Fascist Self-Understanding.  
Fascists conceived of their ideology as a comprehensive, revolutionary doctrine that integrated politics, economics, ethics, and spirituality into a unified system aimed at national rebirth and overcoming the perceived weaknesses of both liberal individualism and Marxist class struggle. In the foundational text The Doctrine of Fascism (1932), co-authored by Benito Mussolini and philosopher Giovanni Gentile, fascism is presented not merely as a political method but as a "total conception of life," totalitarian in scope yet distinct from mere state omnipotence, emphasizing the state's role as the embodiment of the nation's ethical and spiritual will.   Mussolini asserted that "the Fascist conception of life is a religious one, in which man is viewed in his immanent relation to a higher law, endowed with an objective will transcending the individual and raising him to conscious membership of a spiritual society." This worldview rejected egalitarianism and materialism, positing hierarchy and struggle as natural and invigorating forces essential for human elevation and societal vigor.  
Central to fascist self-understanding was the primacy of the state over the individual, where personal liberty existed only insofar as it served collective national interests, countering what they viewed as the atomizing effects of liberalism and the divisive internationalism of socialism. Mussolini described fascism as anti-individualistic, affirming "the value of the individual only insofar as his interests coincide with those of the state," and as a rejection of democratic pluralism in favor of authoritative unity under a single leader embodying the popular will.   
The movement positioned itself as a "third way," transcending capitalism's economic laissez-faire and communism's class warfare through corporatism, where economic sectors were organized into state-supervised syndicates to harmonize labor and capital under national directives, ostensibly eliminating strikes and promoting productivity for imperial expansion.   Fascists emphasized action (fascismo deriving from the Latin fasces, symbolizing bundled strength) over intellectual abstraction, with Mussolini declaring fascism as "action in which doctrine is imminent... thought which is action." 
Fascist anthropology portrayed the ideal adherent as disciplined, heroic, and oriented toward duty, conquest, and sacrifice, despising pacifism and viewing war as a "hygiene of the people" that tested and purified national character. "The Fascist accepts and loves life; he rejects and despises suicide as cowardly. Life as he understands it means duty, elevation, conquest; life must be lofty and full, it must be a high adventure," Mussolini wrote, framing existence as perpetual struggle against decadence and mediocrity. This ethos extended to a cult of youth, virility, and empire-building, inspired by Roman precedents, with fascism claiming to restore organic national communities disrupted by modernity's alienating forces. While Italian fascism served as the archetype, derivative movements elsewhere echoed this self-image of regenerative authoritarianism, though Mussolini warned against superficial imitations lacking genuine totalitarian commitment. 


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