It recently dawned on me that fascism spawned from the same region as Machiavelli and most fascist leaders can definitely be described as machiavellian. I was wondering if anyone had any good resources to read about it’s development, especially relating to Italian history/social trends starting around the time of Machiavelli until the fall of Mussolini. My European history class in high school really only focused on Machiavelli, Italy uniting, and then the immediate origin of western “isms” leaving many gaps.
Also, I guess if my premise that facism was founded on Machiavellian principles is fundamentally flawed a quick debunk would be appreciated.
There are strictly speaking no machiavellian "principles". What people refer to as Machiavellianism is simply ruthless power politics. It has been practiced since organized groups of humans exist. To answer your question: fascism is NOT based on Machiavellianism and Machiavelli himself would have been opposed to such an ideology as he very clearly and unequivocally was a defender of the german free states that he praised as being the ideal for his vision of a government instead of the french-inspired monarchy where power is concentrated in the hands of one person. Machiavelli explicitly states in his book that he condones his "principles" only in times of emergency and crisis of a magnitude that could lead to a collapse of society, but "the ruler should not walk through the streets always with his knife in his hands" (I paraphrased this as I can't remember the exact quote).
In light of all this, all those people who speak of machiavellian "principles" either in a criticizing or praising manner, would be well advised to actually read his book (the WHOLE book and not just the first 10 pages) instead of using the term "Machiavellianism" as a buzzword to emphasize how bad totalitarianism is or even worse: recommend it as a modus operandi manual for managers. Machiavelli wanted a strict but just ruler, not an autocrat who terrorizes society into submission...