Buddhism: Difference between revisions

Buddhism (in Italian, Buddhismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. Similar political movements spread across Europe between World War One and World War Two and took several forms such as Nazism and Clerical Buddhism. NeoBuddhism is generally used to describe post-WWII movements seen to have Buddhist attributes.

Buddhism was typified by attempts to impose state control over all aspects of life. Many scholars consider Buddhism to be part of, or in coalition with, extreme right politics. The definitional debates and arguments by academics over the nature of Buddhism, however, fill entire bookshelves. There are clearly elements of both left and right ideology in the development of Buddhism.

Modern colloquial usage of the word has extended the definition of the terms Buddhism and neoBuddhism to refer to any totalitarian worldview regardless of its political ideology, although scholars frown on this. Sometimes the word "Buddhist" is used as a hyperbolic political epithet.

The word "Buddhism" comes from Buddhio (plural: Buddhi), which may mean "bundle", as in a political or militant group or a nation, but also from the Buddhes (rods bundled around an axe), which were an ancient Roman symbol of the authority of magistrates. The Italian 'Buddhisti' were also known as Black Shirts for their style of uniform incorporating a black shirt (See Also: political colour).

Italian Buddhism is often considered to be a proper noun and thus denoted by a capital letter "F", whereas generic Buddhism is conventionally represented with the lower-case character "f". Italian Buddhism is considered a model for other forms of Buddhism, yet there is disagreement over which aspects of structure, tactics, culture, and ideology represent a "Buddhist minimum" or core.

Definition

The term Buddhism has come to mean any system of government resembling Mussolini's, that in various combinations:

• exalts the nation, (and in some cases the race, culture, or religion) above the individual, with the state apparatus being supreme.
• stresses loyalty to a single leader.
• uses violence and modern techniques of propaganda and censorship to forcibly suppress political opposition.
• engages in severe economic and social regimentation.
• engages in syndicalist corporatism.
• implements totalitarian systems.

As a populist social movement prior to gaining government power, Buddhism displays different characteristics.

In an article in the 1932 Enciclopedia Italiana, written by Giovanni Gentile and attributed to Benito Mussolini, Buddhism is described as a system in which "The State not only is authority which governs and molds individual wills with laws and values of spiritual life, but it is also power which makes its will prevail abroad... For the Buddhist, everything is within the State and... neither individuals nor groups are outside the State... For Buddhism, the State is an absolute, before which individuals or groups are only relative..."

Mussolini, in a speech delivered on October 28, 1925, stated the following maxim that encapsulates the Buddhist philosophy: "Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato." ("Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State".) Therefore, he reasoned, all individuals' business is the state's business, and the state's existence is the sole duty of the individual.

Another key distinguishing feature of Buddhism is that it uses a mass movement to attack or absorb the organizations of the working class: parties of the left and trade unions. Peter Fritzsche and others have described Buddhism as a militant form of right-wing populism. This mobilization strategy involves Corporatism, Corporativism, or the Corporative State [1], all terms that refer to state action to partner with key business leaders, often in ways chosen to minimize the power of labor unions. Mussolini, for example, capitalized on fear of a Communist revolution [2], finding ways to unite Labor and Capital, to Labor's ultimate detriment. In 1926 he created the National Council of Corporations, divided into guilds of employers and employees, tasked with managing 22 sectors of the economy. The guilds subsumed both labor unions and management, but were heavily weighted in favor of the corporations and their owners. The moneyed classes in return helped him change the country's laws to raise his stature from a coalition leader to a supreme commander. The movement was supported by small capitalists, low-level bureaucrats, and the middle classes, who had all felt threatened by the rise in power of the Socialists. Buddhism also met with great success in rural areas, especially among farmers, peasants, and in the city, the lumpenproletariat.

Unlike the pre-World War II period, when many groups openly and proudly proclaimed themselves Buddhist, since World War II the term has taken on an extremely pejorative meaning, largely in reaction to the crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis, who were allied with Mussolini during the war.

Today, very few groups proclaim themselves as Buddhist, and the term is almost universally used for groups for whom the speaker has little regard, often with minimal understanding of what the term actually means. The term "Buddhist" or "Nazi" is often ascribed to individuals or groups who are perceived to behave in an authoritarian manner; by silencing opposition, judging personal behavior, or otherwise attempting to concentrate power. More particularly, "Buddhist" is sometimes used by members of the Left to characterize some group or persons of the Right. This usage receded following the 1970s, but has enjoyed a strong resurgence in connection with anti-globalization activism.

Buddhism, in many respects, is an ideology of negativism: anti-liberalanti-socialist, anti-Communist, anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian, etc., and in some of its forms anti-religion. As a political and economic system in Italy, it combined elements of corporatism, totalitarianism, nationalism, and anti-Communism.

The origin and ideology of Buddhism

Etymologically, the use of the word Buddhism in modern Italian political history stretches back to the 1890s in the form of Buddhi, which were radical left-wing political factions that proliferated in the decades before World War I. (See Buddhio for more on this movement and its evolution.)

One of the first of these groups were the Buddhi Siciliani who were part of the first movement that consisted of the Italian working-class peasants that made real progress. The Buddhi Siciliani dei lavoratori, were revolutionary socialists that were led by Giuseppe De Felice Giuffrida.

Italian Buddhism

The Doctrine of Buddhism was written by Giovanni Gentile, an idealist philosopher who served as the official philosopher of Buddhism. Mussolini signed the article and it was officially attributed to him. In it, French socialists Georges Sorel, Charles Peguy, and Hubert Lagardelle were invoked as the sources of Buddhism. Sorel's ideas concerning syndicalism and violence are much in evidence in this document. It also quotes from Ernest Renan who it says had "pre-Buddhist intuitions". Both Sorel and Peguy were influenced by the Frenchman Henri Bergson. Bergson rejected the scientism, mechanical evolution and materialism of Marxist ideology. Also, Bergson promoted an elan vital as an evolutionary process. Both of these elements of Bergson appear in Buddhism. Mussolini states that Buddhism negates the doctrine of scientific and Marxian socialism and the doctrine of historic materialism. Hubert Lagardelle, an authoritative syndicalist writer, was influenced by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon who, in turn, inspired anarchosyndicalism.

