Totalitarianism
and Fascism are forms of authoritarianism, which is governance by an
authority without the option of questioning whatever the authority
orders. The distinctions between the three are mostly a matter of
political theory; applying these labels is usually done very loosely
and, in my opinion, badly.

An authoritarian
government is any ruling political unit in which the person or group in
power tells everyone else what to do, more or less without recourse.
Monarchies without parliament and in which the monarch actually rules,
as well as military governments and dictatorships of the left and the
right can all be correctly identified as authoritarian. Most workplaces
are authoritarian, too; the boss tells you what to do, or else.
Similarly, most families have an authoritarian streak, as do schools.
The basic idea is that what is done is not put to a vote: someone in
authority commands, others obey. Authoritarian governments, as you might
imagine, can cover a very wide range of power regimes.

Totalitarian
rule is called this because the power of those who govern extends to
every aspect of life and society; in other words, total rule. They tell
you what to say, what to think, where to live, what to study, where to
work, etc. Obviously, because of the difficulty of controlling large
populations minutely, no pure form of totalitarian government has ever
existed. However, Soviet Communism, German Nazism and Italian Fascism
attempted to be totalitarian, but for very different reasons.

All
of which brings us to Fascism, which is the historical movement of
Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy as a dictator from 1929 to 1943. The
word “fascism” comes from the Latin fasces, a bundle of rods tied
around an ax; the members of the movement conceived of themselves as a
tightly wound bundle of people who figuratively chopped down whatever
stood in the way of their ideas. These ideas included the revival of
Italy’s glory as the center of the Roman Empire. It was a nationalist
and ultra-conservative movement similar and allied to German Nazism and
Spanish Falangism, yet distinctly Italian.

Because
Fascism came to power first, its name became a shorthand for any
right-wing authoritarian regime and for the supporters of such rule. The
concept has also been twisted completely out of shape by rhetorical
abuse. For example, Reaganism and Thatcherism (USA and UK in the 1980s),
although ideologically in harmony with many fascist ideas, have been
called fascist even though they operated in a political environment in
which at least a pretense of democratic representation was maintained.

The Wikipedia definition of authoritarianism is good “Authoritarianism is a form of government
characterized by strong central power and limited political freedoms”
Authoritarianism could be Individualistic or Collectivist, depending on
what range of non-political freedoms exist. Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew
was authoritarian but Individualistic, there was a great deal of
individual and economic freedom.

Totalitarianism
is state-centric, Collectivist form of authoritarianism in which the
state acknowledges no limits to its authority and seeks to regulate all
aspects of public and private life including religious, artistic,
political, and economic activity. All individuals exist to serve the
state. As Mussolini (one of the originators of the idea) put it, “All
within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

Fascism
is more slippery. One part of it is a state-business partnership for
mutual benefit, with the state acting as senior and controlling partner.
A fascist regime is as totalitarian as it can be, given the culture and
legal traditions of the society. It may or may not be militaristic, and
may or may not be internationally aggressive. It may or may not assert
ethnic, national, or racial superiority. Some European political
observers considered the second Wilson administration to be fascist. In
popular usage, “fascist” means little more than “bad” and prone to
bullying.

The
term Authoritarianism was coined in 1859 as the establishment of order
through a central, elected, authority. Under an Authoritarian model,
uniform elections (not saying if they were fair elections, mind you)
must be held, and by holding them, all those who vote then agree to
abide by the decisions of the elected Authority. The Authority itself
had no power to implement these decisions, and passed them down to lower
bodies to handle the direct implementation.

Totalitarianism
was coined by the Italian fascists in 1926, “totalitario”, and was a
rejection of Authoritarianism. Under Totalitarianist systems, there was
no pretext of elections or rule by mandate, and only the elite had any
say over the system. Instead of submitting to an authority,
Totalitarians had “total representation of the nation and total guidance
of national goals” through dictates. Unlike Authoritatian systems,
which had a decision making body, and left implementation to smaller
groups, Totalitarian models used a single body to handle both decisions
and implementation.

On the surface it is easy
to claim that Fascism used Totalitarianism and Communism used
Authoritarianism, but in the real world we find that is not always the
case. The root difference was in both how each system claimed their
mandate, and how each system implemented decisions.

Authoritarianism:
State rules and decides on everything, but some social and economic
institutions exist that are not under governmental control.

Totalitarianism is an extreme version of authoritarianism. Nothing exists but the government.

Fascism
brings ultra-nationalism to the mix; with a hint of racism. All fascist
governments are authoritarian, but not all authoritarian governments
are fascists. This part would get a bit muddy depending on whose
definition you stick to. I like Umberto Eco’s definition as I can
picture Hitler’s doctrines with them easily.

Definitions of fascism