The idea of totalitarianism arose associated with fascism.
The regime that is characterized by the concentration of all state powers in the ruling party is called totalitarianism . With totalitarianism, the State exercises control of social ties and activities and imposes the official ideology in a coercive manner.
This hegemonic power is usually led by a charismatic leader , who is at the head of the single party . Those who do not comply with the mandates of the totalitarian government are censored and repressed.
Origin of totalitarianism
The notion of totalitarianism emerged linked to fascism . This social and political movement was born in Italian territory during the first decades of the 20th century .
Nationalist, antidemocratic and corporatist, fascism was defined as totalitarian by those who opposed its doctrine. However, Benito Mussolini himself (top leader of the National Fascist Party ) appropriated the concept and gave it a positive connotation that did not transcend over time .
The idea of totalitarianism, over the years, began to be used to refer to other regimes and government systems that shared certain features with fascism, as in the case of Nazism in Germany and communism in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. ( USSR ).
Stalinism was a totalitarian regime.
Main features
As we already indicated, totalitarianism as a doctrine, philosophy or form of government is present in fascism, Nazism, communism and other authoritarian regimes. Several particularities of totalitarianism can be recognized that appear in various models and structures of State management.
Power concentrated in a party or even in one person is a primary quality of totalitarianism. The leader is permanently worshiped and considered a guide or “father” of the people.
Totalitarianism, on the other hand, aims to bring about cultural change. While applying violence against dissidents, it promotes indoctrination to achieve the support of the masses.
Another property of totalitarianism is that it seeks to introduce politics into all dimensions of society. In this way, culture, education, the economy and the rest of the areas become coincident with the official vision or are positioned as complementary.
Different views on totalitarianism
Just as many historians and sociologists consider the concept of totalitarianism valid, other thinkers maintain that it is useless . This is due, above all, to the fact that it encompasses dissimilar regimes and movements.
Communism and Nazism, for example, are antagonistic on many issues. However, both are described as totalitarian. According to some analysts, the idea of totalitarianism was promoted after World War II to promote the criminalization of communism by placing it as an analogue of Nazism.
Nowadays , on the other hand, constitutional and democratic governments are often accused of totalitarianism. In these cases, opponents use the notion as a mechanism of political action, attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the authorities.
Suppose that a government promotes a project to prevent the existence of multimedia, stating that if a business group manages many media outlets, the plurality of opinions and content is undermined. This measure, which can be considered as a resource to guarantee the dissemination of different voices, can also be pointed out as a sample of totalitarianism for attempting to regulate or curtail the media .