Totalitarianism

1
Totalitarianism
2
Totalitarian political system

• Controls every aspect of life, so that there is
  no private sphere or independent organizations. 
  The political system penetrates the whole society
  - dominating religion, family life, the economy,
  education, everything. At the very top is the
  all-powerful leader.

3
Examples

• Nazi Germany, 1933-1945
• Stalinist Soviet Union, 1925 to 1953
• China under Mao Zedong, 1949 to 1970
• Cambodia (Kampuchea) under Khmer Rouge, early
  1970s

4
Logic of totalitarianism

• To create a perfect society out of imperfect
  human beings requires a high level of coercive
  control of every facet of life.
• In contrast, authoritarian governments are not
  interested in creating a new man but
  maintaining control over existing society.
  Coercion only used against perceived enemies of
  the state.

5
Features of totalitarianism

• 1. the cult of the leader. Leader must be
  supreme and autonomous - Hero worship. The
  Leader is perceived as wise, paternal,
  charismatic and personifies the Revolution and
  the Nation. 

6
Example from Nazi Germany

• Under Hitler, a cult of Fuhrer worship began in
  1934. Hitler used both charisma and prejudice to
  appeal to people through his oratorical skills,
  idealized political vision of Germany and wartime
  victories.

7
Features of totalitarianism

• 2. radical ideology official, total,
  comprehensive. It exploits popular fears and
  prejudices. The ideology inspires and
  legitimates a revolutionary break from the past
• a.) by providing a scapegoat for past wrongs
• b). by explaining present sacrifices
• c.) by promising a utopian future of peace and
  plenty

8
Example from Nazi Germany

• Nazi ideology of racial superiority, of the
  mythical Aryan Nation, was superior to everything
  else, including the Third Reichs military needs.
• The ideology led to an extermination program that
  the Nazis called the Final Solution to the Jewish
  Problem.

9
Features of totalitarianism

• 3. organization. Often a political party serves
  the leader in promoting the ideology. The party
  initially might be powerful, but it becomes
  subservient to the leader. In time, no dissent
  permitted even among party elites.
• Hitler, Stalin and Mao all relied on a party
  structure to come to power and then to enforce
  compliance.

10
Example from Nazi Germany

• The National Socialist German Workers Party
  (NAZI) a useful tool for Hitler. Had a symbol
  (the swastika), salute and anthem.  Used military
  trappings and mass demonstrations to attract more
  followers. After Hitler came to power, he
  divided the country into party districts, each
  controlled by a party deputy with more power than
  government officials. These deputies reported
  any suspicious talk or ideas.

11
Features of totalitarianism

• 5.  mass mobilization indoctrination.
  Followers so fanatic that they will make any
  sacrifice. Regime mobilizes against internal
  enemies (opponents, scapegoats,
  counterrevolutionaries) and external enemies.
• Use aggressive warfare (that is, wars without
  justification, not in self-defense) to keep the
  people mobilized against the outside enemy.

12
Example from Nazi Germany

• Hitler and the Nazis excelled in mass
  indoctrination. The propaganda minister, Josef
  Goebbels, was a master of manipulation - using
  the most modern communication methods film
  radio- to instill anti-Semitism and hero-worship.
  Used both internal war against Jews and
  political opponents and external war against the
  Poland, Soviet Union, France Britain (
  eventually U.S.).

13
Features of totalitarianism

• 6.  use of secret police. All sovereign states
  monopolize armed services and police, but
  totalitarian states also use secret police and
  informers. Gestapo, S.A., and S.S. under Nazi
  Germany. Other examples KGB in USSR and Savak
  in Iran under the Shah.

14
Example from Nazi Germany

• Gestapo - the secret police who terrorized
  Hitler's political opponents and rounded up Jews
  and others for the concentration camps.
• Stormtroppers - the SA. Early Nazi thugs who
  used violence to intimidate political opponents
  during rise to power.  Called the brown shirts,
  because of their uniforms.
• Security Echelon the S.S., replaced the S.A.
  after a bloody purge in 1934.  Hitler's private
  and elite security police led by Heinrich
  Himmler. Wore black.

15
Features of totalitarianism

• 7.  central control of all organizations,
  including schools, the arts, clubs, news media,
  labor unions, universities, churches, the
  economy. No separate organizations no pluralism.

16
Example from Nazi Germany

• Hitler Youth Clubs
• Adolph Hitler Schools to train teenagers to be
  future party leaders
• News media and the arts (painting, film, music,
  etc) all extolling Nazi culture
• The German Christian Church
• University takeovers and book burnings
• Even military and foreign affairs. Hitler purged
  top army commanders, assuming their powers
  himself.  Then he dismissed the professional
  diplomatic staff.   

17
Features of totalitarianism

• 8.  use of terror and violence. 
• Takeover Psychological effects can smooth the
  way to a takeover.  Creates artificial atmosphere
  of crisis and political instability. Dramatizes
  inability of old government to provide security
  and prods the frightened citizenry to turn to the
  violent group for protection.
• Maintenance of control Useful afterward to keep
  population incapable of dissent. One Nazi
  official called it "Power Propaganda" because
  terror sent the political message to the
  population to avoid anti-Nazi groups.

18
Terror violence

• Sometimes, totalitarian leaders become so
  obsessed with total control that they imagine
  enemies where none exist. Anyone who poses a
  potential threat, even a loyal deputy - if he or
  she has a popular following - must be eliminated.
  So leaders conduct purges of any possible rivals
  in the party. Examples from Hitler, Lenin,
  Stalin and Mao Zedong.

19
Difference between violence terror

• Violence useful to control and punish individuals
  or groups that resist. Can do these things
• 1. enhance political or social rank of a leader
• 2. result in economic gain (confiscating
  property of those killed).
• 3. punish political opponents, and thereby
  discourage future dissent.
• 4. destroy a people completely. May help
  solidify support among those who are not targeted.

20
Difference between violence terror

• Terror is not punishment arbitrary and
  unpredictable. Goal to produce an extreme fear
  in populace to paralyze them into an utter lack
  of resistance.  Terror creates an emotional and
  psychological state so where violence is a
  reaction to resistance, terror seeks to prevent
  resistance from ever forming. 
• Terror serves two objectives 
• 1. to maintain control over society (by
  eliminating any possible opposition before the
  fact), and
• 2. to transform the society to a new and radical
  goal (which would ordinarily meet with a great
  deal of resistance). 

21
Example of state terror

• The Khmer Rouge, a radical Maoist group, sought
  to create a socialist utopia in Cambodia
  (Kampuchea) from 1975 to 1978.
• Policies left between 1 to 3 million dead,
  directly or indirectly.
• Regime relied on terror to remake society,
  including to eliminate family clan loyalties.
  Children became spies on their parents, reporting
  any deviance to officials and sometimes
  participating in the killing of their parents.
• film The Killing Fields

22
Example of state terror

• Terror as a means of control less necessary over
  time as revolutionary government becomes more
  legitimate and is able to create wealth for
  material incentives. 
• Nazis found that it is not always necessary to
  actually kill or imprison.  They exploited fear
  through rumor lies to convince population that
  resistance was futile.  People remained fearful
  even after police violence dropped off, because
  they believed the Gestapo were invincible and
  omniscient (all-knowing).

23
Dysfunctional aspects of terror

• In the long term, terror makes people passive
  distrusting.
• 1. Harms productivity and creativity, with
  terrible economic cost.
• 2. Destroys an individual's trust in government
  and other people, leading to break-down of
  community and even family ties. 

24