That was interesting, thank you. I don’t think I’d heard of the fasces being on Gov architecture but it’s not a big suprise FDR and co leaned into the imagery.
The idea of popular will/will of the people/ect is older then fascism- the radicals in the French Revolution were as much all over that as the Bolsheviks (“dictatorship of the proles) and the fascists……I’d argue that it’s actually pretty close to, or grew out the same patch, as Classical Liberalism. Classical liberals were just into the laxer version where the “popular will” was getting rich via trade.
It is a false modern conception that the American Republic was all about individual freedom, it was just that the states were all too strong for one power to impose its own vision of life upon the others- kinda like how personal freedom is highly dependent on how hard it is to oppress you.
I don’t believe Romans thought Lictors were thugs, or at least not mere thugs. Romans had a fair respect for the law
, which held their state together dispite class hatred. Generally speaking people like to see justice enforced by the ruling class, the alternative being necklacing wrong doers with a tire and setting them alight, Africa style