Download Totalitarianism

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:
o An official ideology to which general adherence
was demanded, the ideology intended to achieve
a ‘perfect final stage of mankind‘
o A single mass party, hierarchically organised,
closely interwoven with the state bureaucracy and
typically led by one man
o Monopolistic control of the armed forces
o A similar monopoly of the means of effective mass
communication
o A system of terroristic police control
o 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
http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Ger
many/mussolini.htm
- 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
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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