Fascism was, along with communism and liberalism, one of the dominant ideologies of the twentieth century. It began in the 1920s as Benito Mussolini’s movement in Italy, taking its name from fasces—a Latin word for the bundle of rods with hatchet symbolizing Roman magisterial authority. Under Mussolini, the concept placed the value of the national community above that of individuals and the laws and rights that protected them.

The term was then broadened to apply generally to the various authoritarian political parties (such as the Nazis) and their leaders, who came to power in Italy, Germany, Spain, eastern Europe, and other parts of the world before World War II. As an outgrowth of World War I, fascism applauded violence and military struggle on the state’s behalf and denied the value of peace and pacifism. Fascism was also explicitly and fundamentally antidemocratic: both Mussolini and Hitler loudly rejected democratic values, with Mussolini arguing that the twentieth century would be the century of “authority” and of the “state”—not the century of democracy and hard-won consensus, which he saw as outmoded.

The expansion of fascism as a general political concept passed through several phases, moving from a “rooting” stage of growth and mobilization, to the seizure and exercise of brutal state power, to a violent expansion that culminated in radical action such as war and genocide. The rooting stage required popular support, which Fascist leaders solicited through programs with mass appeal: just after World War I, Mussolini issued a First Fascist Program that included votes for women, the eight-hour day, taxation of war profits, confiscation of church lands, and workers’ participation in industrial management. Once in power, however, Fascists cast aside the principles that had won them popular support. By 1935, fascism had come to focus on the powers of one charismatic leader: Hitler, Franco, and Mussolini, in their military-garbed persons, became living embodiments of the all-powerful state. Japan also joined the fascist Axis powers after its attack on the United States in 1941, in part because Japan’s military had come to embrace the same violence-driven ambitions.

Underlying fascist actions was the core belief that racial superiority fostered a strong national community. Fascists argued that a regimented society would strengthen the “master race,” with Germany and Japan slaughtering millions toward that end. Believing that militarization strengthens the state and transforms the people, fascists also eagerly pursued war as an important end in itself. Through regimentation, militarization, and violent action, fascists sought to eliminate those deemed inferior or subversive and cause the emergence of an idealized “man of steel.”

This emphasis on inequality distinguished the fascist from the Soviet totalitarian state. While fascism valued inequality and the triumphs of the wealthy, Soviets did not. Thus, Germany and Italy supported the actions of the rebel chief Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, seeing this as part of the drive to overthrow rights-based, equal-opportunity democracies in the name of an absolutist state where the wealthy and powerful flourished. Fascist ideology also affected areas such as Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and Greece.

Today, the term fascist has lost its clear definition and is regularly used to characterize any opponent with whom one disagrees. In this regard, similar use is made of terms like socialist and liberal—words that once had a precise meaning, but now have become epithets among the uninformed.