Editing Reactionary (section)

=== 20th century ===
{{see also|Reactionary modernism}}
[[File:Le suffrage à 2 tours vaincra la réaction.jpg|thumb|right|1932 poster of the [[Parti républicain, radical et radical-socialiste|French Radical Party]] (PRRRS) against the attempt by the [[Pierre Laval#First Laval government|Laval government]] to replace the [[two-round system]], which favored the Radicals, with [[Plurality voting|plurality]] ("''The two-round suffrage will overcome the reaction.''")]]
In the 20th century, proponents of [[socialism]] and [[communism]] used the term ''reactionary'' polemically to label their enemies, such as the [[White Armies]], who fought in the [[Russian Civil War]] against the [[Bolsheviks]] after the [[October Revolution]]. In [[Marxism|Marxist]] terminology, ''reactionary'' is a [[pejorative]] adjective denoting people whose ideas might appear to be socialist but, in their opinion, contain elements of [[feudalism]], [[capitalism]], [[nationalism]], [[fascism]], or other characteristics of the [[ruling class]], including usage between conflicting factions of Marxist movements.{{Citation needed|date=November 2018}} Non-socialists also used the label ''reactionary'', with British diplomat [[John Jordan (diplomat)|Sir John Jordan]] nicknaming the Chinese [[Royalist Party]] the "reactionary party" for supporting the [[Qing dynasty]] and opposing [[republicanism]] during the [[Xinhai Revolution]] in 1912.{{sfnp|Kit-ching|1978|p=51}}

Despite being traditionally related to right-wing governments, elements of reactionary politics were present in left-wing governments as well, such as when [[Soviet Union]] leader [[Joseph Stalin]] implemented conservative social policies, such as the  [[LGBT rights in the Soviet Union|re-criminalisation of homosexuality]], restrictions on abortion and divorce, and abolition of the ''[[Zhenotdel]]'' women's department.<ref>Sandle, Mark (1999). ''A Short History of Soviet Socialism''. UCL Press. [[Doi (identifier)|doi]]:10.4324/9780203500279. {{ISBN|978-1-8572-8355-6}}.</ref>

''Reactionary'' is also used to denote supporters of [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] régimes such as [[Vichy France]], Spain under [[Francisco Franco|Franco]], and Portugal under [[António Salazar|Salazar]]. One example occurred after [[Boris Pasternak]] was awarded the [[Nobel Prize for Literature]]. On 26 October 1958, the day following the [[Nobel Committee]]'s announcement, Moscow's ''Literary Gazette'' ran a polemical article by David Zaslavski entitled, ''Reactionary [[Propaganda]] Uproar over a Literary Weed''.<ref>{{cite book |first=Olga |last=Ivinskaya |author-link=Olga Ivinskaya |title=A Captive of Time: My Years with Pasternak |publisher=Doubleday |date=1978 |page=224 |isbn=978-0006353362}}</ref>

The [[Italian Fascists]] desired a new social order based on the ancient feudal principle of delegation (though without [[serfdom]]) in their enthusiasm for the [[corporate state]]. [[Benito Mussolini]] said that "fascism is reaction" and that "fascism, which did not fear to call itself reactionary... has not today any impediment against declaring itself illiberal and anti-liberal."<ref>Gerarchia, March, 1923 quoted in [[George Seldes]], ''Facts and Fascism'', eighth edition, New York: In Fact, 1943, p. 277.</ref> [[Giovanni Gentile]] and Mussolini also attacked certain reactionary policies, particularly monarchism, and veiled some aspects of Italian conservative [[Catholicism]]. They wrote, "History doesn't travel backwards. The fascist doctrine has not taken [[Joseph de Maistre]] as its prophet. Monarchical absolutism is of the past, and so is ecclesiolatry." They further elaborated in their political doctrine that fascism "is not reactionary [in the old way] but revolutionary."{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Conversely, they explained that fascism was of the right, not the left. Fascism was certainly not simply a return to tradition, as it carried the centralized state beyond even what had been seen in [[absolute monarchies]]. Fascist [[one-party state]]s were as centralized as most [[communist states]], and fascism's intense [[nationalism]] was not found in the period prior to the French Revolution.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Although the German [[Nazi]]s did not consider themselves fascists or reactionaries and condemned the traditional German forces of reaction (Prussian [[monarchist]]s, [[Junker (Prussia)|Junker]] nobility, and [[Roman Catholicism in Germany|Roman Catholic clergy]]) as being among their enemies, next to their [[Roter Frontkämpferbund|Red Front]] enemies in the Nazi Party march {{lang|de|[[Die Fahne hoch]]}}, they virulently opposed revolutionary leftism. The fact that the Nazis called their 1933 rise to power the {{lang|de|[[Volksgemeinschaft]]}} (national revolution) showed that, like the Italian Fascists, they supported some form of revolution; however, the Germans and Italian fascists both idealized tradition, folklore, and the tenets of classical thought and leadership, as exemplified in Nazi-era Germany by the idolization of [[Frederick the Great]]. They also rejected the [[Weimar Republic]] parliamentary era under the [[Weimar Constitution]], which had succeeded the monarchy in 1918, despite it also being capitalist and classical. Although claiming to be separate from reactionism, the Nazis' rejection of Weimar was based on ostensibly reactionary principles, as the Nazis claimed that the parliamentary system was simply the first step towards [[Bolshevism]] and instead idealized more reactionary parts of Germany's past. They referred to [[Nazi Germany]] as the [[German Realm]] and informally as the ''Drittes Reich'' (Third Realm), a reference to past reactionary German entities: the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (First Realm) and the [[German Empire]] (Second Realm).{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

[[Clericalist]] movements, sometimes labeled as [[clerical fascist]] by their critics, can be considered reactionaries in terms of the 19th century since they share some elements of fascism while at the same time promoting a return to the pre-revolutionary model of social relations, with a strong role for the Church. Their utmost philosopher was [[Nicolás Gómez Dávila]].{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Political scientist [[Corey Robin]] argues in his 2011 book ''[[The Reactionary Mind]]'' that modern [[conservatism in the United States]] is "inherently reactionary".<ref>{{cite web |last=Johnson |first=David V. |date=22 March 2012 |url=https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/corey-robin-reactionary-mind-conservatism/ |title=Contraception and Counterrevolution: An Interview with Corey Robin |website=Boston Review |access-date=12 August 2024}}</ref>