What is a totalitarian government? See characteristics of totalitarianism and view totalitarian government examples to get an understanding of this concept.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Totalitarianism | Overview, Traits & Examples
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Writing Prompts About Totalitarianism
Poster Prompt 1:
Create a poster that shows the definition of totalitarianism and also features the common characteristics of it.
Guidelines: The definition should be at the top or in the middle where it can be viewed and referenced easily. There are five characteristics given in the lesson, so be sure that the poster contains all five.
Essay Prompt 1:
Write an essay that explains the way totalitarianism was carried out in Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union, and be sure to compare and contrast totalitarianism in the two regimes.
Guidelines: A good essay will utilize the five characteristics of totalitarianism and explain how Germany and the Soviet Union both used them. A good essay will also address the cultural, social, and religious aspects of totalitarianism in both nations, in addition to exploring the way punishment was used to solidify Hitler's and Stalin's power. Be sure that you understand the definition of "concentration camp" and "gulag" before you begin writing the essay.
Primary Source Analysis Prompt 1:
Write an essay of at least three to five paragraphs that analyzes the photos of Hitler and Stalin presented in this lesson. Since so much of totalitarianism is based on the personalities of the leaders, what can you infer about Hitler and Stalin by examining these photos? Tip: Be sure to explain how Hitler and Stalin are portraying themselves in these photos, and how such presentations might influence people's views of them.
Guideline/Example:
Remember that a good essay always has a strong thesis statement. Therefore, an example of a thesis statement for an essay like this might go something like, "Photos of Hitler depict him as unquestionably authoritarian, while photos of Stalin portray him as inviting yet still in control. Both representations illustrate the different ways totalitarian leaders can showcase their authority."
What are the key traits of totalitarianism?
Key traits of totalitarianism include:
Total control of the coercive power of the state in the hand of one person or a few people.
The control of all forms of communication.
The use of secret police, terror and intimidation to enforce compliance in behavior and even thought.
What does totalitarian mean in simple terms?
Totalitarian means total control of all aspects of society by the government. This control is commonly maintained through the control of media, police and military.
What's the difference between totalitarianism and authoritarianism?
Authoritarianism is the rigid enforcement of laws and rules to bring about compliance of citizens with the dictates of the government, leaving some spaces for individual freedoms. Totalitarianism refers to the control of all aspects of society to enforce compliance not only to laws but to standards of behavior and even thought.
Table of Contents
ShowIn 1949 Hannah Arendt wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism in response to the rise of murder regimes in Germany and the Soviet Union and the fascist regime in Italy. She described totalitarianism as the existence of a state without laws.
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A totalitarian government is a system of government in which the government seeks to control all aspects of life in society to conform with the dictates of the rulers. In the book 1984, George Orwell describes a totalitarian society in which the government seeks through terror and intimidation to control the very thoughts of its citizens. The word totalitarianism comes from the Latin totalis because the government seeks to control the totality of life in society. Fascist states like Mussolini's Italy or Hitler's Germany in the 1930s and 1940s easily became totalitarian through their use of propaganda, secret police, and the development of emotionally powered nationalism.
Defining Traits of Totalitarianism
What are the key traits of a totalitarian state? Characteristics of totalitarianism include:
- Political authority and control of the coercive apparatus of the state concentrated in one person or one political party. Some examples of this in the 20th century include the Nazi Party in Germany, the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, and Mussolini's Italy.
- Control of the media (newspapers, radio, television, the arts, social media).
- Control of education through restrictions on what can be taught at all levels. This many include draconian punishment for educators who fail to teach the government narrative.
- Control of the population through propaganda and through the use of terror and intimidation by the police and/or the military to make sure people are not only acting in conformity to how the leaders want them to act, but also to think the correct thoughts.
- In many cases, the government also controls the economy through an alliance with private corporations in fascism or through state ownership of the means of production in communism.
Why Do Totalitarian Societies Emerge?
