Recent years have seen the emergence of a number of important studies of Nietzsche's politics, a subject which for a long time attracted only the most superficial of attention and analysis. The question of Nietzsche's politics still remains a disquieting one however. In its cult of great leadership and contempt for the mass of humanity it is seen by many commentators to prefigure a fascist style of politics. The question has been raised as to what extent Nietzsche's overt, aristocratic politics necessarily and logically follow from his philosophy of power and his insights into the modern age, notably the event of the death of God and the advent of nihilism. Whatever politics one derives from Nietzsche's profound insights into the nature of the modern malaise, it is surely important to consider why Nietzsche himself drew the political conclusions and cultivated the political arguments that he did from his insights into the problem of civilization.