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{{Short description|Extreme form of authoritarianism}}
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{{Multiple image
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| image1 = JStalin Secretary general CCCP 1942.jpg
| image2 = Adolf Hitler cropped 2.jpg
| footer = [[Joseph Stalin]] (left), [[List of leaders of the Soviet Union|leader]] of the [[Soviet Union|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]], and [[Adolf Hitler]] (right), [[Führer|leader]] of the [[Nazi Germany|German Reich]]—considered prototypical dictators of totalitarian regimes, of the [[Left–right political spectrum|left and right]] respectively
}}
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<blockquote>There is much confusion about what is meant by ''totalitarian'' in the literature, including the denial that such [political] systems even exist. I define a ''totalitarian state'' as one with a system of government that is unlimited, [either] [[Political constitution|constitutionally]] or by countervailing powers in society (such as by a Church, rural gentry, labor unions, or regional powers); is not held responsible to the public by periodic [[secret ballot|secret]] and competitive elections; and employs its unlimited power to control all aspects of society, including the family, religion, education, business, private property, and social relationships. Under [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]], the [[Soviet Union]] was thus totalitarian, as was [[Mao Zedong|Mao]]'s [[History of the People's Republic of China (1949–1976)|China]], [[Pol Pot]]'s [[Democratic Kampuchea|Cambodia]], [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], and [[Ne Win|U Ne Win]]'s [[History of Burma (1962–1988)|Burma]].<br><br>
Totalitarianism is, then, a political ideology for which a totalitarian government is the agency for realizing its ends. Thus, totalitarianism characterizes such ideologies as [[state socialism]] (as in [[Burma]]), [[Marxism–Leninism]] as in former [[East Germany]], and [[Nazism]]. Even revolutionary Muslim [[Iran]], since the [[Iranian Revolution|overthrow of the Shah in 1978–79]] has been totalitarian—here totalitarianism was married to [[Islamic fundamentalism|Muslim fundamentalism]]. In short, totalitarianism is the ideology of absolute power. State socialism, [[Communism]], Nazism, [[fascism]], and Muslim fundamentalism have been some of its recent raiments. Totalitarian governments have been its agency. The state, with its international legal sovereignty and independence, has been its base. As will be pointed out, ''mortacracy'' is the result.<ref name="Rummel 1994b">{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|year=1994|chapter=Democide in Totalitarian States: Mortacracies and Megamurderers |editor-last1=Charny|editor-first1=Israel W.|editor-last2=Horowitz|editor-first2=Irving Louis|title=The Widening Circle of Genocide|pages=3–40|edition=1st|publisher=[[Routledge]]|doi=10.4324/9781351294089-2|isbn=9781351294089}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tago|first1=Atsushi|last2=Wayman|first2=Frank|date=January 2010|title=Explaining the Onset of Mass Killing, 1949–87|journal=Journal of Peace Research|location=Thousand Oaks, California|publisher=SAGE Publications|volume=47|issue=1|pages=3–13|doi=10.1177/0022343309342944|issn=0022-3433|jstor=25654524|s2cid=145155872}}</ref></blockquote>
;Degree of control
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===Historical background===
From the right-wing perspective, the social phenomenon of political totalitarianism is a product of [[Modernism]], which the philosopher [[Karl Popper]] said originated from [[
In the early 20th century, [[Giovanni Gentile]] proposed [[Italian Fascism]] as a political ideology with a philosophy that is "totalitarian, and [that] the Fascist State—a synthesis and a unity inclusive of all values—interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people
In the essay "The 'Dark Forces', the Totalitarian Model, and Soviet History" (1987), by J.F. Hough,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hough |first1=Jerry F. |title=The "Dark Forces," the Totalitarian Model, and Soviet History |journal=The Russian Review |date=1987 |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=397–403 |doi=10.2307/130293 |jstor=130293 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/130293 |issn=0036-0341}}</ref> and in the book ''The Totalitarian Legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution'' (2019), by Alexander Riley,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CNeaDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&pg=PA9|title=The Totalitarian Legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution|first1=Alexander|last1=Riley|first2=Alfred Kentigern|last2=Siewers|date=June 18, 2019|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781793605344 |via=Google Books|access-date=April 17, 2022|archive-date=April 17, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417002550/https://books.google.com/books?id=CNeaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9&dq=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&gbmsitb=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjShc7Ht5n3AhXhkGoFHa8jCS0Q6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> the historians said that the Russian Marxist revolutionary [[Lenin]] was the first politician to establish a sovereign state of the totalitarian model.