I think the best way to approach this is to really first try to find a clear concrete definition of what "FASCISM" even is:
With regards to the political spectrum: it's best to look at the general philosophies of both "left-wing" and "right-wing."
Left-wingers view the world in terms of
oppressors vs the oppressed.
Right-wingers view the word in terms of
order vs chaos.
Thus, on those two definitions alone, the right-wing is oft associated with authoritarianism as it is focused on absolute power to a single ruler or ruling class.
However....:
This is just one of many interpretations of where ideologies lie on a two-scale spectrum
Politics exists on a two-axis system, not just one: a social axis and an economic axis. It's possible to be economically right-wing and socially left-wing (libertarianism, classic liberalism) and it's possible to be economically left-wing and socially right-wing (Communism).
With that being said, fascism's meaning has been debated to death and no one seems to know what exactly it means, but in general people tend to associate it with social authoritarianism (social right-wing).
However, on the economic scale, things tend to get dicey. John T. Flynn, in studying Mussolini's Italy, described fascism as thus:
1. Anti-capitalist, but with capitalist features
2. Economic demand management...
3....through budget deficits
4. Direct economic planning, with partial economic autonomy through corporatism
5. Militarism and imperialism (globalization has oft been criticized as being economic imperialism)
6. Suspension of the rule of law
Umberto Eco listed 14 characteristics of fascism:
1. Traditionalist
2. Anti-modernist
3. Anti-intellectualism
4. Anti-dissent, tendency of treating dissent as treason punishable by state law
5. Xenophobia
6. Appeals to the frustrations of the middle-class
7. "Obsession with plot and appeals to xenophobia" or using propaganda to create a narrative that hamfistedly justifies how the dictator should remain in power ("Islamic terrorism" is a good modern example of an enemy a dictator could give, or if you want a classic: "Jews")
8. Portraying enemies as being both too weak and too strong at the same time.
9. Treating pacifism as trafficking with the enemy or propagating a mentality that constant warfare is for the good of the state and the people.
10. Contempt for perceived "weaker societies"
11. Hero-worshipping or the concept that those who are not heroes or true servants of the greater good for society are the ones who are afraid to give their lives for the state and the leader and the ideal.
12. Obsession with ultra-masculnity and disdain for women, feminism, and homosexuality.
13. "Selective populism"...everyone is a collective except for the leader.
14. "Newspeak"...the leader employs limited vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning amongst the populace...goes hand in hand with anti-intellectualism.
IT IS IMPORTANT, however, to take into consideration the political alignment of the definers: Eco I am not certain of, but Flynn was a right-winger.
For more quick imputs:
- Georgi Dimitrov, a Bulgarian communist, described fascism as "a dictatorship of the most reactionary elements of financial capitalism," which he argues in favor of fascism being an economic right-wing philosophy.
- Benito Mussolini himself, had this to say in the
Doctrine of Fascism: "Granted that the 19th century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the 20th century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century. If the 19th century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State.......everything in the state, nothing against the State, nothing outside the state. Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State—a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values—interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people." This is an arguement that fascism is by definition at least socially authoritarian...socially right-wing.
- Franklin D Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States, stated: "The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." His argument was that fascism was economically right-wing.
- George Orwell,
Shopkeepers at War: "Fascism, at any rate the German version, is a form of capitalism that borrows from Socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes... It is a planned system geared to a definite purpose, world-conquest, and not allowing any private interest, either of capitalist or worker, to stand in its way."
- Marxists in general define fascism as being: right-wing, nationalist, hierarchal, anti-equality, ultra-religious, capitalist, war-mongering, obsessed with voluntarist ideology, and anti-modernist.
- Kevin Passmore: "Fascism is a set of ideologies and practices that seeks to place the nation, defined in exclusive biological, cultural, and/or historical terms, above all other sources of loyalty, and to create a mobilized national community. Fascist nationalism is reactionary in that it entails implacable hostility to socialism and feminism, for they are seen as prioritizing class or gender rather than nation. This is why fascism is a movement of the extreme right. Fascism is also a movement of the radical right because the defeat of socialism and feminism and the creation of the mobilized nation are held to depend upon the advent to power of a new elite acting in the name of the people, headed by a charismatic leader, and embodied in a mass, militarized party. Fascists are pushed towards conservatism by common hatred of socialism and feminism, but are prepared to override conservative interests - family, property, religion, the universities, the civil service - where the interests of the nation are considered to require it. Fascist radicalism also derives from a desire to assuage discontent by accepting specific demands of the labour and women's movements, so long as these demands accord with the national priority. Fascists seek to ensure the harmonization of workers' and women's interests with those of the nation by mobilizing them within special sections of the party and/or within a corporate system. Access to these organizations and to the benefits they confer upon members depends on the individual's national, political, and/or racial characteristics. All aspects of fascist policy are suffused with ultranationalism."
- F.A. Hayek, a capitalist, wrote in
The Road to Serfdom: "Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion." Hayek argues further, "Professor Werner Sombart in particular was hailed as a Marxist and was persecuted for his beliefs but later rejected internationalism and pacifism in favor of German militarism and nationalism...Western or English liberalism, which includes the ideas of freedom, community, and equality and rule by parliamentary democracy, is anathema in a true Germany, where power should belong to the whole, everyone is given his place, and one either obeys or commands. Oswald Spengler in his early writings advocated many of the ideas shared by German socialists at this time. Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, patron saint of national socialism, as Hayek calls him, claimed that World War I was a war between liberalism and socialism and that socialism lost. Like Plenge and Lensch, he saw national socialism as socialism adapted to the German character and undefiled by Western ideas of liberalism. Benito Mussolini's political origins are also socialist, being a leader in the PSI (Italian Socialist Party) before founding the first National Fascist Party."
In conclusion, there are many conflicting definitions of "fascism" but at the very least most people seem to agree that it is socially authoritarian in nature, but has nebulous placings on the economic scale. The ultimate conclusion that most theorists have given is that it is somewhere on the right-wing in terms of economics, but people on all ends of the spectrum have used the term as a criticism of their opposition.
Thus, the best that anyone can do is average it out based on philosophical and academic discussion, with the consensus that it is economically and socially right-wing, has nationalist tendencies, anti-dissent, and is an obsession with militarism.
On these key topics, Trump ticks all the boxes: economic right-wing, his attitude towards immigration and "America first" has nationalist undertones (as does his supporters), his criticism of the judiciary and tendency towards absolute power through holding executive orders as the be-all-end-all of law has roots in social authoritarianism and anti-dissent, to say nothing of his disdain towards any media outlet not favorable towards him (which he publicly passes off as "fake news" in a manner bordering on propaganda), and Trump's plans to provide funding to the United States' already bloated military has roots in militarism.
