Fascism is a political ideology defined by a few key pillars, the most important being militarized totalitarian control, ultra-nationalism and the forced oppression of opposition.

Historically fascism has been a capitalist ideology (see the Nazis, Mussolini) but communist Governments can be described as fascist as well when they turn nationalist (see Stalin‘s USSR, Mao‘s China, DPRK).

Some scholars define fascism to have to involve a mass/cult-like following, which is why theres sometimes debate around leaders like Pinochet falling into the fascist category, who ran a military authoritarian government. (I dont necessarily agree that cult-like following needs to be a definition of fascism).

A good checklist is:

- is my government suppressing free speech?

- is my government punishing opposition?

- is my government militarizing against its own people?

- does my government tie allegiance to the state to citizenship?

Hope that helps.