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-eaWDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&pg=PA98|title=Totalitarianisms: The Closed Society and Its Friends. A History of Crossed Languages|first=Juan Francisco|last=Fuentes|date=April 29, 2019|publisher=Ed. Universidad de Cantabria|isbn=9788481028898 |via=Google Books|access-date=April 17, 2022|archive-date=April 17, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417002552/https://books.google.com/books?id=-eaWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA98&dq=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&gbmsitb=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjso5nU0pn3AhUXVzABHborA044ChDoAXoECAkQAw#v=onepage&q=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pHUzDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&pg=PT85|title=Lenin and the Twentieth Century: A Bertram D. Wolfe Retrospective|first=Lennard|last=Gerson|date=September 1, 2013|publisher=Hoover Press|isbn=9780817979331 |via=Google Books|access-date=April 17, 2022|archive-date=April 17, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417002551/https://books.google.com/books?id=pHUzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT85&dq=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&gbmsitb=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjShc7Ht5n3AhXhkGoFHa8jCS0Q6AF6BAgHEAM#v=onepage&q=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MjQ5DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&pg=PT13|title=Resolutions and Decisions of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Volume 2: The Early Soviet Period 1917–1929|first=Richard|last=Gregor|date=1974|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=9781487590116 |via=Google Books|access-date=April 17, 2022|archive-date=April 17, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417002552/https://books.google.com/books?id=MjQ5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT13&dq=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&gbmsitb=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjso5nU0pn3AhUXVzABHborA044ChDoAXoECAgQAw#v=onepage&q=%22first+totalitarian%22+%22lenin%22&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> As the ''[[Duce]]'' leading the Italian people to the future, [[Benito Mussolini]]
American historian [[William Rubinstein]] wrote that:<blockquote>The 'Age of Totalitarianism' included nearly all the infamous examples of genocide in modern history, headed by the Jewish [[Holocaust]], but also comprising [[Mass killings under communist regimes|the mass murders and purges of the Communist world]], other mass killings carried out by [[Nazi Germany]] and its allies, and also the [[Armenian genocide]] of 1915. All these slaughters, it is argued here, had a common origin, [[Revolutions of 1917-1923|the collapse of the elite structure and normal modes of government]] of much of central, eastern and southern Europe as a result of [[World War I]], without which surely neither Communism nor Fascism would have existed except in the minds of unknown agitators and crackpots.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rubinstein |first=W.D. |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=nMMAk4VwLLwC}} |title=Genocide: a history |publisher=Pearson Education |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-582-50601-5 |page=7}}</ref></blockquote>
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[[File:Ambassador Nura Abba Rimi & President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|President [[Isaias Afwerki]] has ruled [[Eritrea]] as a totalitarian dictator since the country's independence in 1993.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Saad|first=Asma|date=21 February 2018|url=https://mjps.ssmu.ca/2018/02/21/eritreas-silent-totalitarianism/|title=Eritrea's Silent Totalitarianism|journal=McGill Journal of Political Studies|issue=21|access-date=7 August 2020|archive-date=7 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181007040952/https://mjps.ssmu.ca/2018/02/21/eritreas-silent-totalitarianism/|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
[[File:AQMI Flag asymmetric.svg|thumb|Flag of the [[Islamic State]], which is a self-proclaimed [[caliphate]] that demands the religious, political, and military obedience of [[Ummah|Muslims worldwide]]]]
[[Laure Neumayer]] posited that "despite the disputes over its heuristic value and its normative assumptions, the concept of totalitarianism made a vigorous return to the political and academic fields at the end of the Cold War
