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Totalitarianism is a typology employed by political scientists to describe modern regimes in which the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior. Totalitarian governments do not tolerate activities by individuals or groups, such as labor unions, that are not directed toward the state's goals. Totalitarian regimes mobilize entire populations in support of the state and a political ideology. The maintain themselves in power by means of secret police, propaganda disseminated through the mass media, regulation of free discussion and criticism, and widespread use of terror tactics. Critics of the concept contend that the term lacks explanatory power. They argue that are often classified as "totalitarian" may not be as monolithic as they appear from the outside, since they may hide a political process in which several groups, possibly the army, political leaders, industrialists, and others, compete for power and influence.

Origins of the term

The term, employed in the writings of the philosopher Giovanni Gentile, was popularized by the Italian fascists under Benito Mussolini. Referring to an 'all-embracing, total state,' the label was applied to a variety of empires and orders of rule, ands in general to rightist regimes; that is, until the period of the Cold War, when it gained renewed currency, especially following the publication of Hanah Arent's The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951).

Cold War-era research

The political scientists Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski were primarily responsible for expanding the usage of the term, reformulating it as a paradigm for Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin as well as fascist regimes. For Friedrich and Brzezinski, the defining elements were intended to be taken as a mutually supportive organic entity comprised of the following: an elaborating guiding ideology; a single mass party, typically led by a dictator; a system of terror; a monopoly of the means of communication and physical force; and central direction and control of the economy through state planning. These regimes had their origins in the chaos that followed in the wake of the First World War, which encouraged the establishment of totalitarian regimes in Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union while the sophistication of modern weapons and communications enabled them to consolidate their power.

In the 1950s and 1960s, "Cold Warriors" adopted the academic concept of totalitarianism, which combined a series of attributes that can be objectively assessed in professional research, and popularized its emotive connotations that are less open to scholarly investigation as a rallying cry against Soviet Communism.

Critics and recent work with the concept

In the social sciences, the approach of Friedrich and Brzezinski came under criticism from scholars who argued that the Soviet system, both as a political and a social entity, was in fact better understood in terms of interest groups, competing elites, or even in class terms (using the concept of the nomenklatura as a vehicle for a new ruling class). These critics pointed to evidence for both the popular support for the regime and widespread dispersion of power, at least in the implementation of policy, among sectoral and regional authorities. For some followers of this 'pluralist' approach, this was evidence of the ability of the regime to adapt to include new demands. However, the remaining proponents of the totalitarian model claimed that the failure of the system to survive showed not only its inability to adapt but the formality of supposed popular participation.

The term became intertwined with Cold War stances, and in social science the explanatory power of the concept was questioned because of its ahistorical and generalizing nature. In the social scientists, its proponents do not agree on when the Soviet Union ceased to be describable as totalitarian.

It fell into disuse during the 1970s among many Soviet specialists. However, it has made somewhat of a comeback after the notion of "post-totalitarianism" was put forward by political scientist Juan Linz. For many commentators, such as Linz and Alfred Stepan, the Soviet Union entered a new phase after the abandonment of mass terror on Stalin’s death. Discussion of "post-totalitarianism" featured prominently in debates about the reformability and durability of the Soviet system in comparative politics.

As the Soviet system disintegrated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, opponents of the concept claimed that the transformation of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev, and later the total and sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, demonstrated that the totalitarian model had little explanatory value for researchers.

References

Hanah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1958, new ed. 1966)
C. J. Friedrich and Z. K. Brezinski, Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (2d ed. 1967)
Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Consolidation