If totalitarian societies are so restrictive, so intimidating, so repressive why would anyone want to live in such a society? For example, Hitler came to power in Germany through democratic elections. Totalitarian government emerges through the existence of an autocratic leader who claims to be able to solve all of societies problems. Totalitarian governments emerge when other form of government are perceived by citizens to have failed to provide what they promised. So, a leader claims if given the power.I can solve these problems. In virtually every case, the totalitarian leader or party gains public acceptance by scapegoating a minority segment of that society as the source of all society's ills and failures.
How Do Totalitarian Governments Work?
Totalitarian governments can emerge from other forms of government. Regardless of how totalitarian governments come about, they share several common traits in how they maintain control of the population in order to continue their rule. Nazi Germany is an example of how a charismatic leader and a disciplined ideologically motivated political party can take over a republic.
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Totalitarian governments work because they make a significant portion of a country's citizens feel safe. The primary tool in this endeavor is propaganda. Joseph Goebbel's, the Reich Minister of Propaganda in Germany from 1933-1945, infamously stated "It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion." He also said, referring to the power of propaganda, "If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself."
Propaganda to supervise public opinion works in two important ways:
- To build up heroic images of the leader.
- To identify some minority part of society that can be identified as the source of all society's ills, which then, of course, the leader will fix.
Images of Totalitarian Societies
Totalitarian governments use imagery and spectacle, and propaganda as means to form a kind of solidarity around a charismatic leader or ideology. Military parades like the May Day parade in the Soviet Union project an image of power.
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Totalitarian governments often use brutal architecture to convey the ideology of the state. Certain architectural styles are officially approved by the state, usually excessively grandiose buildings which are meant to convey the dominance and virility of the state and the leader. Examples of this use of architecture can be found in Nazi Germany, in Stalin's Soviet Union in the twentieth century, and in North Korea today.
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How Does Totalitarianism Compare to Other Governments?
Some political theorists have identified 16 different forms of government and include such forms as theocracy, technocracy, or plutocracy. However, many of those sixteen forms are basically the same form of government run by different sectors of society. There are a few basic forms of government under which all the others may be subsumed. Some political thinkers include anarchy as a form of government, but others disagree with this categorization since anarchy means the absence of government. Not all forms of government are equally susceptible to totalitarian rule. However, totalitarian governments have emerged from all of the following forms of government.
Democracies
Democracy means rule by the many. Such rule may be either a republic in which citizens elect their representatives who exercise governmental authority for specified time periods, or a direct democracy in which people directly control the levers of power. Direct democracies are severely limited in size. The township hall model in which people meet to make rules governing their own behavior obviously can't work in a country of millions of people. Whether a republic or direct, in a democracy the government rules for the benefit of the many. The obvious difference between democracies and totalitarian societies is that voters and their representatives decide how the government operates, there is freedom of speech and the press, and a wider diversity of opinion in democracies. In totalitarian societies there is control of the press, of education, and of beliefs. Although there are exceptions, such as the alliance between the Soviet Union and European democracies and the United States during World War II, because of their emphasis on personal freedom, Western democracies have emphatically opposed totalitarian societies in the past, and they continue to do so today. Once the Second Word War ended, the antagonism between democratic societies and the totalitarian Soviet Union resurfaced.
Oligarchies
Oligarchy means rules by the few. Who the few are may be determined by wealth, family heritage, religion, or expertise. The defining characteristic of oligarchies is that the government rules for the benefit of these few. However, while oligarchies rule for the benefit of the few, there are usually realms of relative freedom for the many who are not part of the government. Totalitarian governments seek to control all aspects of life. Oligarchs may not care what religion someone practices, or what ethnic group they belong to. Totalitarian government regulates all aspects of its citizens lives and punishes those who don't conform.
Dictatorships
A dictatorship essentially means rule by one person. In Rome, a dictator was a temporary ruler who was granted sole authority to control the government in order to face up to an immediate threat or emergency. In modern times, dictators like Franco or Hitler or Kim Jong Un have claimed this power is permanent, and have sought to establish their authority for their lifetime, or in the case of Kim, as a hereditary dictatorship. Dictatorships can be totalitarian, but not necessarily. North Korea is an example of a dictatorship that is also totalitarian. Other dictatorships, like Franco's dictatorship in Spain, while authoritarian at the outset in 1936 gradually came to allow certain freedoms throughout society, especially in the 1950s and 60s when Franco sought better relationships with the United States and European democracies.
