Under fascism, the means of production are nominally owned by private individuals or corporations, but the state exercises ultimate control over their use and disposal, effectively subordinating private ownership to the national interest as defined by the regime.
This system is often described as “capitalism with a capitalist veneer” or a “state-private partnership,” where private property exists in form but not in substance, as the state retains the power to dictate production, pricing, wages, and investment.
The state achieves this control through mechanisms like official cartels, mandatory industry-wide planning boards, and the suppression of independent labor unions and market competition.

While private ownership is preserved, the ruling class under fascism remains the capitalist class, as the fundamental economic relations of capitalism—such as the production of surplus value and the drive for capital accumulation—persist.
However, the state centralizes economic control, suppresses conflicts between different branches of capital, and pools risks to serve the goals of national strength and militarism.
This results in a “steered economy” (gesteuerte Wirtschaft), where individual capitalists must subordinate themselves to a unified national policy.

Fascism does not abolish private property in the way socialism does, but it transforms ownership into a state-granted privilege contingent on loyalty to the regime.
The state may nationalize certain industries directly, but more commonly, it controls private owners through political authority, licensing, and the threat of force.
This system is not a rejection of capitalism but a response to its crises, designed to preserve the capitalist system by eliminating class conflict through state-enforced “class collaboration” and the suppression of socialist movements.
As such, fascism is seen by some as “capitalism in decay,” where the state intervenes to protect the capitalist order when it is threatened by revolutionary movements.