In the early 2010s, Richard Shorten, [[Vladimir Tismăneanu]], and Aviezer Tucker posited that totalitarian ideologies can take different forms in different political systems but all of them focus on [[utopia]]nism, [[scientism]], or [[political violence]]. They posit that Nazism and Stalinism both emphasised the role of specialisation in modern societies and they also saw [[polymath]]y as a thing of the past, and they also stated that their claims were supported by statistics and science, which led them to impose strict ethical regulations on culture, use psychological violence, and persecute entire groups.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shorten |first=Richard |date=2012 |title=Modernism and Totalitarianism: Rethinking the Intellectual Sources of Nazism and Stalinism, 1945 to the Present |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-0230252073}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Tismăneanu |first=Vladimir |date=2012 |title=The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0520954175}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Tucker |first=Aviezer |date=2015 |title=The Legacies of Totalitarianism: A Theoretical Framework |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1316393055}}</ref> Their arguments have been criticised by other scholars due to their partiality and anachronism. [[Juan Francisco Fuentes]] treats totalitarianism as an "[[invented tradition]]" and he believes that the notion of "modern [[despotism]]" is a "reverse anachronism"; for Fuentes, "the anachronistic use of totalitarian/totalitarianism involves the will to reshape the past in the image and likeness of the present
Other studies try to link modern technological changes to totalitarianism. According to [[Shoshana Zuboff]], the economic pressures of modern [[surveillance capitalism]] are driving the intensification of connection and monitoring online with spaces of social life becoming open to saturation by corporate actors, directed at the making of profit and/or the regulation of action.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Zuboff|first1=Shoshana|title=The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power|publisher=PublicAffairs|year=2019|isbn=978-1610395694|location=New York|oclc=1049577294}}</ref> [[Toby Ord]] believed that George Orwell's fears of totalitarianism constituted a notable early precursor to modern notions of anthropogenic existential risk, the concept that a future catastrophe could permanently destroy the potential of Earth-originating intelligent life due in part to technological changes, creating a permanent [[technological dystopia]]. Ord said that Orwell's writings show that his concern was genuine rather than just a throwaway part of the fictional plot of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''. In 1949, Orwell wrote that "[a] ruling class which could guard against (four previously enumerated sources of risk) would remain in power permanently
In 2016, ''[[The Economist]]'' described China's developed [[Social Credit System]] under [[Chinese Communist Party]] [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party|general secretary]] [[Xi Jinping]]'s [[Xi Jinping Administration|administration]], to screen and rank its citizens based on their personal behavior, as ''totalitarian''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2016/12/17/china-invents-the-digital-totalitarian-state|title=China invents the digital totalitarian state|newspaper=The Economist|date=17 December 2017|access-date=14 September 2018|archive-date=14 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180914200819/https://www.economist.com/briefing/2016/12/17/china-invents-the-digital-totalitarian-state|url-status=live}}</ref> Opponents of China's ranking system say that it is intrusive and it is just another tool which a one-party state can use to control the population. Supporters say that it will transform China into a more civilised and law-abiding society.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Leigh |first1=Karen |last2=Lee |first2=Dandan |date=2 December 2018 |title=China's Radical Plan to Judge Each Citizen's Behavior |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/chinas-radical-plan-to-judge-each-citizens-behavior/2018/12/02/0a281258-f69b-11e8-8642-c9718a256cbd_story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102090447/https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/chinas-radical-plan-to-judge-each-citizens-behavior/2018/12/02/0a281258-f69b-11e8-8642-c9718a256cbd_story.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 January 2019 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=23 January 2020}}</ref> Shoshana Zuboff considers it instrumentarian rather than totalitarian.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lucas |first=Rob |date=January–February 2020 |title=The Surveillance Business |url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/II121/articles/rob-lucas-the-surveillance-business |journal=[[New Left Review]] |volume=121 |issue= |pages= |doi= |access-date=23 March 2020 |archive-date=21 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621022016/https://newleftreview.org/issues/II121/articles/rob-lucas-the-surveillance-business |url-status=live
[[North Korea]] is the only country in East Asia to survive totalitarianism after the death of [[Kim Il-sung]] in 1994 and handed over to his son [[Kim Jong-il]] and grandson [[Kim Jong-un]] in 2011, as of today in the 21st century.<ref name="Cinpoes"/>