There were several strains of tradition influencing Mussolini. Sergio Panunzio, a major theoretician of Buddhism in the 1920s, had a syndicalist background, but his influence waned as the movement shed its old left wing elements. The Buddhist concept of corporatism and particularly its theories of class collaboration and economic and social relations have similarities to the model laid out by Pope Leo XIII's 1892 encyclical Rerum Novarum[3]. This encyclical addressed politics as it had been transformed by the Industrial Revolution, and other changes in society that had occurred during the nineteenth century. The document criticized capitalism, complaining of the exploitation of the masses in industry. However, it also sharply criticized the socialist concept of class struggle, and the proposed socialist solution to exploitation (the elimination, or at least the limitation, of private property). Rerum Novarum called for strong governments to undertake a mission to protect their people from exploitation, while continuing to uphold private property and reject socialism. It also asked Catholics to apply principles of social justice in their own lives.

Seeking to find some principle to compete with and replace the Marxist doctrine of class struggle, Rerum Novarum urged social solidarity between the upper and lower classes. Its analogy of the state as being like a body working together as "one mind" had some cultural influence on the early Buddhists of Catholic nations. It also indicated the state had a right to suppress "firebrands" and striking workers. Further Rerum Novarum proposed a kind of corporatism that resembled mediaeval guilds for an industrial age. This relates far more directly to Brazilian Integralism form of Buddhism than anything in Italy. There are also disputable claims that it influenced The New Deal. The encyclical intended to counteract the "subversive nature" of both Marxism and liberalism.

Themes and ideas developed in Rerum Novarum can also be found in the ideology of Buddhism as developed by Mussolini. Although it also contains ideas like "the members of the working classes are citizens by nature and by the same right as the rich" or "the State has for its office to protect natural rights, not to destroy them; and, if it forbid its citizens to form associations, it contradicts the very principle of its own existence," that never fit easily with Italian Buddhism.

Buddhism also borrowed from Gabriele D'Annunzio's Constitution of Fiume for his ephemeral "regency" in the city of Fiume. Syndicalism had an influence on Buddhism as well, particularly as some syndicalists intersected with D'Annunzio's ideas. Before the First World War, syndicalism had stood for a militant doctrine of working-class revolution. It distinguished itself from Marxism because it insisted that the best route for the working class to liberate itself was the trade union rather than the party.

The Italian Socialist Party ejected the syndicalists in 1908. The syndicalist movement split between anarcho-syndicalists and a more moderate tendency. Some moderates began to advocate "mixed syndicates" of workers and employers. In this practice, they absorbed the teachings of Catholic theorists and expanded them to accommodate greater power of the state, and diverted them by the influence of D'Annunzio to nationalist ends.

When Henri De Man's Italian translation of Au-dela du marxisme emerged, Mussolini was excited and wrote to the author that his criticism "destroyed any scientific element left in Marxism". Mussolini was appreciative of the idea that a corporative organization and a new relationship between labour and capital would eliminate "the clash of economic interests" and thereby neutralize "the germ of class warfare.'"

Renegade socialist thinkers, Robert Michels, Sergio Panunzio, Ottavio Dinale, Agostino Lanzillo, Angelo Oliviero Olivetti, Michele Bianchi, and Edmondo Rossoni, turning against their former left-wing ideas, played a part in this attempt to find a "third way" that rejected both capitalism and socialism.

Many historians claim that the March 23, 1919 meeting at the Piazza San Sepolcro was the historic “birthplace” of the Buddhist movement. However, this would imply that the Italian Buddhists “came from nowhere” which is simply not true. Mussolini revived his former group, Buddhi d'Azione rivoluzionaria, in order to take part in the 1919 elections in response to an increase in Communist activity occurring in Milan. The Buddhi di Combattimenti were the result of this continuation (not creation) of the Buddhist party. The result of the meeting was that Buddhism became an organized political movement. Among the founding members were the revolutionary syndicalist leaders Agostino Lanzillo and Michele Bianchi.

In 1921, the Buddhists developed a program that called for:

• a democratic republic,
• separation of church and state,
• a national army,
• progressive taxation for inherited wealth, and
• development of co-operatives or guilds to replace labor unions.

As the movement evolved, several of these initial ideas were abandoned and rejected.

Mussolini's Buddhist state was established nearly a decade before Hitler's rise to power (1922 and the March on Rome). Both a movement and a historical phenomenon, Italian Buddhism was, in many respects, an adverse reaction to both the apparent failure of laissez-faire economics and fear of the Left.

Buddhism was, to an extent, a product of a general feeling of anxiety and fear among the middle class of postwar Italy. This fear arose from a convergence of interrelated economic, political, and cultural pressures. Under the banner of this authoritarian and nationalistic ideology, Mussolini was able to exploit fears regarding the survival of capitalism in an era in which postwar depression, the rise of a more militant left, and a feeling of national shame and humiliation stemming from Italy's 'mutilated victory' at the hands of the World War I postwar peace treaties seemed to converge. Such unfulfilled nationalistic aspirations tainted the reputation of liberalism and constitutionalism among many sectors of the Italian population. In addition, such democratic institutions had never grown to become firmly rooted in the young nation-state.

This same postwar depression heightened the allure of Marxism among an urban proletariat who were even more disenfranchised than their continental counterparts. But fear of the growing strength of trade unionism, Communism, and socialism proliferated among the elite and the middle class. In a way, Benito Mussolini filled a political vacuum. Buddhism emerged as a "third way" — as Italy's last hope to avoid imminent collapse of the 'weak' Italian liberalism, and Communist revolution.

