A European Declaration of Fascism? : En analys av Anders Behring Breiviks manifest 2083

Sammanfattning: The terror attacks in Oslo, July 22, 2011, executed by Anders Behring Breivik, showed the deadliest outbreak of political violence in Norway since World War II. After the subsequent apprehension of Breivik, discussions about his ideological positioning soon emerged. While Breivik was initially described as an Islamophobic, right wing-extremist, a few expert witnesses and scholars labeled him and his manifesto 2083: A Declaration of European Independence as fascist. Some analysts disagreed with such a categorization and argued that Breivik's views had little to do with fascism. Other commentators and academics partly agreed with the fascist label but added that Breivik's ideology differed from classical fascism in several ways.   The aim of this research is to examine whether the manifesto 2083 can be classified as fascist according to various established definitions and ideal types of fascism. In particular, this research draws on the theories, definitions, and ideal types of fascism of established scholars Roger Griffin, Stanley G. Payne, and Emilio Gentile to inform a content analysis of 2083.The study's relevance concerns the ideology of and behind certain violent political activism, and if fascism is undergoing a transformation which urges updates of established definitions of the phenomenon. 2083 is treated as an outlier or deviant case of fascism.This research finds that 2083 does fulfill several fascist criteria, and even concepts central to the ideal types. However, the results are at times ambiguous and open to further interpretation. Fascist concepts such as national rebirth, a glorification of violence, and religiously tinged activism are expressed in the manifesto, but crucial details regarding them remain unexplored or unspecified. 2083's violent strategies for achieving desired societal change have striking similarities with certain contemporary race radicalism; while descriptions of societal condition and utopian goals share certain fascism characteristics, but also resemble late 19th Century German revolutionary conservatism or proto-fascism. Thus, one might rather see 2083 as hybrid form of different, already existing, fascist ideological traits rather than a “new” form of fascism.