. They just do as they are told, and have no say in the matter.
And we're coming right back to Mars, by the way, because
that shit right there is a massive trashfire too.
In addition, while the reality of interstellar communication is one thing, power is still concentrated within the highest levels of government. The final word of the law rests with the Arbites. The Imperial Guard and the Imperial Navy command a monopoly on ground and space warfare assets. The Assassinorum literally exists to kill people on the orders of the High Lords. Executive Power is centralised on Terra, split between the various Adeptuses of the Imperium, and that is that. There is no strict way for power to be transferred without major bloodshed, and the Imperium keeps it that way.
So yes, the Imperium is Authoritarian. Not like, strictly a Dictatorship because there isn't a single individual in which full unilateral authority is invested (because the Emperor isn't around), but an Oligarchy can be Authoritarian too. Just look at Russia.
Ultranationalism And The Xenos
The Imperium is not strictly racist. The Imperium is not technically an Ethnostate in the vein of what the Third Reich was trying to create, and there's not really contempt between races.
Human Races, anyways.
This is well and truly alive when it comes to mutants and aliens. Mutants run the full gamut, from stable Abhumans to those more unfortunate to those with birth defects like Albinism to chaos twisted monsters, but Abhumans are distinctly second class citizens and even those with benign mutations are treated like chaos spawn. Aliens get it notably worse, being decried as 'the great enemy' and as the great external threat that mankind must unite against in order to reclaim their great destiny, because they betrayed us, stole from us our birthright, and now we must reclaim what is rightfully ours and get our revenge, yada yada yada, blah blah blah... I feel like I've heard this argument before.
The Imperium's zeal and xenophobia is ultimately the result of its humanistic streak, which is the closest analogue to Nationalism that exists within the setting. The 'great other' that exists for the Imperium to point at and divert all concerns towards is everyone else, and whether or not it is justified in the setting - and, honestly, is often justified because the Imperium did it first (incidentally how it happens a lot irl too, history is very long and spite is infinite) - it is and still remains Ultranationalistic.
So yes. The Imperium is Ultranationalistic. Just not in a really contemporary fashion, for now.
I don't even need to talk about Chaos, do I?
Militarism and the Wall of Guns
I shouldn't even need to justify this, but I'm going to. The definition of Militarism is
the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. Which is something the Imperium believes strongly in, hence why it has not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, but
seven types of armed forces.
By the way, they're the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Navy, the Sisters of Battle, the Mechanicus, the Imperial Knights, the Space Marines, the Custodes, the Sisters of Silence, and I didn't even include the various PDF or Rogue Trader armies. Also, the Arbites. The police are semi-militarised, after all,
as we should never forget that Adeptus Arbites precincts on any given planet are designed to be fortresses and the last bastion of imperial governance should the planet's population rise up in revolt.
Seven separate chains of command! More, honestly, because the various Titan Legions and Skitarii and Ordo Reductor formations and Ordinati and Explorator Fleets and Cybernetica formations and Space Marine Chapters and Knightly Houses all follow separate chains of commands too.
'It's necessary though, because the Imperium needs all the firepower it can get against all its enemies.'
Perhaps, but the fact remains that it is what it is. Especially given that Imperial Diplomacy often starts and ends with 'time to die, xenos scum', or 'time to die, traitor,' or even 'HERETICCCCCCC'.
The Imperium is Militarist, undeniably so.
The Rigid Social Hierarchy and the Cult of Sacrifice
No, not Pandora's.
The Imperium is quite clearly stratified into social classes, though little detail is gone into because why would it? While this can change from world to world, you have:
The Menials, who do the shitty work, get shitty pay, receive shitty treatment, and are usually the source of rebellious thought and chaotic or alien subversion because of their great discontent. Whether they are slaves on an Agri-World, poor schmucks in the Underhive, or the labourers at a Forge World, they're all treated like shit and have short, miserable lives. Their lives have little value and their rights are zero, as the Imperium - and the Elites that rule over them - often have carte blanche to just use them however they want like currency. Need more guardsmen? Press gang some menials. Navy needs crew? Press gang some menials. Need servitors? Push some trumped up charges on menials, get their meat. The list goes on.