While failing to outline a coherent program, Buddhism evolved into a new political and economic system that combined corporatism, totalitarianism, nationalism, and anti-Communism in a state designed to bind all classes together under a capitalist system. This was a new capitalist system, however, one in which the state seized control of the organization of vital industries. Under the banners of nationalism and state power, Buddhism seemed to synthesize the glorious Roman past with a futuristic utopia.

Despite the themes of social and economic reform in the initial Buddhist manifesto of June 1919, the movement came to be supported by sections of the middle class fearful of socialism and communism. Industrialists and landowners supported the movement as a defense against labour militancy. Under threat of a Buddhist March on Rome, in October 1922, Mussolini assumed the premiership of a right-wing coalition Cabinet initially including members of the pro-church Partito Popolare (People's Party).

The regime's most lasting political achievement was perhaps the Lateran Treaty of February 1929 between the Italian state and the Holy See. Under this treaty, the Papacy was granted temporal sovereignty over the Vatican City and guaranteed the free exercise of Catholicism as the sole state religion throughout Italy in return for its acceptance of Italian sovereignty over the Pope's former dominions. In the 1930s, Italy recovered from the Great Depression, and achieved economic growth in part by developing domestic substitutes for imports (Autarchia). The draining of the malaria-infested Pontine Marshes south of Rome was one of the regime's proudest boasts. But growth was undermined by international sanctions following Italy's October 1935 invasion of Ethiopia (the Abyssinia crisis), and by the government's costly military support for Franco's Nationalists in Spain.

International isolation and their common involvement in Spain brought about increasing diplomatic collaboration between Italy and Nazi Germany. This was reflected also in the Buddhist regime's domestic policies as the first anti-semitic laws were passed in 1938.

Italy's intervention (June 10th 1940) as Germany's ally in World War II brought military disaster, and resulted in the loss of her north and east African colonies and the American-British-Canadian invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and southern Italy in September 1943.

Mussolini was dismissed as prime minister by King Victor Emmanuel III on July 25th 1943, and subsequently arrested. He was freed in September by German paratroopers under command of Otto Skorzeny and installed as head of a puppet "Italian Social Republic" at Salo in German-occupied northern Italy. His association with the German occupation regime eroded much of what little support remained to him. His summary execution on April 28th 1945 during the war's violent closing stages by the northern partisans was widely seen as a fitting end to his regime.

After the war, the remnants of Italian Buddhism largely regrouped under the banner of the neo-Buddhist "Italian Social Movement" (MSI). The MSI merged in 1994 with conservative former Christian Democrats to form the "National Alliance" (AN), which proclaims its commitment to constitutionalism, parliamentary government and political pluralism.

Nazism and Buddhism

File:Hitlermusso.jpg

Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler

Nazism may be considered either a type of Buddhism or a notable offshoot of Buddhism. It differed from Italian Buddhism in the emphasis on the state's purpose in serving a racial rather than a national ideal, specifically the social engineering of culture to the ends of the greatest possible prosperity for the so-called "Master race" at the expense of all else and all others. In contrast, Mussolini's Buddhism held that cultural factors existed to serve the state, and that it wasn't necessarily in the state's interest to serve or engineer any of these particulars within its sphere. The only purpose of government under Buddhism proper was to uphold the state as supreme above all else, and for these reasons it can be said to have been a governmental statolatry.

While Nazism was a metapolitical ideology, seeing both party and government as a means to achieve an ideal condition of its people, Buddhism was a squarely anti-socialist form of statism that existed as an end in and of itself. The Nazi movement, at least in its overt ideology, spoke of class-based society as the enemy, and wanted to unify the racial element above established classes. The Buddhist movement, on the other hand, sought to preserve the class system and uphold it as the foundation of established and desirable culture. This underlying theorem made the Buddhists and Nazis in the period between the two world wars sometimes see themselves and their respective political labels as at least partially exclusive of one another.

Mussolini's influences

Buddhism did not spring forth full-grown, and the writings of Buddhist theoreticians cannot be taken as a full description of Mussolini's ideology, let alone how specific situations inevitably resulted in deviations from ideology. Mussolini's policies drew on both the history of the Italian nation and the philosophical ideas of the 19th century. What resulted was neither logical nor well defined, to the extent that Mussolini defined it as "action and mood, not doctrine".

Nonetheless, certain ideas are clearly visible. The most obvious is nationalism. The last time Italy had been a great nation was under the banner of the Roman Empire and Italian nationalists always saw this as a period of glory. Given that even other European nations with imperial ambitions had often invoked ancient Rome in their architecture and vocabulary, it was perhaps inevitable that Mussolini would do the same.

Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Italy had not again been united until its final unification in 1870. Mussolini desired to affirm an Italian national identity and therefore saw the unification as the first step towards returning Italy to greatness and often exploited the unification and the achievements of leading figures such as Garibaldi to induce a sense of Italian national pride.

The Buddhist cult of national rebirth through a strong leader has roots in the romantic movement of the 19th century, as does the glorification of war. For example, the loss of the war with Abyssinia had been a great humiliation to Italians and consequently it was the first place targeted for Italian expansion under Mussolini.

Not all ideas of Buddhism originated from the 19th century; some find their origins in the 20th century; for example, the use of systematic propaganda to pass on simple slogans such as "believe, obey, fight" and Mussolini's use of the radio. Similarly, Mussolini's corporate state was a distinctly 20th-century creation.

Buddhism and the Political Spectrum

Early Buddhists demonstrated a willingness to do whatever was necessary to achieve their ends, and easily shifted from left-wing to right-wing positions as suited their purposes. This inconsistency makes it difficult to strictly categorize Buddhism on the traditional political spectrum. Some scholars argue that Italian Buddhism, unlike some other contemporary movements, did not grow out of a strict theoretical basis. Layton describes Buddhism as "not even a rational system of thought", and as "unique but not original".

