The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.2001-05.
totalitarianism
A modern autocratic government in which the state involves itself in all facets of society, including the daily life of its citizens. A totalitarian government seeks to control not only all economic and political matters but the attitudes, values, and beliefs of its population, erasing the distinction between state and society. The citizen’s duty to the state becomes the primary concern of the community, and the goal of the state is the replacement of existing society with a perfect society.
Various totalitarian systems, however, have different ideological goals. For example, of the states most commonly described as totalitarian—the Soviet Union under Stalin, Nazi Germany, and the People’s Republic of China under Mao—the Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and China sought the universal fulfillment of humankind through the establishment of a classless society (see communism); German National Socialism, on the other hand, attempted to establish the superiority of the so-called Aryan race.
Totalitarianism
-Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski were amongst the first to define the new totalitarian state in their book Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (1956),
-They argued that there were six key factors present in all modern totalitarian states:
- An official ideology to which general adherence was demanded, the ideology intended to achieve a ‘perfect final stage of mankind‘
- A single mass party, hierarchically organised, closely interwoven with the state bureaucracy and typically led by one man
- Monopolistic control of the armed forces
- A similar monopoly of the means of effective mass communication
- A system of terroristic police control
- Central control and direction of the entire economy
A Brief Look at a Long History of Totalitarianism in Europe
-During the interwar years liberal democracies were emerging in Europe - Britain, France, Scandinavia and Switzerland
-But elsewhere dictatorships were also emerging
-The modern totalitarian state rejected liberal values and exercised total control over the lives of its subjects
-In a very real way totalitarianism became a new political religion in which human individuality was crushed in favour of totalitarian collectivism
-Throughout their long histories European nations had been conservative and anti-democratic
-The leaders of such governments -- whether monarch or autocrat -- WERE the government, and by their very nature, prevented any incidence of social or political change that might endanger the existing social order
-Before the 19th century these monarchs legitimized their rule by recourse to the divine right theory of kingship, an idea which itself appeared in medieval Europe
-France attempted to steer away from authoritarian rule and yet shortly after the revolution French people were met with the rule of Napoleon
-Despite Europe’s long history with authoritarianism it was not entirely successful until the advent of communication
-Following World War One, there was a revival of traditional authoritarian regimes
-The war required that all people subordinate themselves to the effort required for victory
-This led to a natural transition into totalitarian governance following the war
Mussolini
-Mussolini was born in Predappio, near Forli, in Romagna, on July 29, 1883.
-His father, Alessandro, was a blacksmith, and his mother, Rosa, was a schoolteacher
-Like his father, Mussolini was an outspoken socialist
-Mussolini resisted the war until he was drafted in September of 1915
-He fought until he was injured in 1917
-Upon returning from the war he remained politically active and fascism became an organized political movement in March 1919 when he founded the Fasci de Combattimento
-He organized his followers into armed squads known as Black Shirts, who terrorized their political opponents.
