Totalitarianism

br 2006

The Columbia Encyclopedia defines autocratic government in which the state involves itself in all facets of society , including the daily life of its citizens . A 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 (47823

According to Gregor and Schapiro the concept of

its origin in the speeches of Gentile and Mussolini . Gentile talked of the the new system as a word was meant to express the leader and people . It also was meant to convey the the new state--everything is the state and the state is everything (Mussolini )--and to announce a new approach to politics : the linking of the permanent revolution and the control (Gregor 132 Schapiro 13

In addition to fascist Italy , the concept of applied to political systems such as Hitler 's Germany , Franco 's Spain Salazar 's Portugal , Stalin 's Soviet Union , Mao 's China , Kim Il-song 's North Korea , Ho Chi Min 's Vietnam , Castro 's Cuba , Hussein 's Iraq , and the East European Soviet Satellites , as well as to various Third World revolutionary movements . It also has been applied to earlier (proto-provided the closest historical parallels ) such as Sparta , Calvin 's Geneva , medieval (and not-so-medieval ) Catholicism , the Caesaro-papism of Byzantium , and the Inca empire . At least in respect to these pre-modern examples , the distinction between intent and implementation (discussed below ) is crucial for any determination of their character

Some leaders and movements welcomed the application of and used the term enthusiastically (Mussolini , fascism , some were dubious (Hitler , national-socialism , and some rejected it (Stalin bolshevism . Hitler authoritarian ' as a of the National-Socialist regime . briefly to describe national-socialism by such as Carl Schmitt Ernst Forsthoff , and Ernst Juenger (Gleason 147 and by Party officials such as Joseph Goebbels , who stated in his speech of November 7 , 1933 `The goal of the [National-Socialist] revolution must be a state pervading all spheres of life (Neumann 48 . Stalin and associates opted for people 's democracy ' and socialist democracy

whether the term 's disputatious employment has destroyed its scholarly utility (Howe , 1983 Loew , 1988 . However , if a term 's disputatious use destroyed its scholarly utility , what would become of democracy liberty , equality , presidency , legislature , election , war , peace , and all the other key concepts of political science ? In any case it must be remembered that ` .use it imagine , but a serious philosophy of government , with a corresponding governmental structure (Wolfe 261

Not all meaning-- something which both as a concept and in its practical manifestations remains different from other concepts and regimes (Schapiro 110 )--for which there is no ready substitute . To purge the term from political and academic discourse because of misuse or the need for further distinctions seems unwarranted . The criticism may be correct , but the...