Totalitarianism is an extension and intensifying of authoritarianism. A totalitarian system is necessarily authoritarian, but it goes much further.
What distinguishes a system as totalitarian is how it uses its monopoly of power.
• In a totalitarian state, individuals are subordinate to the state and personal autonomy is not tolerated.
• Such a regime seeks to control not simply political life, but society in all its features: institutional, economic, moral and personal.
• Its power is exercised pervasively, affecting every person.
• The lives of the population, collectively and as individuals, are subject to the direction of the state which demands complete obedience from its citizens on pain of the direst punishments for those who do not conform.
• Totalitarian systems base their right to absolute control by reference to a basic ideology, which both explains why they hold power and justifies its exercise.
• In their extreme forms, totalitarian systems of both Left and Right regard history as predetermined. Their belief is that societies develop in accordance with iron laws of progress that follow a set pattern to an unavoidable conclusion.
Characteristics of the totalitarian state
The foLLowing List is neither a definitive nor an exclusive one, but it does
Indicate some of the main features evident in most totalitarian regimes:
1 Only one political party is allowed to exist.
2 Power is exercised by the party leader who controls the party.
3 The leader's authority is underpinned by a dominant ideology.
4 The leader claims that his authority derives from the immutable laws of historical development.
5 The state maintains social and political control through terror.
6 The state crushes opposition through control of the media.
7 The state exercises central control of the economy.
8 The regime uses the armed forces and law enforcement bodies to operate a police state.
9 The state uses censorship and propaganda to promote the idea of a faultless leader.
10 Religion is either outlawed and persecuted as an affront to state ideology or exploited as another means of controlling the people.
11 Independent institutions, such as religious organizations and trade unions, are suppressed.
12 The legal system is politicized so that it becomes an instrument of state control.
13 The state seeks to reshape culture so that it conforms to state ideology.
14 Internal opponents are identified and persecuted.
15 An aggressive stance is adopted towards external ideological enemies.
In the two outstanding examples of European totalitarianism, Soviet communism and Nazism, each was inspired by a passionate commitment to an ideology. In the Soviet case, it was Stalin's class concepts that motivated his policies. He saw his prime purpose to be the destruction of all those he deemed to be the class enemies of the Soviet state. In the German case, it was Hitler's notion of race that shaped his policies; he saw it as his destiny to rid Germany of all those he deemed to be racial inferiors.
What difficulties may arise when analysing differing authoritarian regimes?
World History