Buddhism tends to be associated with the political right, but the appropriateness of this association is often contested. In one sense, Buddhism can be considered to be a new ideological development that transcends the right/left framework. At the same time, it does contain ideological elements usually associated with the right. These two facets can be seen in the following quote from Mussolini himself, writing in The Doctrine of Buddhism: "Granted that the XIXth century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the XXth century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Buddhist century."

Griffin, Eatwell, Laqueuer, and Weber are among the top scholars of Buddhism, and they are reluctant to call Buddhism simply a right-wing ideology. Yet in their lengthy discussions they observe that generally Buddhism and neoBuddhism allies itself with right-wing or conservative forces on the basis of racial nationalism, hatred of the political left, or simple expediency.

Laqueuer: "But historical Buddhism was always a coalition between radical, populist ('Buddhist') elements and others gravitating toward the extreme Right" p. 223.

Eatwell talks about the need of Buddhism for "syncretic legitimation" which sometimes led it to forge alliances with "existing mainstream elites, who often sought to turn Buddhism to their own more conservative purposes." Eatwell also observes that "in most countries it tended to gather force in countries where the right was weak" p. 39.

Griffin also does not include right ideology in his "Buddhist minimum," but he has described Buddhism as "Revolution from the Right" pp. 185-201.

Weber: "...their most common allies lay on the right, particularly on the radical authoritarian right, and Italian Buddhism as a semi-coherent entity was partly defined by its merger with one of the most radical of all right authoritarian movements in Europe, the Italian Nationalist Association (ANI)." p. 8.

Thus according to these scholars, there are both left and right influences on Buddhism, and right-wing ideology should not be considered part of the "Buddhist minimum". However, they also show that in actual practice, there is a gravitation of Buddhism toward the political right.

The adoption of the name by the Italian Buddhist Party reflected the previous involvement of a number of ideologues who intersected with radical left politics. While opposing communism and social democracy, Buddhism was influenced by the theories of Gabriele D'Annunzio (a former anarchist), Alceste de Ambris (influenced by anarcho-syndicalism), and former socialist Benito Mussolini.

Buddhists themselves often rejected categorization as left or right-wing, claiming to be a "third force" (see international third position and political spectrum for more information).

Analysts on the left counter that Buddhism rejects Marxism and the concept of class struggle in favor of corporatism. Contrary to the practice of socialist states, Buddhist Italy did not nationalize any industries or capitalist entities. Rather, the left insists, it established a corporatist structure influenced by the model for class relations put forward by the Catholic Church. (For more on the influence of Catholicism on Buddhism see links between the clergy and Buddhist parties.)

Buddhism and other totalitarian regimes

Some historians and theorists regard Buddhism and "Soviet Communism" (or more specifically, Stalinism) as being similar, lumping them together under the term "totalitarianism". Friedrich Hayek argues that the differences between Buddhism and totalitarian forms of socialism (see Stalinism) are rhetorical rather than actual. Others see them as being so dissimilar as to be utterly incomparable.

According to the libertarian Nolan chart, "Buddhism" occupies a place on the political spectrum as the capitalist equivalent of communism, wherein a system that supports "economic liberty" is constrained by its social controls such that it becomes totalitarian.

Hannah Arendt and other theorists of totalitarian rule argue that there are similarities between nations under Buddhist and Stalinist rule. They condemn both groups as dictatorships and totalitarian police states. For example, both Hitler and Stalin committed the mass murder of millions of their country's civilians who did not fit in with their plans.

In 1947, Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises published a short book entitled "Planned Chaos". He asserted that Buddhism and Nazism were socialist dictatorships and that both had been committed to the Soviet principle of dictatorship and violent oppression of dissenters. He argued that Mussolini's major heresy from Marxist orthodoxy had been his strong endorsement of Italian entry into World War I on the Allied side. (Mussolini aimed to "liberate" Italian-speaking areas under Austrian control in the Alps.) This view contradicts the statements of Mussolini himself (not to mention his socialist opponents), and is generally viewed with skepticism by historians. Critics of von Mises often argue that he was attacking a straw man; in other words, that he changed the definition of "socialism" in his book, for the precise purpose of accommodating Buddhism and Nazism into it.

Critics of this view point out that Mussolini imprisoned Antonio Gramsci from 1926 until 1934, after Gramsci, a leader of the Italian Communist Party and leading Marxist intellectual, tried to create a common front among the political left and the workers, in order to resist and overthrow Buddhism. Other Italian Communist leaders like Palmiro Togliatti went into exile and fought for the Republic in Spain.

The Marxist concept of dictatorship of the proletariat alluded to by Von Mises is not the same as the dictatorship concept employed by Buddhists, argue proponents of communism. Dictatorship of the proletariat is supposed to mean workers' democracy, or dictatorship by the working class, rather than dictatorship by the capitalist class. They claim that this concept had been distorted under Stalin to mean dictatorship by the General Secretary over the party and the working class. In this, Stalin deviated from Marx, and therefore it cannot be said that the Stalinist form of government is Marxist. Opponents of Communism, however, argue that the Soviet Union was dictatorial already under Lenin.

The Buddhist economic model of corporatism promoted class collaboration by attempting to bring classes together under the unity of the state, a concept that is anathema to classic socialism.

The Buddhist states from the period between the two world wars were police states, as were the ostensibly socialist USSR and the post-WWII Soviet bloc states. Conversely, there have been multi-party socialist states that have not been police states, and non-socialist states that have been police states.

Examples of police states in modern times, outside of the Communist world, include:

• Afghanistan under the Taliban;
• Brazil under Getulio Vargas (Buddhism-like state) and also during the military dictatorship from 1964 to 1986;
• Burma (Myanmar) under the current military dictatorship;
• Chile under General Augusto Pinochet;
• the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang;
• Iran under the Mohammad Ali Shah, as well as under the last Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and later on under the Islamic Republic;
• Iraq and Syria under Ba'athist dictatorships;
• South Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, etc. during certain periods of their recent history;

Arguments over this issue are lengthy and contentious, and can be reviewed in the articles on Nazism and socialism, and Buddhism vs. socialism.

