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Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, refers to the authoritarian political movement founded by Benito Mussolini in 1919. The name comes from fascio, which may mean "bundle", as in a political group, but also fasces, the Roman authority symbol of a bundle of rods and axe-head.

A prime feature of Fascism was the Roman-style stiff-arm salute which was also adopted by the Nazis.

Uncapitalized it is a system of government resembling Mussolini's government, that exalts nation and often race above the individual and uses terror campaigns and modern techniques of propaganda and censorship to forcibly suppress opposition, engages in severe economic and social regimentation, and often violent nationalism and racism (ethnic nationalism).

Fascism in practice

Examples of fascist systems include Nazi Germany and Spain under Francisco Franco, in addition to Mussolini.

Fascism in practice embodied both political and economic practices, and invites differnt comparisons. Writers who focus on the politically repressive policies of fascism identify it as one form of totalitarianism, of which not only Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany are examples, but communist countries, such as the Soviet Union, Communist China during the Cultural Revolution, and Cuba, as well (although the Soviet Union opposed the self-described fascist states of Italy and Germany during World War II; during that war both fascists and communists identified each other as ideological enemies).

However, some analysts

point out that some fascist governments were arguably more

authoritarian rather than totalitarian. There is

almost universial agreement that Nazi Germany was totalitarian. However, many would argue that the governments of Francoist Spain and Salazar's Portugal, while Fascist were more authoritarian than totalitarian.

Writers who focus on economic policies of state intervention in the market and the use of state apparatuses to broker conflicts between different classes make even broader comparisons, identifying fascism as one form of corporatism (an political response to the social crises brought on by the global depression in the 1930s and 1940s), of which not only Stalinist Soviet Union and Hitler's Nazi Germany, but Roosevelt's New Deal United States and Juan Peron's populism in Argentina, are examples.

/Talk