Mixed Forms of Government
Most modern monarchies are a mixed form of government in which the monarch is the head of state but a parliament actually governs through legislation and administration. The monarch doesn't govern but is the embodiment of the idea of the state. The most familiar example of this is the United Kingdom. Mixed forms of government differ from totalitarian governments in both their forms government in which representatives of the people make laws and monarchs represent the nation, and in the freedom available to citizens. Totalitarian governments concentrate power to legislate and the embodiment of the nation in a single charismatic leader and seek to control citizen behavior and thought.
Totalitarianisn vs. Authoritarianism
While all totalitarian governments are authoritarian, not all authoritarian governments are totalitarian. Authoritarian governments require strict adherence to law often with excessive punishment for violations of the law. Authoritarian government can be absolute monarchies, dictatorships, oligarchies, military juntas. Many authoritarian governments exercise strict control over media and other forms of communication. What makes an authoritarian government a totalitarian government is the extension of control not only over behavior but over what people think through the use of propaganda and ideological purity.
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There are many totalitarian government examples throughout history and in modern society.
Historical Examples
It is difficult to characterize ancient societies as totalitarian for two primary reasons. First, the term totalitarian was invented by Benito Mussolini in 1922. Secondly, the means to control communication, technology, even a military did not exist in ancient times to the extent they exist today or in the early twentieth century. While there have been many oppressive regimes in past such as the caste society in India, the Qing (Manchu) dynasty in China, these regimes could not exercise the total control over all aspects of life that have occurred in modern times.
The most predominant examples of totalitarian government include Nazi Germany and Stalinist Soviet Union.
Nazi Germany
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor, a position similar to Prime Minister, in Germany in January of 1933. In March, the German parliament, the Reichstag, passed the Enabling Act expanding the powers of the Chancellor. Hitler used these expanded powers to legally concentrate all government authority in. his person and in the NSDAP, the Nazi Party. This is an example of how a republic became a totalitarian dictatorship.
Soviet Union
In 1917, the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Russian monarchy and ended the monarchical rule of the Romanov dynasty. There were actually two revolutions in 1917. The Russian revolutionaries set up a Constituent Assembly which was to be the governing body of the new republic. Lenin saw that his Bolshevik party would not control the Assembly, so after elections had taken place in October he suppressed the Assembly, established a secret police and the Red Army and through the course of a bloody civil war which lasted until 1921 concentrated power into his Communist Party. This is an example of how a totalitarian dictatorship arose out of a popular revolution against a monarchy which was highjacked by a political party.
Modern Examples
Modern totalitarian government examples include China and North Korea.
China
China is a totalitarian society ruled by the Chinese Communist Party which controls the media, the secret police, the military but which has changed its economic approach away from communism to capitalism. How the Chinese government is dealing with Hong Kong demonstrates its totalitarian methods.
North Korea
North Korea was founded on August 15, 1945 when the Korean peninsula was divided at the thirty-eighth parallel after the defeat of Japan in the Second World War. The Kim family have been the dictatorial rulers since its founding. They exercise stifling totalitarian control over all aspects of North Korean life through secret police, intense propaganda and behavioral conformity.
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In a totalitarian government, the government seeks to control all aspects of life in society to conform with the dictates of the rulers. This form of government can arise out of all the other forms of government either through appropriation or revolution. The key characteristics of totalitarian governments are:
- Total control of the coercive apparatus of the state by one person or one party.
- Control of all forms of communication: television, radio, newspapers, the arts, social media.
- Control of the educational process; what and how people and are taught.
- Use of propaganda, police and military to control citizens to behave and think in the ways the state demand.
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Video Transcript
Definition of Totalitarianism
The essence of totalitarianism can be found in its very name; it is a form of rule in which the government attempts to maintain 'total' control over society, including all aspects of the public and private lives of its citizens.
