The term totalitarianism describes a government that takes total, centralized, state control over

every aspect of public and private life. Totalitarian leaders appear to provide a sense of security

and to give a direction for the future. In the 20th century, the widespread use of mass

communication made it possible to reach into all aspects of citizens’ lives. Therefore, a dynamic

leader who can build support for his policies and justify his actions heads most totalitarian

governments. Often the leader utilizes secret police to crush opposition and create a sense of fear

among the people. No one is exempt from suspicion or accusations that he or she is an enemy of

the state. This paper therefore, endeavours to explain the term “Totalitarian Government”.

According to Arendt (1966: 12), totalitarianism is a form of government in which the national

government takes control of all aspects of both public and private life. Thus, totalitarianism seeks

to erase the line between government and society. It has an ideology or set of beliefs, that all

citizens are expected to approve. It is often led by a dynamic leader and a single political party.

Mass communication technology helps a totalitarian government spread its aims and support its

policies. Also, surveillance technology makes it possible to keep track of the activities of many

people. Finally, violence, such as police terror, discourages those who disagree with the goals of

the government.

John (1961: 3), added that totalitarianism is a form of social system (usually a state one), the

essential feature of which is to strive for seizing strict subordination and constant control over all

areas of social and individual life. There are no legal limitations for the totalitarian power, nor

does it limit itself. All totalitarian systems are preceded by violent social revolutions that overuse

(misuse) the slogans of the Great French Revolution. Involvement of the citizens is usually in

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their mass participation in different forms of action and expression of their enthusiasm for the

“successes” of the system.

However, to dominate an entire nation, totalitarian government or leaders devised methods of

control and persuasion. These included the use of terror, indoctrination, propaganda, censorship,

and religious or ethnic persecution.

Police terror dictators of totalitarian states use terror and violence to force obedience and to crush

opposition (Berman, 2003). Normally, the police are expected to respond to criminal activity and

protect the citizens. In a totalitarian state, the police serve to enforce the central government’s

policies. They may do this by spying on the citizens or by intimidating them. Sometimes they use

brutal force and even murder to achieve their goals.

For example, Stalin aimed to create a perfect Communist state in Russia. To realize his vision,

Stalin planned to transform the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state. He began building his

totalitarian state by destroying his enemies - real and imagined. Police State Stalin built a police

state to maintain his power. Stalin’s secret police used tanks and armored cars to stop riots. They

monitored telephone lines, read mail, and planted informers everywhere. Even children told

authorities about disloyal remarks they heard at home. Every family came to fear the knock on

the door in the early morning hours, which usually meant the arrest of a family member. The

secret police arrested and executed millions of so-called traitors (Abbott, 1995).

Thus, in 1934, Stalin turned against members of the Communist Party. In 1937, he launched the

Great Purge, a campaign of terror directed at eliminating anyone who threatened his power.

Thousands of old Bolsheviks who helped stage the Revolution in 1917 stood trial. They were

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executed or sent to labor camps for “crimes against the Soviet state.” When the Great Purge

ended in 1938, Stalin had gained total control of the Soviet government and the Communist

Party.

Furthermore, Totalitarian government relies on indoctrination - instruction in the government’s

beliefs - to mold people’s minds. Control of education is absolutely essential to glorify the leader

and his policies and to convince all citizens that their unconditional loyalty and support are

required. Indoctrination begins with very young children, is encouraged by youth groups, and is

strongly enforced by schools (Chandler, 1999). Under Stalin for example, the government

controlled all education from nursery schools through the universities. Schoolchildren learned

the virtues of the Communist Party. College professors and students who questioned the

Communist Party’s interpretations of history or science risked losing their jobs or faced

imprisonment. Party leaders in the Soviet Union lectured workers and peasants on the ideals of

communism. They also stressed the importance of sacrifice and hard work to build the

Communist state. State-supported youth groups trained future party members.

Moreover, John (1961) states that the Totalitarian government spread propaganda, biased or

incomplete information used to sway people to accept certain beliefs or actions. Control of all

mass media allows this to happen. No publication, film, art, or music is allowed to exist without

the permission of the state. Citizens are surrounded with false information that appears to be true.

