When the Empire falls, local bullies are the only reservoir of coercion left to organize things. Rome fell and you got feudalism in the medieval world. It also happened in Mycenaen Greece, in China during the time of the warlords, in Japan during the Shogunate.

You may have a King, but essential power is exercised by the local barons, the King serves only as long as they tolerate him, or he can balance himself precariously at the point of the pyramid. Is it any wonder the Right is always talking about "Local Control", "Government close to the People", "the less government the better". Their archetypal community is the Company Town, their defining economics, the Company Store.

In the feudal world, its the local bully who's in charge. whether it be a big landholder, or Black Bart who owns the big spread outside of town (plus the sheriff and the judge), or Big Jim, who owns the town's only diamond mine.

Fascism at the local level is feudalism, and for all its faults, it at least maintains stability and order after the Legions pack up and go back to Rome. The only alternative is the barbarians.

Perhaps this is why we all seem to have such a nostalgia for medieval fantasies, the wise king, noble lords, virtuous knights, the good padre, everyone knows their place. Sure, the sturdy yeoman and jolly burgher may be prosperous and free, but there never seem to be that many of them. In reality, you're a serf, paying the baron half of what you grow on his land, if you're lucky enough to have a job at all.