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+'''Totalitarianism''' is a [[typology]] employed by [[political science|political scientists]] to describe [[modern]] [[regime]]s in which the [[state]] regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior. Totalitarian governments do not tolerate activities by individuals or groups, such as [[labor union]]s, that are not directed toward the state's goals. Totalitarian regimes mobilize entire populations in support of the state and a political [[ideology]]. The maintain themselves in power by means of [[secret police]], [[propaganda]] disseminated through the mass media, regulation of free discussion and criticism, and widespread use of [[terror]] tactics. Critics of the concept contend that the term lacks explanatory power. They argue that are often classified as "totalitarian" may not be as monolithic as they appear from the outside, since they may hide a political process in which several groups, possibly the army, political leaders, industrialists, and others, compete for power and influence.
-A '''totalitarian''' [[régime]] or  [[state]] attempts to control nearly every aspect of [[personal life|personal]], [[economics|economic]], and [[politics|political]] life. [[Benito Mussolini]] was the first to use the word '''totalitarian''' to describe his [[dictatorship]] positively, although it could have been used just as easily to describe the [[Soviet Union]] under such leaders as [[Vladimir Lenin]] and [[Leon Trotsky]], who had seized power in [[Russia]] in [[1917]] and shared similar tendencies toward a complete restructuring and regimentation of [[society]].
+==Origins of the term==
-Totalitarian governments prohibit all activities contrary to the régime's goals of either a radical restructuring of society to create a new economic order ([[communism]]), institute racism ([[Nazism]], or [[Croatia]]n [[Ustase|Usta&#353;e]]), reconstitute human nature through fundamentalist religion ([[Taliban]] rule in [[Afghanistan]]), or some combination of these. They maintain power through [[secret police]], [[propaganda]], and suppression of open criticism of the regime, often through terroristic methods. Much as in [[George Orwell]]'s fictional [[Nineteen Eighty-Four]], the régime exploits real or imaginary threats to itself as threats to the people and as excuses for persecution of dissidents and other '[[enemy of the people|enemies of the people]]'. Due to the reputations of totalitarian states for [[mass murder]], extreme [[Political repression|repression]], and [[militarism]], the word '''totalitarian''' almost invariably implies opprobrium toward a particular government, and is often used selectively in asserting that one sort of dictatorship is less loathsome than another, as in contemporary disputes over the legitimacy and characteristics of the [[Chile|Chilean]] régime under [[Augusto Pinochet]] as opposed to [[Fidel Castro]]'s [[Cuba]].
+The term, employed in the writings of the philosopher [[Giovanni Gentile]], was popularized by the Italian [[fascism|fascists]] under [[Benito Mussolini]]. Referring to an 'all-embracing, total state,' the label was applied to a variety of empires and orders of rule, ands in general to rightist regimes; that is, until the period of the [[Cold War]], when it gained renewed currency, especially following the publication of [[Hanah Arent]]'s ''The Origins of Totalitarianism'' ([[1951]]).
-The concept of '''totalitarianism''' encapsulates the characteristics of a number of twentieth-century régimes that mobilized entire populations in support of the state or an ideology. According to these historical approximations, totalitarian regimes are more repressive of [[pluralism]] and political rights than [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] ones. Even so, the gradation from 'authoritarian' to 'totalitarian' has no sharp delineation. Typically, the régime is both highly regimented as well as brutal, but neither brutality nor regimentation alone establishes that a régime is totalitarian. For example, [[Great Britain|Great Britain's]] economy during [[World War II]] was one of the most regimented ever, but this was solely for the purpose of survival of the political system (which still honored human rights and the democratic process and loosened many of these strictures when the war ended). Those criteria themselves have gradations. Some dictatorships are less brutal and repressive than others, even if they share many similarities of ideology.
+==Cold War-era research==
