totalitaryzm

Totalitarianism is a form of government in which the state seeks to control nearly all aspects of public and private life under a single official ideology and political system. Power is centralized, often around a single party or leader, and political pluralism is suppressed.

Key features typically include a single mass party, a leader cult, an all-encompassing ideology treated as truth, state monopoly over media, pervasive police surveillance, and extensive mobilization of society. The economy may be planned or tightly regulated, with the state aiming to direct education, culture, and youth organizations to support the regime. Dissent is treated as treason or sabotage and is met with coercion or violence.

Totalitarian regimes differ from authoritarian ones in their aim to reorganize society around an official ideology and the leader’s goals, using terror, propaganda, and mass mobilization to maintain control, rather than merely preserving political order or the ruling elite’s privileges. They typically seek to permeate most institutions and aspects of daily life, including culture, education, and private beliefs.

Historically, examples often cited include Nazi Germany, the Stalinist Soviet Union, Maoist China, and North Korea. The concept and its applicability are debated: some scholars treat totalitarianism as a distinct category with clear criteria, while others view it as a spectrum of traits found across different regimes, challenging a strict binary classification with authoritarianism.

Today, the term remains a reference point in studies of repression and governance, used to discuss regimes that aim for comprehensive control over society and to contrast them with more limited forms of authoritarian rule.