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totalitarianism
What is totalitarianism?
Totalitarianism is a form of government that attempts to assert total control over the lives of its citizens. It is characterized by strong central rule that attempts to control and direct all aspects of individual life through coercion and repression. It does not permit individual freedom. Traditional social institutions and organizations are discouraged and suppressed, making people more willing to be merged into a single unified movement. Totalitarian states typically pursue a special goal to the exclusion of all others, with all resources directed toward its attainment, regardless of the cost.
How did totalitarianism get its name?
The termtotalitario was used by Italian dictatorBenito Mussolini in the early 1920s to describe the newfascist state ofItaly, which he further described as “all within the state, none outside the state, none against the state.” By the beginning ofWorld War II,totalitarian had become synonymous with absolute and oppressive single-party government.
What are examples of totalitarian rule?
Notable examples of totalitarian states includeItaly underBenito Mussolini (1922–43), theSoviet Union underJoseph Stalin (1924–53),Nazi Germany underAdolf Hitler (1933–45), thePeople’s Republic of China under the influence ofMao Zedong (1949–76), andNorth Korea under theKim dynasty (1948– ). Examples of centralized rule dating further back in history that can be described as totalitarian include theMauryan dynasty ofIndia (c. 321–c. 185 BCE), theQin dynasty ofChina (221–207 BCE), and the reign of Zulu chiefShaka (c. 1816–28).
What is the difference between totalitarianism and authoritarianism?
Both forms of government discourage individual freedom of thought and action. Totalitarianism attempts to do this by asserting total control over the lives of its citizens, whereasauthoritarianism prefers the blind submission of its citizens to authority. While totalitarian states tend to have a highly developed guiding ideology, authoritarian states usually do not. Totalitarian states suppress traditional social organizations, whereas authoritarian states will tolerate some social organizations based on traditional or special interests. Unlike totalitarian states, authoritarian states lack the power to mobilize the entire population in pursuit of national goals, and any actions undertaken by the state are usually within relatively predictable limits.
totalitarianism, form ofgovernment that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual life to theauthority of thestate. ItaliandictatorBenito Mussolini coined the termtotalitario in the early 1920s to characterize the newfascist state of Italy, which he further described as “all within the state, none outside the state, none against the state.” By the beginning ofWorld War II,totalitarian had become synonymous with absolute and oppressive single-party government. Other modern examples of totalitarian states include theSoviet Union underJoseph Stalin,Nazi Germany underAdolf Hitler, thePeople’s Republic of China underMao Zedong, andNorth Korea under the Kimdynasty.
General characteristics of totalitarianism
In the broadest sense, totalitarianism is characterized by strong central rule that attempts to control and direct all aspects of individual life through coercion and repression. Historical examples of such centralized totalitarian rule include theMauryan dynasty of India (c. 321–c. 185bce), theQin dynasty of China (221–207bce), and the reign ofZulu chiefShaka (c. 1816–28). Nazi Germany (1933–45) and the Soviet Union during the Stalin era (1924–53) were the first examples of decentralized or popular totalitarianism, in which the state achieved overwhelming popular support for its leadership. That support was not spontaneous: its genesis depended on acharismatic leader, and it was made possible only by modern developments in communication and transportation.
Totalitarianism is often distinguished fromdictatorship, despotism, ortyranny by its supplanting of all political institutions with new ones and its sweeping away of all legal, social, and political traditions. The totalitarian state pursues some special goal, such as industrialization or conquest, to the exclusion of all others. All resources are directed toward its attainment, regardless of the cost. Whatever might further the goal is supported; whatever might foil the goal is rejected. Thisobsession spawns anideology that explains everything in terms of the goal, rationalizing all obstacles that may arise and all forces that may contend with the state. The resulting popular support permits the state the widest latitude of action of any form of government. Any dissent is branded evil, and internal political differences are not permitted. Because pursuit of the goal is the only ideological foundation for the totalitarian state, achievement of the goal can never be acknowledged.
Under totalitarian rule, traditional social institutions and organizations are discouraged and suppressed. Thus, the social fabric is weakened and people become moreamenable to absorption into a single, unified movement. Participation in approved public organizations is at first encouraged and then required. Old religious and social ties are supplanted by artificial ties to the state and itsideology. Aspluralism andindividualism diminish, most of the people embrace the totalitarian state’s ideology. Theinfinitediversity among individuals blurs, replaced by a mass conformity (or at least acquiescence) to the beliefs and behaviour sanctioned by the state.
Large-scale organizedviolence becomes permissible and sometimes necessary under totalitarian rule, justified by the overriding commitment to the state ideology and pursuit of the state’s goal. In Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, whole classes of people, such as theJews and thekulaks (wealthy peasant farmers) respectively, were singled out for persecution and extinction. In each case the persecuted were linked with some external enemy and blamed for the state’s troubles, and therebypublic opinion was aroused against them and their fate at the hands of the military and police wascondoned.
Police operations within a totalitarian state often appear similar to those within a police state, but one important difference distinguishes them. In a police state, the police operate according to known and consistent procedures. In a totalitarian state, the police operate outside the constraints of laws and regulations, and their actions are purposefully unpredictable. Under Hitler and Stalin, uncertainty was interwoven into the affairs of the state. The German constitution of theWeimar Republic was neverabrogated under Hitler, but an enabling act passed by the Reichstag in 1933 permitted him toamend the constitution at will, in effect nullifying it. The role of lawmaker became vested in one person. Similarly, Stalin provided a constitution for the Soviet Union in 1936 but never permitted it to become the framework ofSoviet law. Instead, he was the final arbiter in the interpretation ofMarxism–Leninism–Stalinism and changed his interpretations at will. Neither Hitler nor Stalin permitted change to become predictable, thus increasing the sense of terror among the people and repressing any dissent.