-After failing in the 1919 elections, Mussolini at last entered parliament in 1921 as a right-wing member
-At this time Italy was suffering from post war debt and they were looking for leadership
-During“the march on Rome”, 1922 the black shirts converged in an attempted coup, while Mussolini waited in Milan
-The government asked for martial law but the King disagreed and cabinet resigned
-As a result Mussolini was placed in charge of the government by the King
-Mussolini’s flamboyance made fascism confusing and yet an exciting option
-He promised the people that he would return Italy to the past greatness of Rome
-He gradually dismantled the institutions of democratic government and in 1925 he made himself dictator, taking the title 'Il Duce'
-The principles of this doctrine were published in an article on fascism that appeared in 1932 in the Enciclopedia Italiana
-Mussolini spent a great deal of time and money on propaganda and he also called for the eventual state control of economic life
-He also wasted money on public works projects in the attempt to make Italy self-sufficient
-Mussolini also invaded Ethiopia in 1935 in an attempt to extend the Italian empire
-Hitler became Mussolini’s most interested pupil
Hitler
-Hitler was born in Austria in 1889
-He dropped out of school at age 14 and attempted to make a life for himself as an artist
-He applied to the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts but was rejected
-Hitler enlisted in the army during the First World War and he enjoyed the structure of military life
-During this time Hitler developed his social Darwinist beliefs
-Hitler was enraged with Germany’s defeat and he blamed the Jews and the Marxists for Germany’s surrender
-Following the war Hitler became very involved in his own brand of nationalist politics
-By 1921, Hitler became the leader of a small but growing political party called the German Workers Party – a group that denounced the Jews, Marxists and liberals and relied heavily on propaganda and political rallies
-The party grew and in 1923, Hitler’s party marched on Münich, in a failed attempt to gain more political control
-Hitler was imprisoned and it was during this time that he wrote Mein Kampf, a racist, anti-Semitic text that presented the concept of Lebensraum (living space)
-By 1928, the Nazi Party had 100,000 members and Hitler was the undisputed leader
-The Nazis were still a marginal political group but the depression (unemployment in Germany was reaching 43%) and frustration over the terms of the Treaty pushed many toward the extreme rhetoric of Hitler’s party
-The Nazis targeted the younger idealist Germans (79% of all Nazi’s were under 40)
-By 1932 Hitler had widespread support and therefore they accepted Hitler’s demand to join the government as Chancellor and on 30 January 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of Germany
-Since there were only 2 Nazi’s in the coalition government it was reasoned that Hitler could be controlled and used as leverage
-Hitler moved quickly to establish a dictatorship
-He called an election and then on 27 Feb. 1933, one week before the voting was to take place, Hitler’s men set fire to the Reichstag and blamed the incident on the communists who were then persecuted and removed from all positions of power
-He also instituted martial law in March 1933, this suspended free speech and any opposition
-In the economic sphere, all strikes were made illegal and unions were abolished while doctors, lawyers, professors and engineers were swallowed up in Nazi-based organizations
-In the cultural sphere, the press was now under total state control
-Hitler also initiated a massive public works program to pull Germany out of the Depression
-Hitler also invested heavily into the military and by 1936 government spending was being directed almost entirely to the military (by 1938 the unemployment rate had dropped to less than 1 million people
-Because of his successes Hitler was selected as the Time Man of the Year
-By September of 1939 Hitler and the German people were engaged in a World War
Stalin
-Lenin’s Bolshevik revolution provided a model for all single party dictators (Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin)
-Totalitarian society was always moving toward some goal and this was clearly demonstrated in Stalinist Russia “Permanent Revolution”
-Joseph Stalin, was born in Gori, Georgia on 21st December, 1879
-Stalin grew up as a member of the peasant class
-Stalin was accepted to Tiflis Theological Seminary but was expelled a year later for disorderly conduct
-In 1901 Stalin joined the Social Democrat Labour Party
-Stalin's aim was to create a new kind of society and a new human personality to inhabit that society: socialist man and socialist woman -- Homo Sovieticus
-Stalin believed that a strong army and a powerful industrial economy was necessary for the revolution to be successful
-At the Party Conference in April, 1922, Lenin appointed Stalin to the new post of General Secretary – this position helped solidify Stalin’s power grab
-Lenin became increasingly concerned with Stalin and recommended that he be overlooked for leadership of the party but he passed away before action could be taken
-When Stalin first came to power he continued with Lenin’s New Economic Policy (farmers were allowed to sell their crops on the open markets)
-Stalin’s first revolution came in the form of the “revolution from above” 1927-1928
-In 1928 Stalin became angry with those who were expanding their farms (kulaks) and he began the collectivization of farms
-Under this initiative thousands of kulaks were executed
-In 1925 Stalin had Trotsky removed from power, branding him as a leftist
-Stalin’s first Five Year Plan that was introduced in 1928, concentrated on the development of iron and steel, machine-tools, electric power and transport
-In the mid-1930’s Stalin began “purging” the Party of all those he thought to be a threat to his leadership