totalitarianism

totalitarianism A term often used as an antonym to pluralism to describe a state in which politics, society, and economy are all subject to the control of an elite or a party. There are three common features of totalitarian states. The first is a particular, often revolutionary, Weltanschauung (world-view) which pervades public life and legitimizes the state. The second is a fusion of the polity and the economy, so that the state controls the economy to varying degrees of inefficiency. The third is the suppression or control of institutions which would otherwise make up a civil society, such as clubs, societies, and the media. However, the precise meaning of the term is elusive, as its use has undergone substantial change over the years. Initially used to describe Italian Fascism from 1923, it was appropriated by opponents to describe the Third Reich and Stalinism. From the beginning of the Cold War it was increasingly used to describe Communist regimes in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. There have been serious doubts about the usefulness of the term. For example, it is doubtful if it could be used legitimately to describe the Soviet Union without discriminating between its leaders such as Stalin and Brezhnev. It was also unlikely Stalin's Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, and Mussolini's Italy had enough in common to be summarized usefully by one term.