I also like Michael Perelman's comment.
<< Brad DeLong:
I always thought that fascism had five important elements:
- --A strong belief that--through social darwinism--morality is ultimately tied to blood and race, understood as descent and genetic relationship.
- --A strong rejection of the classical "liberal" belief that individuals have rights that any legitimate state is bound to respect.
- - -In its place, an assertion that individuals have duties to the state, seen as the decision-making organ of the collectivity.
- --A strong belief that parliamentary democracy is not the way to choose the leaders of the state: a combination of charismatic expression and bureaucratic oligarchism is.
- - -A strong fear of Marxist communism, and an eagerness to use any and all weapons--suspension of parliamentary democracy, mass propaganda, rallies, street violence, and so forth--to combat it.
So I don't think calling the current Russian or the current Chinese governmetn "fascist" is terribly useful. They have some of these elements, but not all of them.
Michael Perelman:
Brad's definition of fascism was excellent, except the part below might use some modification. I think that he should add that the state has the responsibility of serving the people (Volk) as a whole. Of course, no fascist regimes did that any more than liberal regimes respect the rights of individuals when they are inconvenient.
>>
-- John K. Taber