A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

"The term fascism has come to mean any system of government resembling Mussolini's, that in various combinations: 1. exalts the nation and party above the individual, with the state apparatus being supreme. 2. stresses loyalty to a single leader, and submission to a single nationalistic culture. 3. engages in economic totalitarianism through the creation of a Corporatist State, where the divergent economic and social interests of different races and classes are combined with the interests of the State. As a political and economic system in Italy, fascism combined elements of corporatism, totalitarianism, nationalism, and anti-Communism. In an article in the 1932 Enciclopedia Italiana, written by Giovanni Gentile and attributed to Benito Mussolini, fascism is described as a system in which "The State not only is authority which governs and molds individual wills with laws and values of spiritual life, but it is also power which makes its will prevail abroad... For the Fascist, everything is within the State and... neither individuals nor groups are outside the State... For Fascism, the State is an absolute, before which individuals or groups are only relative..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#Definition EDIT: Stunning insight on Fascism not being limited to Italy. Once again - "The term fascism has come to mean any system of government resembling Mussolini's" - key phrase being "system of government resembling Mussolini's" - key word, "resembling". This does not mean limited to Italians. In order to be considered a Fascist state, the government must exhibit the 3 qualites listed. The next paragraph goes further to explain a little about Italian Fascism, specifically. I really recommend the link, there is so much more to this than is practical to list here.