-Totalitarian régimes are phenomena exclusive to the twentieth century and later. All totalitarian régimes pose as the culmination of 'true' [[democracy]] as opposed to the [[liberal democracy|liberal democracies]] that exercise the [[rule of law]] and respect [[property|property rights]]. All depend upon technologies of [[mass media]], repression on an industrial scale, and [[mass surveillance]] impossible without the scientific advances of the late nineteenth century. Tyrants of earlier times such as [[Nebuchadrezzar II|Nebuchadrezzar]], [[Nero]], [[Ivan the Terrible]], and [[Henry VIII]] lacked the means of suffocating individuality or preventing escape as do modern totalitarians; none of them posed as the expression of the popular will against tradition or would-be exploiters or oppressors.
+The political scientists [[Carl Friedrich]] and [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] were primarily responsible for expanding the usage of the term, reformulating it as a paradigm for [[Soviet Union]] under [[Joseph Stalin]] as well as fascist regimes. For Friedrich and Brzezinski, the defining elements were intended to be taken as a mutually supportive organic entity comprised of the following: an elaborating guiding ideology; [[single party state|a single mass party]], typically led by a [[dictator]]; a system of terror; a monopoly of the means of communication and physical force; and central direction and control of the economy through [[planned economy|state planning]]. These regimes had their origins in the chaos that followed in the wake of the [[First World War]], which encouraged the establishment of totalitarian regimes in Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union while the sophistication of modern weapons and communications enabled them to consolidate their power.
-During the [[Cold War]], the term became popularized by many [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] commentators, and fell into common usage in the [[United States]]. Thus, some have used the term to describe almost any  [[Nationalism|nationalist]], [[Apartheid]], [[Imperialism|imperialist]], [[fascism|fascist]] and [[Communism|Communist]] regime as "totalitarian." However, some fascist regimes, such as [[Francisco Franco|Franco]]'s [[Spain]] and Mussolini's Italy before [[World War II]]; some Communist regimes, such as [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] under [[Josip Broz Tito]], and the [[People's Republic of China]] under [[Deng Xiaoping]]; and single-party regimes, such as [[Taiwan]] under [[Chiang Kai-shek]] and [[Indonesia]] under [[Suharto]] may be said to have authoritarian rather than totalitarian characteristics.  Some governments or political movements of unusual brutality (like [[Uganda]] under [[Idi Amin]] or [[Rwanda]] during its [[genocide]]) lack the control of economics or culture characteristic of a totalitarian system, even if the political system is as brutal as most totalitarian states.
+In the [[1950s]] and [[1960s]], "Cold Warriors" adopted the academic concept of totalitarianism, which combined a series of attributes that can be objectively assessed in professional research, and popularized its emotive connotations that are less open to scholarly investigation as a rallying cry against Soviet [[Communist state|Communism]].
-Some scholars, such as Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, have moved beyond the tripartite typology of totalitarian, authoritarian, and democratic regimes without rejecting it entirely. Instead, they expand that typology by explicating "post-totalitarianism" as a distinctive regime-type characterizing regimes such as the post-[[Stalinism|Stalinist]] Soviet Union.
+==Critics and recent work with the concept==
-==Totalitarian regimes==
+In the [[social science]]s, the approach of Friedrich and Brzezinski came under criticism from scholars who argued that the Soviet system, both as a political and a social entity, was in fact better understood in terms of [[interest group]]s, competing elites, or even in [[class]] terms (using the concept of the ''[[nomenklatura]]'' as a vehicle for a new ruling class). These critics pointed to evidence for both the popular support for the regime and widespread dispersion of power, at least in the implementation of policy, among sectoral and regional authorities. For some followers of this 'pluralist' approach, this was evidence of the ability of the regime to adapt to include new demands. However, the remaining proponents of the totalitarian model claimed that the failure of the system to survive showed not only its inability to adapt but the formality of supposed popular participation.
-One can distinguish the totalitarian régime from all traditional tyrannies and absolute monarchies by the mobilization, possible only in the twentieth century, of entire populations in support of the state and a political ideology. The main examples of regimes considered totalitarian are Nazi Germany, fascist [[Italy]], the Soviet Union, Communist China, [[Ba'ath Party|Ba'athist]] [[Iraq]], Ba'athist [[Syria]], [[Libya]] under the government of [[Muammar al-Qaddafi]], the [[Cambodia|Cambodian]] [[Khmer Rouge]], the [[Laos|Laotian]] [[Pathet Lao]], the [[Vietnam|Socialist Republic of Vietnam]], and the [[North Korea|Democratic People's Republic of Korea]]. Totalitarian systems, however, may not be as monolithic as they appear, since they may hide a process in which several groups&#8212;the [[army]], political leaders, [[industrialists]], and others&#8212;compete for power and influence.
