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Fascism is a far-right[1] form of government in which most of the country's power is held by one ruler or a small group, under a single party.[2][3] Fascist governments are usually totalitarian and authoritarian one-party states.[4][5][6] Under fascism, the economy and other parts of society are heavily and closely controlled by the government, usually by using a form of authoritarian corporatism, where companies and workers are supposed to work together under national unity. The government uses violence and police power to arrest, kill or stop anyone it does not think useful.[3][7]
Four large fascist countries were Italy under Benito Mussolini, Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, Empire of Japan under Hideki Tojo, and Spain under Francisco Franco.[3]
Mussolini invented fascism in Italy in the late 1910s, and developed it fully in the 1930s. He came to power in late 1922 and introduced a complete dictatorship in the mid-1920s, by eliminating all other parties and changing the electoral law to make sure his Fascist party got the most seats.[8] When Hitler came to power in Germany in the 1930s, he copied Mussolini.[3] Mussolini wrote a political paper, which is called The Doctrine of Fascism in English. He started writing it in 1927, but it was only published in 1932. Most of it was probably written by Giovanni Gentile, an Italian philosopher who joined fascism and became an important influence.