There are several characteristics that are common to totalitarian regimes, including:
- Rule by a single party
- Total control of the military
- Total control over means of communication (such as newspapers, propaganda, etc…)
- Police control with the use of terror as a control tactic
- Control of the economy
However, even though there were common characteristics of the different totalitarian regimes, it didn't look the same in all countries in which it was employed. So how did totalitarianism look? Let's go over a couple of examples below.
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Nazi Germany
Perhaps the most famous example of totalitarianism is Nazi Germany under the rule of Adolf Hitler. Hitler came to power in 1933 after being elected by the German people. However, he illegally assumed more power than was granted under German law. By doing so, he held complete control of the government, both national and local.
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Under Hitler's regime, if a citizen spoke against the government then they would be arrested and often sent to a concentration camp. Concentration camps were part of a system used for the imprisonment and murder of people the Nazis deemed undesirable. The concentration camps were used in the Holocaust and held millions of Jews, political prisoners, gypsies, homosexuals, mentally handicapped, and any other person the Nazis deemed undesirable before they were sent or worked to their deaths.
The Nazis also made stipulations as to what people were allowed to do in their daily lives. For example, artists had to create paintings portraying Nazi values, jazz music was banned, and books written by people deemed undesirable under the Hitler regime were burned. Youth organizations indoctrinated girls and boys with Nazi ideology from a young age, and the Nazi police organization, known as the SS, intimidated and terrorized people in an attempt to control them.
The final quality of Hitler's regime that signaled the Nazi government held total control was the extensive use of propaganda. Hitler's picture was everywhere, newspapers were censored, and radio broadcasts were controlled by the government.
Stalinist Soviet Union
Another famed example of a totalitarian regime is the leadership of the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin. Stalin came to power following the death of Vladimir Lenin. Stalin gained control by blackmailing many of the leaders in the communist government and eventually murdered his main rival, Leon Trotsky.
Artists painted pictures and authors wrote novels that glorified Stalin, and people were expected to have a picture of him in their homes, often replacing former pictures of Jesus and other religious figures. He took on the nickname 'Uncle Joe' in an effort to give off a kind and friendly personality. In reality, Stalin ran a country in which he held total, oppressive control.
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Education was strictly controlled by the state, and children were expected to join age-appropriate organizations in which they were indoctrinated with the Stalinist brand of communist ideology. Stalin placed restrictions on what families were allowed to do, for example, on divorces and abortions. If citizens spoke against Stalin or the government, they were often sent to Soviet work camps called gulags.
The State forced the process of collectivization (when the production of agricultural goods and livestock was taken by the state and redistributed amongst all citizens) but it resulted in mass famine, killing millions. There was also a secret police force that used terror and intimidation to control the Soviet citizens, and often neighbors would spy on and report one another.
Finally, during the 1930s, Stalin carried out his famous 'purges' in which any person who was suspected of disloyalty was either murdered or sent to the gulags, where they would most likely perish anyways. The Communist leadership, the armed forces, the Communist party, and ordinary people were all subject to the terror of the purges. Because of the way he ruled, Stalin was able to create a country in which he held total control.
Lesson Summary
Totalitarianism is a form of rule in which the government attempts to maintain 'total' control over society, including all aspects of the public and private lives of its citizens. It became a popular subject following World War II and during the peak years of the Cold War.
Although totalitarian regimes have existed in other nations including China, North Korea, and Iraq, they began in Europe and were characterized by leaders with strong personalities, such as Hitler in Nazi Germany and Stalin in the Soviet Union.
Common qualities existed among all the regimes which defined them as totalitarian, but the implementation of control appeared differently in each country. In Western cultures, where freedom and individuality are valued as guiding principles of governments, totalitarianism is generally seen as a negative and oppressive form of control.
Learning Outcomes
Once you are finished, you should be able to:
- Explain what totalitarianism is
- List the characteristics of a totalitarian regime
- Describe some of the prominent totalitarian regimes in history
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Totalitarianism | Overview, Traits & Examples
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