The real meaning of the word 'fascism' is not well described by modern dictionaries. It's an inelegant definition.
Fascism: an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
For clarity:
Right Wing:
political ideology of non-progression. Supporting the status-quo / existing structures of government.
Party of the rich / intellectual.
Left Wing:
political ideology of progressivism. Supporting change of structures of government.
Party of the poor / labourer.
Synonyms (Fascism):
authoritarianism, totalitarianism, dictatorship, despotism, autocracy, absolute rule, militarism, nationalism, xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, chauvinism, jingoism, isolationism; neo-fascism, neo-Nazism, corporatism
It's interesting that they missed out: 'Collectivism', 'Bullying', and 'Coercion'...
Children used to call bullies 'fascists' when I was young. Perhaps the playground knows more than the dictionary...
The Spirit of 'Fascism'
The symbol of fascism is the fasces: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasces
To understand the word, we must understand it's spirit, as depicted in the symbol.
It symbolizes "strength through unity". I.e. collectivism.
Fascism could then really be just collectivism. As symbolised by the fasces: "Together we are strong". As such a morally neutral concept.
Morally neutral - as long as individuals are not coerced. If people are free to choose to join and leave, then the collective is benign. When coercion is involved, the collective becomes malign. But both groups are perhaps fascist...?
The symbol of the fasces does include an axe-head. It could be used for chopping wood, or maybe heads. It is highly likely it always had a sinister objective, the usual one, control of the masses by the few...
It's useful to have a word to describe an evil collective. 'Fascist' is the word people would commonly use, and I think we can define the word better on this basis...
Collectivism
The modern definition of collectivism sounds like a much better definition of the popular notion of 'Fascism' than the one above. It is:
Collectivism (modern definition = coerced)
the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it.
This really is the modern definition. It's quite sinister. If the group has priority over the members, then things have already gone very badly wrong. Note, it doesn't include the concept of voluntary membership.
The above definition is what most people would consider fascism to be. An alternative definition is:
Collectivism (Veritopian definition = voluntary)
the practice or principle of people agreeing to work together for a common goal.
This is the voluntary version, and it's a valid, perhaps better, definition. Note it includes the word 'agree'. It's probably more like what you had in mind for the word...?
So, if 'fascism' is an evil form of collectivism, then the only way it can be evil is by coercion. So we have our better definition.
Fascism: A Better Definition
Fascism (Veritopian definition): forced collectivism
Note that voluntary collectivism is just normal working practice. Forced collectivism is tyranny, bullying, dictatorship etc.
This is the 'playground' understanding of the word, and I think it's better.
Forced collectivism is 'give us your lunch money', or 'give us these taxes', or else... It's the basis of all government.
What do you think?