Other emerging technologies that could empower future totalitarian regimes include [[brain-reading]], [[contact tracing]], and various applications of [[artificial intelligence]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Brennan-Marquez |first=K. |date=2012 |title=A Modest Defence of Mind Reading |url=https://yjolt.org/modest-defense-mind-reading |journal=[[Yale Journal of Law and Technology]] |volume=15 |issue=214 |pages= |doi= |access-date= |archive-date=2020-08-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810195039/https://yjolt.org/modest-defense-mind-reading |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Pickett |first=K. |date=16 April 2020 |title=Totalitarianism: Congressman calls method to track coronavirus cases an invasion of privacy |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/totalitarianism-congressman-calls-method-to-track-coronavirus-cases-an-invasion-of-privacy |work=[[Washington Examiner]] |access-date=23 April 2020 |archive-date=22 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422082819/https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/totalitarianism-congressman-calls-method-to-track-coronavirus-cases-an-invasion-of-privacy |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Helbing2019">{{cite book |last1=Helbing |first1=Dirk |last2=Frey |first2=Bruno S. |last3=Gigerenzer |first3=Gerd |last4=Hafen |first4=Ernst |last5=Hagner |first5=Michael |last6=Hofstetter |first6=Yvonne |last7=van den Hoven |first7=Jeroen |last8=Zicari |first8=Roberto V. |last9=Zwitter |first9=Andrej |title=Towards Digital Enlightenment |chapter=Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence? |date=2019 |pages=73–98 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-90869-4_7 |isbn=978-3-319-90868-7 |s2cid=46925747 |chapter-url=https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/111453647/Helbing2019_Chapter_WillDemocracySurviveBigDataAnd.pdf |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526083948/https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/111453647/Helbing2019_Chapter_WillDemocracySurviveBigDataAnd.pdf |archivedate= 2022-05-26}} (also published in {{cite book |last1=Helbing |first1=D. |last2=Frey |first2=B. S. |last3=Gigerenzer |first3=G. |display-authors=etal |date=2019 |chapter=Will democracy survive big data and artificial intelligence? |title=Towards Digital Enlightenment: Essays on the Dark and Light Sides of the Digital Revolution |location= |publisher=Springer, Cham. |pages=73–98 |isbn=978-3319908694}})</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Turchin|first1=Alexey|last2=Denkenberger|first2=David|s2cid=19208453|title=Classification of global catastrophic risks connected with artificial intelligence|journal=AI & Society|date=3 May 2018|volume=35|issue=1|pages=147–163|doi=10.1007/s00146-018-0845-5|url=https://philarchive.org/rec/TURCOG-2}}</ref> Philosopher [[Nick Bostrom]] said that there is a possible trade-off, namely that some existential risks might be mitigated by the establishment of a powerful and permanent [[world government]], and in turn the establishment of such a government could enhance the existential risks which are associated with the rule of a permanent dictatorship.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bostrom|first1=Nick|title=Existential Risk Prevention as Global Priority|journal=Global Policy|date=February 2013|volume=4|issue=1|pages=15–31|doi=10.1111/1758-5899.12002}}</ref>
===Religious totalitarianism===
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* [[Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism]]
* [[Surveillance capitalism]]
* [[List of cults of personality]]
* [[Totalitarian architecture]]
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==Further reading==
{{div col}}
* {{Cite book |last=Arendt |first=Hannah |url=https://archive.org/details/TheOriginsOfTotalitarianism/ |title=The Origins of Totalitarianism |publisher=Meridian Books |year=1958 |edition=Second Enlarged |location=New York,
* Armstrong, John A. ''The Politics of Totalitarianism'' (New York: Random House, 1961).
* {{cite journal |last1=Béja |first1=Jean-Philippe |title=Xi Jinping's China: On the Road to Neo-totalitarianism |journal=Social Research: An International Quarterly |date=March 2019 |volume=86 |issue=1 |pages=203–230 |doi=10.1353/sor.2019.0009 |s2cid=199140716 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2249726077 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203215218/https://www.proquest.com/docview/2249726077 |archivedate=December 3, 2022|id={{ProQuest|2249726077}} }}
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* Murray, Ewan. ''Shut Up: Tale of Totalitarianism'' (2005).
* Nicholls, A.J. "Historians and Totalitarianism: The Impact of German Unification." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 36.4 (2001): 653–661.
* Patrikeeff, Felix. "Stalinism, Totalitarian Society and the Politics of 'Perfect Control{{'"}}, ''Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions'', (Summer 2003), Vol. 4 Issue 1, pp. 23–46.
* [[Stanley G. Payne|Payne, Stanley G.]], ''A History of Fascism'' (London: Routledge, 1996).
* Rak, Joanna, and Roman Bäcker. "Theory behind Russian Quest for Totalitarianism. Analysis of Discursive Swing in Putin's Speeches." ''Communist and Post-Communist Studies'' 53.1 (2020): 13–26 [https://ucp.silverchair.com/cpcs/article-pdf/53/1/13/384689/cpcs_53_1_013.pdf online].
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[[Category:20th century in politics]]
[[Category:21st century in politics]]
[[Category:Authoritarianism]]
[[Category:Political philosophy]]
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