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Conclusion

from Part III - From Anti-Anti-Fascism to Fascism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2026

Mathieu Hikaru Desan
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Boulder
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Summary

This chapter begins by sketching Déat’s last days in occupied France before fleeing to Germany with the retreating Nazis. It then highlights Déat’s opportunism and his search for intellectual distinction as significant factors in his trajectory and eventual radicalization as a collaborationist fascist fully aligned with Nazism. Déat’s path from democratic socialism to fascism is summarized in terms of the practical logic of his political conversion, with the conclusion that his ultimate conversion to fascism was the culmination of his repeatedly unsuccessful attempts at political reinvention. The chapter ends by reaffirming the fundamentally discontinuous and relational character of political conversion, which is best understood in terms of what Bourdieu calls “trajectory.” Political conversions are not just individual biographical facts, nor are they passive mental processes; they are actively made by political actors within changing political fields.

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  • Conclusion
  • Mathieu Hikaru Desan, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Book: Order, Authority, Nation
  • Online publication: 20 February 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009691437.011
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  • Conclusion
  • Mathieu Hikaru Desan, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Book: Order, Authority, Nation
  • Online publication: 20 February 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009691437.011
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Mathieu Hikaru Desan, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Book: Order, Authority, Nation
  • Online publication: 20 February 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009691437.011
Available formats
×