``..I have no theory* as to what attracted dor many intellectuals to fascism..'' Carrol
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I do, sort of. First you have to consider fascism an ideology in the same why that communism was an ideology. So the attraction is to an ideology rather than to one pole or another.
In this attraction is the question of national identity and modernity which were undergoing fast pace developments. Intellectuals had to choose at least one including the un-nuanced middle, that we now label liberalism.
The relation to a construct of `modernity' is more difficult. The old 19thC order of the euro world was left in shatters in the immediate post-WWI when national boundaries were re-drawn, and even the quasi-independence of many minories were erased. There's a lot of concrete history to back up this new concept of the State, which isn't really about constitutions and paraliments, but people's concepts of what they `belong' , where their alegiance must be placed.
A lot of intellectuals choose none of the above and became more identified with an internationalization of western culture, some without and some with some concept of political philosophy...
Gotta get back to work... lunch hour's up
CG