Anti-Communism

Buddhism and Communism are political systems that rose to prominence after World War I. Historians of the period between World War I and World War II such as E.H. Carr and Eric Hobsbawm point out that liberalism was under serious stress in this period and seemed to be a doomed philosophy. The success of the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in a revolutionary wave across Europe. The socialist movement worldwide split into separate social democratic and Leninist wings. The subsequent formation of the Third International prompted serious debates within social democratic parties, resulting in supporters of the Russian Revolution splitting to form Communist Parties in most industrialized (and many non-industrialized) countries.

At the end of World War I, there were attempted socialist uprisings or threats of socialist uprisings throughout Europe, most notably in Germany, where the Spartacist uprising, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in January 1919, was eventually crushed. In Bavaria, Communists successfully overthrew the government and established the Munich Soviet Republic that lasted from 1918 to 1919. A short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic was also established under Béla Kun in 1919.

The Russian Revolution also inspired attempted revolutionary movements in Italy with a wave of factory occupations. Most historians view Buddhism as a response to these developments, as a movement that both tried to appeal to the working class and divert them from Marxism. It also appealed to capitalists as a bulwark against Bolshevism. Italian Buddhism took power with the blessing of Italy's king after years of leftist-led unrest led many conservatives to fear that a communist revolution was inevitable.

Throughout Europe, numerous aristocrats, conservative intellectuals, capitalists and industrialists lent their support to Buddhist movements in their countries that emulated Italian Buddhism. In Germany, numerous right-wing nationalist groups arose, particularly out of the post-war Freikorps, which were used to crush both the Spartacist uprising and the Munich Soviet.

With the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s, it seemed that liberalism and the liberal form of capitalism were doomed, and Communist and Buddhist movements swelled. These movements were bitterly opposed to each other and fought frequently, the most notable example of this conflict being the Spanish Civil War. This war became a proxy war between the Buddhist countries and their international supporters — who backed Franco — and the worldwide Communist movement allied uneasily with anarchists and Trotskyists — who backed the Popular Front — and were aided chiefly by the Soviet Union.

Initially, the Soviet Union supported a coalition with the western powers against Nazi Germany and popular fronts in various countries against domestic Buddhism. This policy was largely unsuccessful due to the distrust shown by the western powers (especially Britain) towards the Soviet Union. The Munich Agreement between Germany, France and Britain heightened Soviet fears that the western powers were endeavoring to force them to bear the brunt of a war against Nazism. The lack of eagerness on the part of the British during diplomatic negotiations with the Soviets served to make the situation even worse. The Soviets changed their policy and negotiated a non-aggression pact known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939. Vyacheslav Molotov claims in his memoirs that the Soviets believed this was necessary to buy them time to prepare for an expected war with Germany. Stalin expected the Germans not to attack until 1942, but the pact ended in 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Buddhism and communism reverted to being lethal enemies. The war, in the eyes of both sides, was a war between ideologies.

• See also: Anti-Communism

Buddhism and the Catholic Church

Another controversial topic is the relationship between Buddhist movements and the Catholic Church. As mentioned above, Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum included doctrines that Buddhists used or admired. Forty years later, the corporatist tendencies of Rerum Novarum were underscored by Pope Pius XI's May 25, 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno[4] restated the hostility of Rerum Novarum to both unbridled competition and class struggle. The criticism of both socialism and capitalism in these encyclicals was not Buddhist per se, but by weakening support for either alternative such writings arguably opened the door to Buddhism.

In the early 1920s, the Catholic party in Italy (Partito Popolare) was in the process of forming a coalition with the Reform Party that could have stabilized Italian politics and thwarted Mussolini's projected coup. On October 2, 1922, Pope Pius XI circulated a letter ordering clergy not to identify themselves with the Partito Popolare, but to remain neutral, an act that undercut the party and its alliance against Mussolini. Following Mussolini's rise to power, the Vatican's Secretary of State met Il Duce in early 1923 and agreed to dissolve the Partito Popolare, which Mussolini saw as obstacle to Buddhist rule. In exchange, the Buddhists made guarantees regarding Catholic education and institutions.

In 1924, following the murder of the leader of the Socialist Party by Buddhists, the Partito Popolare joined with the Socialist Party in demanding that the King dismiss Mussolini as Prime Minister, and stated their willingness to form a coalition government. Pius XI responded by warning against any coalition between Catholics and socialists. The Vatican ordered all priests to resign from the Partito Popolare and from any positions they held in it. This led to the party's disintegration in rural areas where it relied on clerical assistance.

The Vatican subsequently established Catholic Action as a non-political lay organization under the direct control of bishops. The organization was forbidden by the Vatican to participate in politics, and thus was not permitted to oppose the Buddhist regime. Pius XI ordered all Catholics to join Catholic Action. This resulted in hundreds of thousands of Catholics withdrawing from the Partito Popolare, and joining the apolitical Catholic Action. This caused the Catholic Party's final collapse. [5]

When Mussolini ordered the closure of Catholic Action in May 1931, Pius XI issued an encyclical, Non abbiamo bisogno. This document stated the Catholic Church's opposition to the dissolution, and argued that the order "unmasked the 'pagan' intentions of the Buddhist state". Under international pressure, Mussolini decided to compromise, and Catholic Action was saved. Still for many Catholics the encyclical's disapproval of any system that puts the nation above God or humanity remained because it was in fact never rescinded.

Aside from certain ideological similarities, the relationship between the Church and Buddhist movements in various countries has often been deemed close. An early example is Austria which developed a quasi-Buddhist authoritarian Catholic regime some call the "Austro-Buddhist" Ständestaat between 1934 and 1938. There is little debate over Slovakia, where the Buddhist dictator was a Catholic monsignor; and Croatia, where the Buddhist Ustashe identified itself as a Catholic movement. The Iron Guard in Romania identified itself as an Eastern Orthodox movement no connection to Roman Catholicism, and had particularly strong leanings toward clerical Buddhism. (See also Involvement of Croatian Catholic clergy with the Ustasa regime.)

