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Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, refers to the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy in 1922-1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. 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.

The word fascism has come to mean any system of government resembling Mussolini's, that exalts nation and often race above the individual and uses violence and modern techniques of propaganda and censorship to forcibly suppress political opposition, engages in severe economic and social regimentation, and espouses violent nationalism and racism (ethnic nationalism).

Fascism is generally regarded as somehow "opposite" to socialism or communism. For example, people often characterize a fascist government as "extreme right-wing" and a socialist government as "extreme left-wing". Others point out that the differences between fascism and socialism are more superficial than actual. For example, the German Nazi party's full name was National Socialist German Workers' Party, and the word "Nazi" is in fact a contraction of the first syllables of the German words for "National Socialist". Similarly, Mussolini was originally a member of the Italian Socialist party, and when he broke with that party to form the fascist party, he contended that he was still a socialist, despite his deep disagreements with his old socialist party.

The most common feature of fascism cited in contrast to socialism is the fact that neither Hitler nor Mussolini nationalized their nations' industries. Some contend that this difference is also more cosmetic than actual, since both leaders used extreme regulation to control industry, while leaving them in the hands of their owners. Hitler commented on this difference in a letter to Herman Rauschning, where he wrote:

"Of what importance is all that, if I range men firmly within a discipline they cannot escape? Let them own land or factories as much as they please. The decisive factor is that the State, through the Party, is supreme over them regardless of whether they are owners or workers. All that is unessential; our socialism goes far deeper. It establishes a relationship of the individual to the State, the national community. Why need we trouble to socialize banks and factories? We socialize human beings."

Some attribute to Stalin the characterization of fascism as a diametric opposite to socialism. Stalin was eager to distance his government from those of Hitler and Mussolini, and forbade reference to Nazis as "National Socialists", insisting that they be consistently referred to as "fascists". Individuals who make this attribution generally argue that fascism is a actually a variant of socialism, differing superficially from Stalinism.

Practice of fascism

Examples of fascist systems include Nazi Germany and Spain under the Falange Party of Francisco Franco, in addition to Mussolini's Italy.

Fascism in practice embodied both political and economic practices, and invites different comparisons. Writers who focus on the politically repressive policies of fascism identify it as one form of totalitarianism, a description they use to characterise not only Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, but also communist countries such as the Soviet Union, Communist China and Cuba (although the Soviet Union opposed the self-described fascist states of Italy and Germany during World War II, and fascists and communists identify each other as 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 Franco's 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, a political outgrowth of Catholic social doctrine from the 1890s, with which parallels have been drawn embracing not only Nazi Germany, but also Roosevelt's New Deal United States and Juan Peron's populism in Argentina.

Italian Fascism

Founded as a nationalist association {the Fasci di Combattimento} of World War I veterans in Milan on 23 March 1919, Mussolini's fascist movement converted itself into a national party (the Partito Nazionale Fascista) after winning 35 seats in the parliamentary elections of May 1921. Initially combining ideological elements of left and right, it aligned itself with the forces of conservatism by its opposition to the September 1920 factory occupations.

Despite the themes of social and economic reform in the initial Fascist manifesto of June 1919, the movement came to be supported by sections of the middle class fearful of socialism and communism, while industrialists and landowners saw it as a defence against labour militancy. Under threat of a fascist "March on Rome", Mussolini in October 1922 assumed the premiership of a right-wing coalition government including initially members of the pro-church People's Party.

The transition to outright dictatorship was more gradual than in Germany a decade later, though in July 1923 a new electoral law all but assured a fascist parliamentary majority, and the murder of the Socialist deputy Matteotti eleven months later showed the limits of political opposition. By 1926 opposition movements had been outlawed, and in 1928 election to parliament was restricted to fascist-approved candidates.

The regime's most lasting political achievement was perhaps the Lateran Treaty of February 1929 between the Italian State and the Holy See, by which the Papacy was granted temporal sovereignty over the Vatican City and guaranteed the free exercise of Catholicism as the sole state religion throughout Italy in return for its acceptance of Italian sovereignty over the Pope's former dominions.

Trade unions and employers' associations were reorganised by 1934 into 22 fascist corporations combining workers and employers by economic sector, whose representatives in 1938 replaced the parliament as the "Chamber of Corporations": power continued to be vested in the Fascist Grand Council, the ruling body of the movement.

The 1930s saw some economic achievements as Italy recovered from the World Depression: the draining of the malaria-infested Pontine Marshes south of Rome was one of the regime's proudest boasts. But international sanctions following Italy's invasion (October 1935) of Ethiopia, followed by the government's costly military support for Franco's Nationalists in Spain, undermined growth despite successes in developing domestic substitutes for imports (Autarchia).

International isolation and their common involvement in Spain brought about increasing diplomatic collaboration between Italy and Nazi Germany, reflected also in the fascist regime's domestic policies as the first anti-semitic laws were passed in 1938. But Italy's intervention (10 June 1940) as Germany's ally in World War II brought military disaster, from the loss of her north and east African colonies to U.S. and British invasion of first Sicily (July 1943) and then southern Italy (September 1943).

Dismissed as prime minister by King Victor Emmanuel III on 25 July 1943 and subsequently arrested, Mussolini was freed in September by German paratroopers and installed as head of a puppet "Italian Social Republic" at Salo in German-occupied northern Italy. His association with the German occupation regime eroded much of what little support remained to him, and his summary execution (28 April 1945) by northern partisans was widely seen as a fitting end against the backdrop of the war's violent closing stages.

After the war the remnants of Italian fascism largely regrouped under the banner of the "Italian Social Movement" (MSI), merging in 1994 with conservative former Christian Democrats to form the "National Alliance" (AN), which proclaims its committment to constitutionalism, parliamentary government and political pluralism.