Suggesting that the information is incorrect is considered an act of treason and severely

punished. Individuals who dissent must retract their work or they are imprisoned or killed. For

example, the Russian propaganda and censorship under Stalin’s government controlled all

newspapers, motion pictures, radio, and other sources of information. Many Soviet writers,

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composers, and other artists also fell victim to official censorship. Stalin would not tolerate

individual creativity that did not conform to the views of the state. Soviet newspapers and radio

broadcasts glorified the achievements of communism, Stalin, and his economic programs.

The Totalitarian government and its leaders often create “enemies of the state” to blame for

things that go wrong. Frequently these enemies are members of religious or ethnic groups. Often

these groups are easily identified and are subjected to campaigns of terror and violence. They

may be forced to live in certain areas or are subjected to rules that apply only to them. For

instance, communists aimed to replace religious teachings with the ideals of communism. Under

Stalin, the government and the League of the Militant Godless, an officially sponsored group of

atheists, spread propaganda attacking religion (Berman, 2003).

Similarly, “Museums of atheism” displayed exhibits to show that religious beliefs were mere

superstitions. Yet many people in the Soviet Union still clung to their faiths. The Russian

Orthodox Church was the main target of persecution. Other religious groups also suffered

greatly. The police destroyed magnificent churches and synagogues, and many religious leaders

were killed or sent to labor camps. Achieving the perfect Communist state came at a tremendous

cost to Soviet citizens. Stalin’s total control of society eliminated personal rights and freedoms in

favor of the power of the state.

Perhaps the most famous example of totalitarian government 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 (Laqueur, 1987: 225). By

doing so, he held complete control of the government, both national and local. Under Hitler's

regime, if a citizen spoke against the government then they would be arrested and often sent to a

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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 (Arendt, 1966). 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.

Furthermore, Chandler (1999) posited that the Totalitarian government had power over the

economic-bureaucratic collectivism (capitalist or state socialist) intended to orchestrate

productive forces to the regime’s predatory, autarchic, and militaristic goals. For example, as

Stalin began to gain complete control of society; he was setting plans in motion to overhaul the

economy. He announced, “We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We

must make good this distance in ten years.” In 1928 Stalin’s plans called for a command

economy, a system in which the government made all economic decisions. Under this system,

political leaders identify the country’s economic needs and determine how to fulfill them.

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In addition, Stalin outlined the first of several Five-Year Plans for the development of the Soviet

Union’s economy. The Five-Year Plans set impossibly high quotas, or numerical goals, to

increase the output of steel, coal, oil, and electricity. To reach these targets, the government

limited production of consumer goods. As a result, people faced severe shortages of housing,

food, clothing, and other necessary goods. Stalin’s tough methods produced impressive

economic results (Kershaw, 1997). Although most of the targets of the first Five-Year Plan fell

short, the Soviets made substantial gains. A second plan, launched in 1933, proved equally

successful. Hence, from 1928 to 1937, industrial production of steel increased more than 25

percent.

Totalitarian political power is unlimited in its extent and includes all spheres of the social life.

Total power is exercised through a party, the members of which take up all managerial positions.

The entire system of power is based on the only ruling ideology which justifies and sanctifies the

one-party system of power. The official ideology penetrates into (permeates) all areas of culture

and pedagogical activity, education, morality, creating proper moral standards and beliefs

(recognized by the party). The totalitarian state introduces a monopoly into the state

communications (press, radio, TV, cinema, all publications, and their control – censorship), also

eliminates any independent voluntary organizations, unions and associations (Arendt, 1966).

Instead, the state establishes its own ones but without the right to autonomy, they are controlled

and operated by political and party units in a centralized way. The economy is subordinated to

party administration, or production and distribution of national income is carried out under its

supervision. There is collective ownership of the means of production; the apparatus of party

officials controls the economic life of the country (Berman, 2003). The totalitarian system of

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government is also referred to as a policy state because it is characterized by well-developed

police force, including special security forces and the secret police, which is intended to keep all

spheres of citizens’ life under surveillance, detect and fight all signs and manifestations of the

activity of opposition. C. J. Friedrich characterizes totalitarianism as a system of political power

that differs from autocracy and West European democracies, and comprises the following

elements; totalitarian ideology, mono-party based on this ideology, directed by one person, –

dictator (leader), – well-developed secret police, and three types of control (mass media,

operation force, control over all organizations, also economic ones).

