Anticipating Norwegian Fascism: The Radicalization of Urban Right-Wing Nationalism in Inter-war Norway

Abstract

This article argues that the transition from a liberal to an authoritarian form of nationalism in Norway after the First World War, although little studied outside Norway itself, provides an interesting and useful case study for a fuller assessment of the radicalization of European nationalism. The article looks at the forms that urban Norwegian nationalism adopted by analysing the ideas espoused by three inter-war movements, namely the Norges Samfundshjelp (Norway’s Community Aid), the Samfundsvernet (Community Defence) and the Fedrelandslaget (Fatherland League). These movements radically modified Norway’s previously liberal nationalism and introduced a set of new, but home-grown, ideas onto the Norwegian political scene, such as paramilitarism, corporatism, authoritarianism, anti-parliamentarism and territorial expansion. These were the ideas upon which Vidkun Quisling would later base the ideology of his own fascist movement, the Nasjonal Samling (National Union).