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Encyclopedia Britannica:
Totalitarianism
is. . .
. . .a form of government that theoretically permits no individual freedom
and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of the individual's life to the
authority of the government. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini coined the term totalitario
in the early 1920s to describe the new fascist state of Italy, which he further
described as: "All within the state, none outside the state, none against
the state." By the beginning of World War II, "totalitarian" had
become synonymous with absolute and oppressive single-party government.
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. Examples of such centralized totalitarian rule include
the Maurya dynasty of India (c. 321-c. 185 BC), the Ch'in dynasty of China
(221-206 BC), and the reign of Zulu chief Shaka (c. 1816-28). The totalitarian
states of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler (1933-45) and the Soviet Union under
Joseph Stalin (1924-53) were the first examples of decentralized or popular
totalitarianism, in which the state achieved overwhelming popular support for
its leadership. This support was not spontaneous; its genesis depended on a
charismatic leader; and it was made possible only by modern developments in
communication and transportation.
Totalitarianism is often distinguished from dictatorship, despotism, or
tyranny 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. This obsession spawns an ideology 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 more amenable 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 its ideology. As pluralism and individualism diminish, most of the
people embrace the totalitarian state's ideology. The infinite diversity among
individuals blurs, replaced by a mass conformity (or at least acquiescence) to
the beliefs and behavior sanctioned by the state.
Large-scale, organized violence 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 the Jews and the kulaks (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 thereby public opinion was aroused against them and their
fate at the hands of the military and the police was condoned.
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, consistent procedures. In a
totalitarian state the police operate without the constraints of laws and
regulations. Their actions are unpredictable and directed by the whim of their
rulers. Under Hitler and Stalin uncertainty was interwoven into the affairs of
the state. The German constitution of the Weimar Republic was never abrogated
under Hitler, but an enabling act passed by the Reichstag in 1933 permitted him
to amend the constitution at will, in effect nullifying it. The role of lawmaker
became vested in one man. Similarly, Stalin provided a constitution for the
Soviet Union in 1936 but never permitted it to become the framework of Soviet
law. Instead, he was the final arbiter in the interpretation of
Marxism-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.
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