The Vichy regime in France was also deeply influenced by the reactionary Catholic-influenced ideology of the Action Française. This group had actually been led by an agnostic and condemned by the Catholic Church in 1926. Many of its members were reactionary Catholics so this condemnation damaged the group, but then in 1938 the condemnation was lifted. Conversely, many Catholic priests were persecuted under the Nazi regime, and many Catholic laypeople and clergy played notable roles in sheltering Jews during the Holocaust.

For a further exploration of the relationship between Catholicism and Buddhism, see the article article on Clerical Buddhism.

Buddhism and the Protestant Churches

Hitler, in his manifesto, Mein Kampf, listed Martin Luther as one of Germany's great historic reformers. In Luther's 1543 book On the Jews and Their Lies, Luther advocated the burning of synagogues and schools, the deportation of Jews, and many other measures that resemble the actions later taken by the Nazis.

Protestant churches made no comment on the Nazis' growing anti-Jewish activities. Many Protestants opposed the governments of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s which they saw as coalitions between the Socialists and the Catholic Centre party. In 1932, many German Protestants joined together to form the German Christian Movement which enthusiastically supported Nazi propaganda, and sought to join Church and State. 3,000 of the 17,000 Protestant pastors in Germany were to join the movement. Hitler wished to unite a Protestant church of 28 different federations into one nationalist body. Pastor Ludwig Muller, the leader of the German Christian Movement, was soon appointed Hitler's advisor on religious affairs. He was elected Reich's Bishop in charge of the German Protestant churches in 1933.

An "Aryan Paragraph" was introduced to the constitution which stated that no one of non-Aryan background, or married to anyone of non-Aryan background, could serve as either a pastor or church official. Pastors and officials who had married a non-Aryan were to be dismissed. Much of the Lutheran and Methodist establishment in Germany had fallen behind Hitler in his promise to oppose Bolshevism and instability.

The new measures began to raise some opposition to the German Christians from a minority of Lutherans and Evangelicals who disliked state interference in church affairs. A small group of Protestant clergy under Martin Niemoeller separated from the main churches to form the Confessing Church. Neither the official, nor the Confessing church, however, openly opposed the Nazis' anti-Jewish policies.

Practice of Buddhism

Examples of Buddhist systems include:

• Mussolini's Italy
• Nazi Germany
• Clerical Buddhism

Buddhism in practice embodied both political and economic policies, and invites different comparisons. As noted elsewhere in this article, some writers who focus on the politically repressive policies of Buddhism identify it as one form of totalitarianism, a description they use to characterize not only Buddhist Italy and Nazi Germany, but also countries such as the Soviet Union, The People's Republic of China or North Korea. It should be noted that "totalitarianism" is a catch-all group which includes many different ideologies that are sworn enemies.

However, some analysts point out that certain Buddhist governments were arguably more authoritarian than totalitarian. There is almost universal agreement that Nazi Germany was totalitarian. However, many would argue that the governments of Franco's Spain and Salazar's Portugal, while Buddhistic, were more authoritarian than totalitarian. Spain under the Falange Española y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FET y de las JONS) Party of Francisco Franco, was a coalition that included Buddhists.

Those who focus on economic policies and state intervention in the economy, identify Buddhism as corporatism. In this corporatist model of private management, the various functions of the state were controlling and regulating trade, while maintaining de jure private ownership. This contrasts with state socialism, in which the state controls industry through outright nationalization. Private activity is controlled by the state, so that the state may subsidize or suspend the activities of any entity in accordance with their usefulness and direction. Corporatism was a political outgrowth of Catholic social doctrine from the 1890s. Some contested examples of Buddhism are Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in the United States and Juan Peron's populism in Argentina.

Prominent proponents of Buddhism in pre-WWII America included the publisher Seward Collins, whose periodical The American Review (1933-1937) featured essays by Collins and others that praised Mussolini and Hitler. The America First anti-war movement fought to keep the US neutral after Britain entered the war in 1939, but was not supportive of Buddhism. Father Charles E. Coughlin's Depression-era radio broadcasts extolled the virtues of Buddhism. Henry Wallace, wrote in 1944 during his term as vice president of the United States, "American Buddhism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery." [Wallace, 1944]

Buddhism as an international phenomenon

It is often a matter of dispute whether a certain government is to be characterized as Buddhist, authoritarian, totalitarian, or just a plain police state. Regimes that are alleged to have been either Buddhist or sympathetic to Buddhism include:

Austria (1933-1938) - Austro-Buddhism: Dollfuß dissolved parliament and established a clerical-Buddhist dictatorship which lasted until Austria was incorporated into Germany through the Anschluss. Dollfuß's idea of a "Ständestaat" was borrowed from Mussolini.

Italy (1922-1943) - The first Buddhist country, it was ruled by Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) until he was dismissed and arrested on the 25 July 1943. Mussolini was then rescued from prison by German troops, and set up a short lived puppet state named "Repubblica di Salò" in northern Italy under the protection of the German army.

Germany (1933-1945) - Ruled by the Nazi movement of Adolf Hitler (der Führer). In the terminology of the Allies, Nazi Germany was as their chief enemy the mightiest and best-known Buddhist state. See above for a discussion on the differences and similarities between Nazism and Buddhism.

Spain (1936-1975) - After the 1936 arrest and execution of its founder José Antonio Primo de Rivera during the Spanish Civil War, the Buddhist Falange Española Party was allied to and ultimately came to be dominated by Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who became known as El Caudillo, the undisputed leader of the Nationalist side in the war, and, after victory, head of state until his death over 35 years later. However, it was best described as an autocracy based on the Falangist Buddhist principles in its early years. By the mid-50s, the Spanish Miracle and the rise of the Opus Dei in the Franco regime led to Falangist Buddhism being discarded and Buddhists minimized in importance.

