Introduction

Abstract

In this chapter Priorelli compares the Italian Fascist and the Spanish Falangist political cultures from the early 1930s to the early 1940s, using the idea of the nation as the parameter of the comparison. Her main hypothesis is that the discourse on the nation constitutes a common denominator between the Italian and the Spanish manifestations of the fascist phenomenon, and it can be used as an analytical lens to highlight analogies and dissimilarities between the two cases. Priorelli’s research investigates how Fascist and Falangist ideologues defined and developed their own idea of the nation over time in order to legitimise their power inside their respective countries. It also examines the extent to which their concept of the nation influenced Italian and Spanish domestic and foreign policy choices.