Tom S. wrote:

James Robinson" wrote in message
...
Wdtabor wrote:

Fascism comes in a number of flavors, but the key elements a

An authoritarian power structure

Agreed.

A collectivist economy (either socialism or feudalism will do)

Disagree. While Fascism morphed somewhat over time, it was intensely
against socialism from the beginning. That opposition was one of the
prime tenets of the philosophy. That said, the ideology was also
against a completely free economy, preferring government direction, but
also not for the benefit of the masses. The idea of government control
was more in line with their authoritarian bent than it was a statement
of left or right leaning in economic terms.

In other words, a collectivist economy, as Wdtabor stated.

No. It wasn't at all collectivist. Industries weren't nationalized,
and the major corporations, like Bayer, Krupp, Siemens, et al continued
to exist in a cozy relationship with the government. It was quite
profitable for those companies, who worked with the government to
promote their economic policies. Kind of like how Haliburton works with
today's government, which certainly can't be called collectivist.

Overall, using strictly an
economic measure, Fascism was neither left nor right, but somewhere
slightly right of center.

Irrelevant.

It is not irrelevant, since the economic definition of left-right puts
Fascism close to the center, not at either extreme. They opposed both
extremes - socialism, or a laissez faire economy, preferring some
government control, but corporate organization. The economic measure is
probably the primary contributor to a left-right definition.