Orwell:
What is Fascism?
I think it's a bit much to say that fascism is indefinable, but I agree with Orwell that it's used to much as a swear word and not enough as a description of a political/economic mindset.
There is italian fascist manifesto, after-all....and things like universal suffrage, universal public education, minimum wages, etc., etc... were all planks in the fascist platform.
Anyhoo, I think fascism is a distinct variant of socialism, but instead of a centrally planned society based upon the state ownership of property, it's a centrally planned economy based upon state ownership of producers. So, fascists say, "we're not socialists because we don't agitate for ownership of your property."
Which is true, but no matter what I do with my property, I've got to send about one-third of the benefit to the state anyway. In this way, fascism is vastly superior to socialism because I still retain some vested interest in maintaining the means of production. Tho fascism is cruel and illiberal it is less idiotic than socialism.