The Middle Class, which is so small as to be microscopic but which surely
must exist somewhere, because you can't go straight from Menial to Elite. Where the first batch of educated people show up, they are probably the managers, the NCOs, the tech-artisans who aren't quite tech priests, that's where they come from. It's probably kinda sad that most Guardsmen wind up in this social class, but funnily enough, nations exploiting shitty living standards to buffet military recruitment by offering signing on bonuses and military life as an escape from their prior treatment is a thing irl too. Just look at the USA. This is where all the other graduates of the Schola Progenium tend to come out of, those poor fuckin' Stormtroopers.
The Elites, which is where all the rich people are. Often landed nobility or business magnates, often the source of the majority of all Officers in the Imperium, Tech-Priests, Administratum clerks, and governors and political leaders in the Imperium. Sometimes even the source of new Space Marines - see the Ultramarines - but generally they have better things to do than give up their children to become brainwashed supersoldiers who will inevitably die in the line of service like so many others. This is often where graduates of the Schola Progenium come out as, though it is by no means perfect.
The rigid social hierarchy is well and truly alive in the Imperium. Merit is dead, and this is one of those reasons. Promotion is not necessarily based on ability, but by breeding and political allies. There is a reason why it is
surprising whenever high level Imperial officials are actually competent and sensible.
The
other reason why merit is dead is because of the cult of sacrifice - no, again, not Pandora's. As I often like to say - both because it's really cool and because it sums things up really well - the Imperium is watered with the blood of heroes. And this is encouraged by the Imperium. Giving your life for the sake of the Imperium is one of the greatest things a person can do. Those who die in the line of service are rewarded with their children being admitted to the Schola Progenium, to be given hope in a better life - often by becoming brainwashed drones who will
also die in the line of service for the sake of the Imperium. Again and again, forever and ever, people will die for the sake of the Imperium because that is what they know and what it rewards.
There is another saying for this; Shit floats to the top.
Let those valiant, capable, brave men and women die gloriously in the line of service. Everyone else gets to reap the benefits.
The Economy and The Mechanicus
And here we are, back with the Mechanicus, comedy it is.
The Mechanicus is ultimately not really the Imperium, but a second empire welded onto the Imperium and now mutually reliant upon one another, like siamese twins. It is a Machine Cult, one that exults in the glory of technology and the triumph of the Ancients that came before. It is also technologically regressive and resents innovation because it is 'dangerous', as everything that is has already been discovered and so the
right way to reclaim our technological birthright is by digging up whatever the Ancients have discovered before. Nevermind that even the height of the DAoT couldn't compare to the Eldar Dominion or the Necron Empire, let alone the Old Ones or the C'tan, they kind of forget how the Ancients reached this point to begin with, and even if the universe seems to agree with their assertions with all that chaos corrupted STC and all the radicals who fall to chaos and all the tainted technology that exists if not built according to an STC template... They're still wrong.
But the Mechanicus also has near-total monopoly on the production of all advanced technology in the Imperium. Starships? Warp drives? Hive city structures? Power swords? Energy shields? Tanks? Skimmers? Aircraft? All of it is the Mechanicus. All of that is built by the Mechanicus, whether on a manufactorum leased from a local planet or a Forge World directly. And the Mechanicus guards this monopoly religiously - literally so - and often threatens and acts upon those threats against anyone who would try to violate their monopoly. To say nothing of the fact that most people don't have the expertise to do the Mechanicus' job anyways, given they are also the only real source of education in any of the STEM fields.
So in this, the Mechanicus is our Corporation. Just even dumber and crazier than the ones we already know and love. And the Imperium appeals to it constantly even as it jostles against it for supremacy, as its elites enjoy the fruits of this cooperation even as the least of its people - again, the majority of its population - are literally grinded into bone powder if that's what suits those same elites.
So once again, the Imperium fits this definition.