+The term became intertwined with Cold War stances, and in social science the explanatory power of the concept was questioned because of its ahistorical and generalizing nature. In the social scientists, its proponents do not agree on when the Soviet Union ceased to be describable as totalitarian.
-==Problems of identification and distinction==
+It fell into disuse during the [[1970s]] among many Soviet specialists. However, it has made somewhat of a comeback after the notion of "post-totalitarianism" was put forward by political scientist [[Juan Linz]]. For many commentators, such as Linz and [[Alfred Stepan]], the Soviet Union entered a new phase after the abandonment of mass terror on Stalin’s death. Discussion of "post-totalitarianism" featured prominently in debates about the reformability and durability of the Soviet system in comparative politics.
-Both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany came into conflict with the "[[free world]]", either directly and violently (World War II), or indirectly (the [[Cold War]]). Allied forces led by the Soviet Union and the [[United States]] (amongst others) defeated Germany on [[V-E Day]].
+As the Soviet system disintegrated in the late [[1980s]] and early [[1990s]], opponents of the concept claimed that the transformation of the Soviet Union under [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], and later the total and sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, demonstrated that the totalitarian model had little explanatory value for researchers.
-Since the fall of the Nazi regime in [[Germany]], many theorists in the United States and [[Western Europe]] have argued that similarities exist between the government of Nazi Germany and that of Stalin's Soviet Union.  [[Hannah Arendt]], in particular, draws parallels between fascism and [[Stalinism]].  In most cases, this has not taken the form of emphasising the alleged "[[economics|economic]]" aspects of the two countries but of arguing that both [[Nazism]] and Stalinism represent forms of totalitarianism. The distinction often made between communism and National Socialism that the Nazis allowed capitalists to profit from ostensibly free enterprise ignores that ownership of enterprises in Nazi Germany was precarious at best; the government could expropriate, regulate, and dispose of any private property at will from any real or perceived enemies (especially [[Jew|Jews]]), and exacted bribes and "contributions" from owners and managers to an extent that property ownership was largely superficial.
+==References==
-The comparison is often disputed on the basis of Nazism's theoretical and practical relationship to communism. Since the Nazis were belligerent anti-[[Marxism|Marxists]], it is thought that they are incongruous with the socialist tradition as emblemized by French Revolutionaries or [[Karl Marx|Marx]], [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]], and [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]]. [[Adolf Hitler]] and the Nazis revered the nationalist operas of [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], particularly the [[Der Ring des Nibelungen|Ring Cycle]], and found heroes in history such as [[Frederick the Great]] or the [[Teutonic Knights]]. Conversely, the Nazis rejected and even reviled typical [[socialism|socialist]] cultural and historical traditions such as the celebration of the [[French Revolution]] and the [[The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states|1848 Revolutions]] or the lore of workers' struggles in momentous strikes and protests. The Nazis condemned and rejected the eighteenth and nineteenth century revolutionary movements and blamed these events for destroying traditional values and social relations. They also saw these revolutions as part of a Jewish conspiracy, since those revolutions resulted (''inter alia'') in the [[emancipation]] of the [[Jew]]s.
+*Hanah Arendt, ''The Origins of Totalitarianism'' (1958, new ed. 1966)
+*C. J. Friedrich and Z. K. Brezinski, ''Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy'' (2d ed. 1967)
-However, "Jewish [[Bolshevik|Bolshevism]]" was not the only [[anti-semitism|anti-semitic]] theme of tirades against political opponents.  Paradoxically, "Jewish [[plutocracy|plutocrats]]" and "[[liberal|liberals]]" were also seen as effecting a parasitic drain on the German worker.  Above all, Nazi propaganda appropriated much of the rhetoric of Marxism on the working class and imposed as extensive a regimentation of personal life as under [[Marxism-Leninism]] and [[Stalinism]], even if the Nazis treated communism as the ultimate expression of evil.  The Nazis had for decades claimed the mantle of "true" socialism much as communists claimed to be instituting "true" democracy.
