Defining the terms 2. What is fascism?

The term fascism or fascist is rally making a comeback, but what is fascism really?

It's surprisingly difficult to define.

Let's look at Merriam-Webster again.  It states:

Definition of fascism

1often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial controlearly instances of army fascism and brutality

The first definition there is a pretty good one.  

If we take examples of fascist movements of the 20th Century, such as the Italian fascist, or the Spanish fascist, that's exactly what they stood for.  The nation defined by race, basically, and held above the individual with a central autocratic government.  In both of those instances, they further featured a corporatism economic system, which doesn't mean what it sounds like, but rather which is independent of the government and yet controlled by it. The same is true for labor unions.  They were normally allowed to exist, but subservient to the government and often consolidated.

Were the Nazis fascists? 

This has been debated, and it can be maintained that they were sui generis, and uniquely horrible.  Their economic concepts were also unique, although they tended not to be fully implemented, so they lacked that element of fascism.  On the other hand, they obviously had no regard for the rights of the individual, defined the nation and the "volk" as one, and were not democratic in any fashion.  Given that, it would seem that they were fascists.

Some like to claim that they were left wing socialist, but unless you look at the very early Nazi Party, which was still horrific, the claim for that isn't great.  Under Strasser, prior to Hitler, they did start out that way, but under Hitler they abandoned that pretty quickly.

An important thing to keep in mind here is that all the elements for fascism have to be there to really make a political movement fascistic.  Even at that, unless a party outright claims the title, which is pretty rare post World War Two, it can be difficult to define.  I.e, not all autocratic regimes are fascist in nature. For example, it wouldn't be proper to regard Porfirio Diaz as a fascist.  He was an autocrat, however.