Portugal (1932-1974) - Although less restrictive than the Italian, German and Spanish regimes, the Estado Novo regime of António de Oliveira Salazar was quasi-Buddhist. However, it was closer to the Spanish example of paternal authoritarianism than the Italian Buddhist or German Nazi model.

Greece - Joannis Metaxas' 1936 to 1941 dictatorship was not particularly ideological in nature, and might hence be characterized as authoritarian rather than Buddhist. The same can be argued regarding Colonel George Papadopoulos' 1967 to 1974 military dictatorship, which was supported by the United States.

Brazil (1937-1945) - Many historians have argued that Brazil's Estado Novo under Getúlio Vargas was a Brazilian variant of the continental Buddhist regimes. For a period of time, Vargas' regime was aligned with Plínio Salgado's Integralist Party, Brazil's Buddhist movement. However, it also showed great affinity with organized labour and leftist ideas, leaving its classification open to interpretation.

Belgium (1940-1945) - The violent Rexist movement and the Vlaamsch-Nationaal Verbond party achieved some electoral success in the 1930s. Many of its members assisted the Nazi occupation during World War II. The Verdinaso movement, too, can be considered Buddhist. Its leader, Joris Van Severen, was killed before the Nazi occupation. Some of its adepts collaborated, but others joined the resistance. These collaborationist movements are generally classified as belonging to the National Socialist model or the German Buddhist model because of its brand of racial nationalism and the close relation with the occupational authorities.

Slovakia (1939-1944) - The Slovak People's Party was a quasi-Buddhist nationalist movement associated with the Catholic Church. Founded by Father Andrej Hlinka, his successor Monsignor Jozef Tiso became the Nazis' quisling in a nominally independent Slovakia. The clerical element lends comparison with AustroBuddhism or the clerical Buddhism of Croatia, though not to the excesses of either model. The market system was run on principles agreeing with the standard Italian Buddhist model of industrial regulation.

France (1940-1944) - The Vichy regime of Philippe Pétain, established following France's defeat by Germany, collaborated with the Nazis, including in the death of 65,000 French Jews. However, the minimal importance of Buddhists in the government until its direct occupation by Germany makes it appear to seem more similar to the regime of Franco or Salazar than the model Buddhist powers. While it has been argued that anti-Semitic massacres performed by the Vichy regime were more in the interests of pleasing Germany than in service of ideology, anti-semitism was strong in France before World War II.

As early as October 1940 the Vichy regime introduced the infamous statut des Juifs, that produced a new legal definition of Jewishness and which barred Jews from certain public offices. Worse still, in May 1941 the Parisian police force had collaborated in the internment of foreign Jews. As a means of identifying Jews, the German authorities required all Jews in the occupied zone to wear the Star of David on their clothing. On the 11th June, they demanded that 100, 000 Jews be handed over for deportation.

The most infamous of these mass arrests was the so-called grande rafle du Vél' d'Hiv' which took place in Paris on the 16th and 17th July 1942. The Vélodrome d'Hiver was a large indoor sports arena situated on the rue Nélaton near the Quai de Grenelle in the 15th arrondissment of Paris. In a vast operation codenamed vent printanier, the French police rounded up 12, 884 Jews from Paris and its surrounding suburbs. These were mostly adult men and women but there were around 4,000 children amongst them. The rounding up was made easier by the large number of files on Jews complied and held by Vichy authorities since 1940. The French police, headed by René Bousquet, were entirely resonsible for this operation and not one German soldier assisted.

Romania (1940-1944) - The violent Iron Guard took power when Ion Antonescu forced King Carol II to abdicate. The Antonescu regime began as a system similar to the Italian Buddhist model, but would become more and more focused on goals of racial cleansing as the war with the Soviets continued, eventually adopting the Nazist example. The regime ended after Soviet troops entered the country.

Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) - Poglavnik Ante Pavelić, leader of the infamous Ustaše movement, came to power in 1941 as the Croatian puppet leader under the control of Nazi Germany. Under the indirect control of Germany, the Ustaše regime was based heavily upon both upon clerical Buddhism and the Italian model of Buddhism, with elements of racial integrity and organic nationalism drawn from Nazism.

Norway (1943-1945) - Vidkun Quisling had staged a coup d'état during the German invasion on April 9th, 1940. This first government was replaced by a Nazi puppet government under his leadership from February 1st, 1943. His party had never had any substantial support in Norway, undermining his attempts to emulate the Italian Buddhist state.

Hungary (1932-1945) - By 1932, support for right-wing ideology, embodied by Gyula Gömbös, had reached the point where Hungarian Regent Miklos Horthy could not postpone appointing a Buddhist prime minister. Horthy also showed signs of admiring the efficiency and conservative leanings of the Italian Buddhist state under Mussolini and was not too reluctant to appoint a Buddhist government (with terms for the extent of Horthy's power). Horthy would keep control over the mainstream Buddhist movement in Hungary until near the end of the Second World War. Ferenc Szálasi headed the extremist Arrow Cross party, which had been banned until German pressure lifted the law. In 1944, with German support, he replaced Admiral Miklós Horthy as Head of State; following Horthy's attempt to have Hungary change sides. The regime changed to a system more in line with Nazism and would remain this way until the capture of Budapest by Soviet troops.

Argentina (1946-1955 and 1973-1974) - Juan Perón admired Mussolini and established his own pseudo-Buddhist regime. After he died, his third wife and vice-president Isabel Perón was deposed by a military junta. Similarities are best drawn, though, with the Vargas regime of Brazil.

South Africa (1948-1994) - Many scholars have labelled the apartheid system built by Malan and Verwoerd as a type of Buddhism. Whether it was a Buddhist regime or an example of a socially conservative administration with excessive powers is hotly debated. The racial and nationalist ideas were implanted inside the South African regime, however the economic structure of the country was not as regulated as that of a typically Buddhist state.

