This article discusses the relationship between civilization and fascism. The author believes that the social rejection of historical relativism and universal values, which are equated with modernity itself, causes societies to develop toleration for fascism. This perspective is used to frame the development of fascism as the rejection of enlightenment values and the compromise of the intellectual life of societies such as Nazi Germany, Vichy France, and Benito Mussolini's Italy in the first half of the twentieth century. The significance of ideology in the development of fascism as a political philosophy is related to the history of ideas, which the author believes can explain incidences of fascism better than other approaches.