Philippe Petain in the context of "1917 French Army mutinies"

Para-fascism are authoritarian conservative movements and regimes that adopt characteristics associated with fascism such as personality cults, paramilitary organizations, symbols and rhetoric, while diverging from conventional fascist tenets such as palingenetic ultranationalism, modernism, and populism. Para-fascism often emerges in response to the need for a facade of popular support in an age of mass politics, without a genuine commitment to revolutionary nationalism, instead focusing on maintaining tradition, religion, and culture. Para-fascist regimes may co-opt or neutralize genuine fascist movements.

The historian Roger Griffin defines the following regimes and movements as para-fascist: Austrofascism in the Federal State of Austria led by Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg, Metaxism in the Greek '4th of August Regime', the "New State" of António de Oliveira Salazar's Portugal, the Bando nacional and the FET y de las JONS led by Francisco Franco in the Spanish State, Kingdom of Hungary led by Miklós Horthy, and the Révolution nationale in Vichy France led by Philippe Petain; the dictatorships of Carol II and Ion Antonescu in the Kingdom of Romania, Miguel Primo de Rivera's dictatorship in Spain and Antanas Smetona's Lithuanian Nationalist Union in Lithuania have also been referred to as para-fascist. While most historians of fascism agree that these regimes were not totally fascist, many authors do acknowledge that they have some kind of connection with fascism, either by being partially influenced by it or by co-opting some genuine fascist groups. The words used by different historians to characterize these conservative regimes include, apart from parafascism: semi-fascist, fascisant, fascistic, fascistized, quasi-fascist, and others.