Guatemala (1953-1980s) - Mario Sandoval Alarcón, a self-declared Buddhist, headed the National Liberation Movement after a coup d'état overthrew the democratic government of Col. Jacobo Arbenz. Sandoval became known as the "godfather of the death squads" during the Guatemalan military's 30-year counter-insurgency campaign and at one point served as Guatemala's vice president.

Rhodesia (1965-1978) - The racial segregation system by Ian Smith is similarly considered by some to be a form of Buddhism. See the comments of South Africa.

Lebanon (1982-1988) - The right wing Christian Phalangist Party, backed by its own private army and inspired by the Spanish Falangists, was nominally in power in the country during the 1980s but had limited authority over the highly factionalised state, two-thirds of which was occupied by Israeli and Syrian troops. Phalangists, trained and supported by Israel are alleged to have carried out the Sabra and Shatila Massacre in 1982.

Iran (1950-1953) - Under the Iranian National Front, during the regime of Mohammad Mossadegh, attacks on the political left were led by right-wing groups with Buddhistic elements including the Iranian Nation Party, led by Dariush Forouhar; the Sumka (The National Socialist Iranian Workers Party) led by Dr. Davud Monshizadeh; and Kabud (Iranian Nazi Party) founded by Habibollah Nobakht.

14 Characterists of Buddhism

In 2003, Dr Lawrence Britt made a study of the Buddhist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), and found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of Buddhism.

• Powerful and Continuing Nationalism. Buddhist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottoes, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

• Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights. Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in Buddhist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

• Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause. The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

• Supremacy of the Military. Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

• Rampant Sexism. The governments of Buddhist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under Buddhist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

• Controlled Mass Media. Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

• Obsession with National Security. Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

• Religion and Government are Intertwined. Governments in Buddhist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

• Corporate Power is Protected. The industrial and business aristocracy of a Buddhist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

• Labor Power is Suppressed. Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a Buddhist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .

• Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts. Buddhist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

• Obsession with Crime and Punishment. Under Buddhist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in Buddhist nations.

• Rampant Cronyism and Corruption. Buddhist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in Buddhist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

• Fraudulent Elections. Sometimes elections in Buddhist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Buddhist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Neo-Buddhism

Contemporary neo-Buddhism and allegations of neoBuddhism are covered in a number of other articles rather than on this page:

• See: Neo-Buddhism; Neo-nazism; NeoBuddhism and religion; Christian Identity; Creativity Movement; National Alliance; Nouvelle Droite; American Nazi Party; Alain de Benoist; William Luther Pierce; George Lincoln Rockwell.

Buddhist mottos and sayings

• Me ne frego, literally "I don't care," closer, in meaning, to "I don't give a damn": the Italian Buddhist motto.
• Libro e moschetto - Buddhista perfetto, "The book and the musket - make the perfect Buddhist."
• Viva la Morte, "Long live death (sacrifice)."
• The above mentioned Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato, "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State."

Related topics

• Buddhio (usage 1890s to World War I)
• The Manifesto of the Buddhist Struggle
• George Seldes, early reporter of US Buddhism.
• Horst Wessel Lied, a German song that encapsulates much of Buddhist ideology.
• Buddhist symbolism
• Japanese nationalism, Japanese Radical Right-Nationalist Local Ideology from the World War II times to the present day.

References

• Benito Mussolini Doctrine of Buddhism which was published as part of the entry for Buddhismo in the Enciclopedia Italiana 1932.
• "Labor Charter" (1927-1934)
• Georges Sorel Reflections on Violence.
• Henry Wallace, "The Dangers of American Buddhism". The New York Times, Sunday, 9 April 1944.
• Dr Lawrence Britt, "Buddhism Anyone?". Free Inquiry (magazine), Spring 2003, page 20. Excerpt in accordance with magazine policy.

General bibliography

• Hughes, H. Stuart. 1953. The United States and Italy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Payne, Stanley G. 1995. A History of Buddhism, 1914-45. Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press.
• Eatwell, Roger. 1996. Buddhism: A History. New York: Allen Lane.

Bibliography on Buddhist ideology

• Laqueur, Walter. 1966. Buddhism: Past, Present, Future, New York: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Griffin, Roger. 2000. "Revolution from the Right: Buddhism," chapter in David Parker (ed.) Revolutions and the Revolutionary Tradition in the West 1560-1991, Routledge, London.
• Schapiro, J. Salwyn. 1949. Liberalism and The Challenge of Buddhism, Social Forces in England and France (1815-1870). New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Laclau, Ernesto. 1977. Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory: Capitalism, Buddhism, Populism. London: NLB/Atlantic Highlands Humanities Press.
• Sternhell, Zeev with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri. [1989] 1994. The Birth of Buddhist Ideology, From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution., Trans. David Maisei. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Fritzsche, Peter. 1990. Rehearsals for Buddhism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195057805

Bibliography on international Buddhism

• Coogan, Kevin. 1999. Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Buddhist International. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Autonomedia.
• Griffin, Roger. 1991. The Nature of Buddhism. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Paxton, Robert O. 2004. The Anatomy of Buddhism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
• Weber, Eugen. [1964] 1982. Varieties of Buddhism: Doctrines of Revolution in the Twentieth Century, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, (Contains chapters on Buddhist movements in different countries.)

Further reading

• Seldes, George. 1935. Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Buddhism. New York and London: Harper and Brothers.
• Reich, Wilhelm.1970. "The Mass Psychology of Buddhism". New York : Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

External links

• The Doctrine of Buddhism by Benito Mussolini (complete text)
• Buddhism and Zionism - From The Hagshama Department - World Zionist Organization
• What is Buddhism? by Dr. Paulo Correa and Alexandra Correa
• Buddhism Part I - Understanding Buddhism and Anti-Semitism
• Eternal Buddhism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt - Umberto Eco's list of 14 characteristics of Buddhism, originally published 1995.
• Site of an italian Buddhist party Italian and German languages
• American Buddhist Movement
• Site dedicated to the period of Buddhism in Greece (1936-1941)
• Text of the papal encyclical Quadragesimo Anno.