Generally, this system is based on the concept of uncontrolled leadership. In totalitarianism, the

value of a person is omitted, and as a matter of fact a person is brought to a living thing, even if a

living thing is treated as something analogous to a cell in the entire organism (body). However,

for totalitarian movements in general, and particular for leaders, there is nothing more specific

than a surprising quickness with which the memory about them disappears and an astonishing

easiness with which they can be replaced (John, 1961). To the bitter end (so long as they have

power and their leaders are still alive), totalitarian regimes enjoy the support of masses and are

based on it.

The propaganda of totalitarian movements, which precedes the totalitarian government and later

accompanies them, is both sincere and deceitful. Totalitarian movements are possible wherever

there are masses who, for one reason or another, have acquired the appetite for creating political

organization. The support of masses for totalitarianism meant the end of two illusions being

specific for democratically ruled countries (especially for nation-states and their party system).

Totalitarianism showed that inert (inactive) masses can seize power in a democratic state.

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The fact that totalitarian movements were less independent of the formlessness of the mass

society than of the specific conditions being created by atomized and individualized masses can

best be seen when comparing Nazism and Bolshevism. In order to transform the revolutionary

dictatorship of Lenin into full totalitarian government, Kershaw (1997) pointed out that Stalin

had to, by artificial measures; achieve such atomization of the society which historical events

prepared for the Nazis in Germany. Totalitarian movements are a mass organization of atomized

isolated individuals. More disturbing for us than the unconditional loyalty of the participants of

totalitarian movement and the support of masses for these regimes is the awareness of

unquestionable attraction of these movements for the elite.

The openly pronounced activism of totalitarian movements, preference for terror as the primary

form of political activity, attracted the intellectual elite and the mob alike. The temporary

alliance between the elite and the mob was explained by a genuine delight with which the former

watched the latter destroy what is considered decent, the elite is appealed by any radicalism as

such. Wherever totalitarian movements have seized power, they got rid of sympathizers before

even they joined the greatest crimes.

For totalitarianism, intellectual, spiritual, artistic initiatives are just as dangerous as the gangster

initiatives of the mob. According to Abbott (1995), only the mob and the elite are attracted by

the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda. Propaganda

is the greatest instrument of totalitarianism in contacts with the non-totalitarian world. Terror is

the very essence of totalitarian form of government. For total propaganda, more specific than

direct threats and crimes against individuals is the creation of indirect, veiled, and menacing

hints against all who do not heed its teachings.

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The strong emphasis of totalitarian propaganda on showing the “scientific” nature of its

assertions has been compared to certain advertising techniques applied to masses. The

“scientificality” of totalitarian propaganda is about its almost exclusive insistence on scientific

prophecy as distinguished from the more old-fashioned appeal to the past. Totalitarianism

proposes propaganda techniques that are brought to perfection. The true purpose of propaganda

is not to transfer but to organize (accumulate) power without possession of the means of

coercion.

The totalitarian government is characterized by a remarkable ability to create enemies and sow

hatred. Everyone can be subsumed under the heading of renegade, traitor or apostate, ideological

heretic, enemy or opponent of the system, regardless of his or her nationality or class.

Manifestation of the approval for the existing system and condemnation for its opponents is a

norm that is to facilitate survival in the totalitarian system.

In conclusion, totalitarian government is a form of social system (usually a state one), the

essential feature of which is to strive for seizing strict subordination and constant control over all

areas of social and individual life. As part of these efforts, totalitarian systems generate the

formation of a number of institutions that strive to surveil and control individuals and social

groups. The operation of total institutions in such systems aims at achieving extreme values in

measurements of the degree of isolation and incapacitation and the number of applied barriers.

Thus, to dominate an entire nation, totalitarian government and its leaders devised methods of

control and persuasion which included the use of terror, indoctrination, propaganda, censorship,

and religious or ethnic persecution.

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 REFERENCES

Abbott, G. (1995). Totalitarianism: The Inner History Of The Cold War. New York: Oxford
University Press,

Arendt, H. (1966). The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt Brace.

Berman, Paul. (2003). Terror and Liberalism: Muslim Totalitarianism. New York: Norton and
Company,

IncChandler, D. (1999).Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot’s Secret Prison.
Berkeley: University of California Press,

John A. A. (1961). The Politics of Totalitarianism. New York: Random House.

Kershaw, I., and Moshe, L. (1997). Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

Laqueur, W. (1987). The Fate of the Revolution: Interpretations of Soviet history from 1917 to
the Present. New York: Scribner's Press.

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