But what is Fascism, Really?
So, having summed it all up, the above should handily prove that the Imperium is fascist. But if that doesn't satisfy you, let's reference an actual work analysing Fascism and what it is.
And the definition of Fascism is... There is none. Fascism has no clear definition, because Benito Mussolini never actually clarified it. Even if you look at the openly Fascist states in our history - Italy and Germany - you will not see that either of them follows the same school of Fascism. Mussolini was significantly more militaristic, while the Third Reich and the Nazis were very, incredibly ethno-nationalist and darwinian in their bureaucracy. Given that WW2 proceeded to make Fascist a dirty word, from then on it becomes very difficult to determine what government identifies as Fascist and what government
is Fascist.
But although there is no clear definition for Fascism, there
are clear general characteristics of fascist ideology.
And our dear friend Umberto Eco proceeds to make a very neat 14 point list for us to use!
- "The cult of tradition", characterized by cultural syncretism, even at the risk of internal contradiction. When all truth has already been revealed by tradition, no new learning can occur, only further interpretation and refinement.
- "The rejection of modernism", which views the rationalistic development of Western culture since the Enlightenment as a descent into depravity. Eco distinguishes this from a rejection of superficial technological advancement, as many fascist regimes cite their industrial potency as proof of the vitality of their system.
- "The cult of action for action's sake", which dictates that action is of value in itself and should be taken without intellectual reflection. This, says Eco, is connected with anti-intellectualism and irrationalism, and often manifests in attacks on modern culture and science.
- "Disagreement is treason" – fascism devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action, as well as out of fear that such analysis will expose the contradictions embodied in a syncretistic faith.
- "Fear of difference", which fascism seeks to exploit and exacerbate, often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants.
- "Appeal to a frustrated middle class", fearing economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups.
- "Obsession with a plot" and the hyping-up of an enemy threat. This often combines an appeal to xenophobia with a fear of disloyalty and sabotage from marginalized groups living within the society (such as the German elite's "fear" of the 1930s Jewish populace's businesses and well-doings; see also antisemitism). Eco also cites Pat Robertson's book The New World Order as a prominent example of a plot obsession.
- Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as "at the same time too strong and too weak". On the one hand, fascists play up the power of certain disfavored elites to encourage in their followers a sense of grievance and humiliation. On the other hand, fascist leaders point to the decadence of those elites as proof of their ultimate feebleness in the face of an overwhelming popular will.
- "Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy" because "life is permanent warfare" – there must always be an enemy to fight. Both fascist Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini worked first to organize and clean up their respective countries and then build the war machines that they later intended to and did use, despite Germany being under restrictions of the Versailles treaty to not build a military force. This principle leads to a fundamental contradiction within fascism: the incompatibility of ultimate triumph with perpetual war.
- "Contempt for the weak", which is uncomfortably married to a chauvinistic popular elitism, in which every member of society is superior to outsiders by virtue of belonging to the in-group. Eco sees in these attitudes the root of a deep tension in the fundamentally hierarchical structure of fascist polities, as they encourage leaders to despise their underlings, up to the ultimate leader, who holds the whole country in contempt for having allowed him to overtake it by force.
- "Everybody is educated to become a hero", which leads to the embrace of a cult of death. As Eco observes, "[t]he Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death."
- "Machismo", which sublimates the difficult work of permanent war and heroism into the sexual sphere. Fascists thus hold "both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality".
- "Selective populism" – the people, conceived monolithically, have a common will, distinct from and superior to the viewpoint of any individual. As no mass of people can ever be truly unanimous, the leader holds himself out as the interpreter of the popular will (though truly he dictates it). Fascists use this concept to delegitimize democratic institutions they accuse of "no longer represent[ing] the voice of the people".
- "Newspeak" – fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning.
This post is long enough, so I'll leave the above list for your own perusal. But tell me, how many of those characteristics does the Imperium tick off? because it's easily most of them, and the ones it does not manage is entirely due to lack of capability, not moral disgust.
So, tell me. Is the Imperium Fascist?
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