+*Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, ''Problems of Democratic Consolidation''
-The hierarchical nature of the [[antimodernism | anti-modern]] [[corporatism]] espoused by Nazism and other forms of fascism contrasts directly with the [[egalitarianism]] espoused by most forms of socialism. Kershaw argues that the Nazis opposed egalitarianism, had an [[elitist]] view of society and asserted that in competition amongst citizens the superior individual would emerge on top. However, the same might be said of those countries, such as the Soviet Union, also labeled totalitarian but often accepted as representing communism or socialism. [[Egalitarianism]] would seem to connote much more in theory than applicable comparisons of existing states. Moreover, if humanity is separated into ostensibly "economic" classes, something agreed as apparent between both Nazis and communists, then a practice of ostracizing, killing, or destroying classes and individuals in those classes can not properly described as egalitarian even in theory, as the dead and shackled aren't likely to think highly of their established equality.
-Much of this debate ultimately revolves around the question of the meaning of the term ''socialism'' as well as ''corporatism'', making argument on the subject frequently as much about semantics as about actual substantive differences. If socialism is defined down rather narrowly to encompass a specific political tradition rather than a socioeconomic worldview applicable more widely, then the analysis of similarity in modern totalitarianism boils down to an antiseptic view of [[police state]] tactics. As well, many ascribe the essential [[Racism|racist]] qualities of Nazism to a [[far right|far-right]] leaning, but this accepts without question a definition of [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] as nationalist, racist, or otherwise [[chauvinist]] in character. Moreover it ignores the nationalist characters of many communist movements and leaders (such as [[Ho Chi Minh]]), and even [[Joseph Stalin]] himself.
-== Theories of totalitarianism ==
-The relationship between totalitarianism and authoritarianism also remains controversial: some see totalitarianism as an extreme form of authoritarianism, while others argue that they differ completely.
-Some political analysts, notably so-called [[Neoconservatism in the United States|neoconservatives]] such as [[Jeane Kirkpatrick]], contend that although both types of governments can behave extremely brutally to political opponents, in an authoritarian government the government's efforts focus mostly on those classified as political opponents, and the government has neither the will nor, often, the means to control every aspect of an individual's life. In a totalitarian system, the ruling ideology requires that every aspect of an individual's life become subordinated to the state, including education, occupation, income, recreation and religion, often even including family relationships. Personal survival links to the regime's survival, and thus the concepts of "the state" and "the people" become merged.  This is also called the [[carceral state]] &mdash; like a prison.
-Some analysts have argued that totalitarianism requires a cult of personality around a [[charisma|charismatic]] "great leader" (even "dear leader") glorified as the legitimator of the regime. Many regimes often considered totalitarian fit this model &#8212; for example on a global scale of politics, those of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, [[Mao Zedong]], [[Nicolae Ceausescu]], [[Saddam Hussein]], [[Muammar al-Qaddafi]], [[Hafez al-Assad]], [[Kim Il-Sung]], and [[Kim Jong Il]]. Partially for this reason, some scholars, notably those with [[Socialism|socialist]] sympathies, do not consider the post-Stalin Soviet Union and most of the [[Warsaw Pact]] nations as totalitarian. Other analysts, however, argued that the presence of a strong cult of personality is a cultural characteristic or even a transient one, and is not a required trait of totalitarianism. In any case, when those régimes fell, many intellectuals  of the countries have substantiated the claim they had indeed experienced totalitarianism. This seem to have validated the belief that totalitarianism frequently features a charismatic leader but does not require one.
-Still, one can reasonably argue that a leader with an absolute power at all times for guidance of nearly every aspect of life is a useful political device of a totalitarian régime. Whether or not a newly installed leader of a totalitarian regime possesses natural charisma or not, the totalitarian system often acts as if the leader possesses it.
