a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism)
"The historian explained that the regime's rise marked a decisive shift from democratic ideals toward a fascist system where absolute power was concentrated in a single leader."
Any right-wing, authoritarian, nationalist ideology characterized by centralized, totalitarian governance, strong regimentation of the economy and of society, and repression of criticism or opposition.
"The search function returned results for both 'FASCISM' and fascism, so I had to manually filter out the alternative letter-case entries."
Alternative letter-case form of fascism
The word comes from the Italian fascismo, which is derived from fascio meaning "bundle" or "group." This term originally referred to bundles of axes and rods carried by Roman magistrates as a symbol of their authority over life and death.