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# How does fascism happen?
- URL: https://www.europeans.today/2026/01/30/how-does-fascism-happen/
- Published: 2026-01-30T01:05:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-31T03:15:41.000Z
- Description: A list of tactical patterns used by fascist regimes highlights the incremental steps taken to erode democratic institutions and consolidate absolute power.
- Author:  B. Jay Cooper
- Tags: OPINION, Trump 2.0, Fascism, Authoritarianism, Political Science, Democracy, Human Rights, Dictatorship, Governance, United States, US Politics, Donald Trump

**What you need to know** 

🔹 Fascist movements often emerge through incremental and seemingly minor shifts in behaviour.   
🔹 Key tactics include neutering parliaments and emasculating independent court systems.   
🔹 Freedom of the press is slowly limited alongside attacks on journalists.   
🔹 Leaders often manipulate truth and investigate political enemies to maintain control. 

 W  hen you look back at fascists, you see patterns of behaviour that, while they are happening, don’t seem so nefarious individually. But when you add them up, a different story appears. For example:

*Neutering the parliament/Congress* 
*Emasculating the courts* 
*Limiting press freedom slowly* 
*Raiding journalists’ homes* 
*Appointing only true loyalists* 
*Banishing from their government anyone who doesn’t toe the line* 
*Employing spokesmen who ignore questions and attack the questioner for a lack of patriotism* 

*Employing spokesman who tell the public that it didn’t see what it saw* 
*Investigating and charging perceived political enemies* 
*Pardoning people convicted and/or confessing to crimes for no seeming reason* 
*Threatening to cancel elections* 
*Claiming a lost election is a rigged election* 
*Redrawing political maps out to maintain control* 
*Manipulating information to match their version of the truth* 
*Lying* 

*Bullying* 
*Intimidating* 
*Going around traditional institutions and creating their own* 
*Unilaterally defunding programs they don’t agree with* 
*Unilaterally changing laws without going through the traditional process* 
*Taking down monuments of those they don’t agree with* 
*Building monuments to yourself* 
*Employing a masked police force* 

The list, unfortunately, goes on until someone stops it.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/15/40/1540bec0-7154-4feb-b8e1-97f579155b08/content/images/2021/09/end-flat-1.png) 

### **GOING FURTHER**

- ###### [Fascism: Definition, Characteristics, & History](https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism?ref=europeans.today) | BRITANNICA
- ###### [What is fascism and where does the word come from?](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54316315?ref=europeans.today) | BBC NEWS
- ###### [The long shadow of fascism in modern Europe](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/22/rise-of-far-right-europe-fascism-history?ref=europeans.today) | THE GUARDIAN
- ###### [Understanding the mechanics of authoritarianism](https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/how-fascism-works-world-politics?ref=europeans.today) | COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
- ###### [What exactly is fascism?](https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2022/10/06/what-is-fascism?ref=europeans.today) | THE ECONOMIST
- ###### [On Tyranny: Lessons from the Twentieth Century](https://history.yale.edu/publications/on-tyranny-twenty-lessons-twentieth-century?ref=europeans.today) | YALE UNIVERSITY
- ###### [Ur-Fascism: Umberto Eco’s 14 properties](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/?ref=europeans.today) | NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

  
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#### **Sources:**

###### ▪ This piece was first published in [The Screaming Moderate](http://www.bjaycooper.com/blog/how-does-fascism-happen?ref=europeans.today) and re-published in Europeans TODAY on 30 January 2026 under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. | The author writes in a personal capacity.

###### ▪ **Cover:** Flickr/[The White House](https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/55069324120/?ref=europeans.today). (Licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/?ref=europeans.today).)

![Creative Commons License](https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/4.0/88x31.png "Cover photograph license")

  
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