-== Philosophical considerations ==
-The original sense in which ''totalitarian'' was coined, least viable for its connotations today but pertinent to understanding the context of its earliest instances, was for representing the state through [[Giovanni Gentile]]'s philosophy. For him, ''totalitarian'' was the condition of the state in which all activities of [[civil society]], inadvertently or not, ultimately lead to, and therefore perpetually exist in, something resembling a state, e.g., Statist Totalitarianism. Within that consideration, therefore, is an express and underlying need for advancement to come through synthesis of every quality of [[society]] through recognition in policy and by official mandate of everything which can take part within the sphere of human living, by the state.
-The state is then an attempt to expand and magnify the every interest of its [[demographic]] as being reciprocal with the state to where their interests and actions belong to something higher than themselves. Society is then intimately interconnected with the state as its limiting factor. Central concentration of power from elites and then to lesser sub-citizen classes. One can only act towards the goals that the state values, rather than any interests the people hold generally.
-== Validity of the theory of totalitarianism ==
-Several theories of totalitarianism were developed by historians and political scientists in [[Democracy|democratic]] countries during the second half of the [[20th century]]. They appeared solid until the late [[1980s]], when the collapse of the Soviet Union and other communist bloc nations overturned many established ideas. Although there is little doubt that theories of totalitarianism have shaped and continue to shape [[U.S. foreign policy]] and [[journalism|journalistic]] discussion, the actual predictive value of totalitarianism as a theory is disputable.
-The collapse of the [[Eastern bloc]] tested numerous aspects of the theory of totalitarianism. Many decades earlier, in 1957, theorist [[Bertram Wolfe]] claimed that Soviet society had all power flowing to the top with no challenge or change possible from society at large. He called it a ''"solid and durable political system dominating a society that has been totally fragmented or atomized," one which will remain "barring explosion from within or battering down from without."''
-Most classic theories of totalitarianism left out even the possibility of an ''"explosion from within"'' as mentioned by Bertram Wolfe. These were largely discredited when the Soviet Union fell completely without an invasion from outside.
-Contrasting theories argued that there continued to be bases inside Soviet society for change, and that it is unrealistic to think that any one man or state could concentrate power in such a way as to make those bases of change irrelevant. From opposite sides of the political spectrum, U.S. Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]] and Mao Zedong both claimed that "peaceful evolution" toward [[capitalism]] was possible in the Eastern bloc.
-Despite fundamental disagreement over the applicability of the term, references to the theory of totalitarianism are still commonly made today, especially in the form of using the word "totalitarian" to refer to [[North Korea]], [[Iran]], and ([[Ba'ath Party|Ba'athist]]) [[Iraq]] in the "[[Axis of Evil]]" defined by [[George W. Bush]] and neoconservative [[foreign policy]] analysts in the West.
-== Totalitarianism in fiction ==
-Totalitarian dystopias include [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', [[Ayn Rand]]'s ''[[Anthem (novel)|Anthem]], ''[[Ray Bradbury]]'s ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'', [[Aldous Huxley]]'s ''[[Brave New World]]'', [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]]'s ''[[We (novel)|We]]'', and [[Margaret Atwood]]'s ''[[The Handmaid's Tale]]''.  Two of [[John Barnes]]' novels, ''Candle'' and ''[[The Sky So Big and Black]]'', treat the threat of a hegemonic software program [[One True]] that takes control of individual human minds and entire human societies. In Christopher Largen's [http://www.waronjunk.com Junk] an altruistic but misguided government outlaws junk food.
-[[Historical novel|Historical fiction]] featuring totalitarian governments includes [[Boris Pasternak]]'s ''[[Doctor Zhivago]]''.
-== Literature ==
-*[[Hannah Arendt]], ''[[The Origins of Totalitarianism]]'' (1951)
 [[Category:political systems]]
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 [[pt:Totalitarismo]]
 [[fi:Totalitarismi]]
+[[Category:political systems]]
+[[cs:Totalita]]
+[[no:Totalitarisme]]
+[[fr:Totalitarisme]]
+[[de:Totalitarismus]]