In this text, we will try to analyze what totalitarianism is, that is, we will try to elucidate and clarify the concept of the totalitarian State. In this way, we will help readers understand the Nazi and Fascist regimes embodied in the German and Italian States, during the 1930s and during the Second World War (1939-1945) ─ classic examples of totalitarianism.
As stated above, the Nazi germany and the Fascist Italy were classic examples of totalitarian states. Therefore, analyzing these two states, we reach some conclusions: we know that totalitarianism is a form of state organization, in which power is concentrated under the rule of an elite aristocrat.
In other words, power is usually concentrated organized in the form of a single party, assembled by a small group of people. The base that forms this party is the large portion of the population (that is, the masses), but the power of decision and deliberation is restricted to the party's leaders only.
Under totalitarianism, some party leaders exercise functions at the highest levels of government; this makes it appear to society that the party is the State. This fact between the party organization and the State administration only becomes possible when the small group in power coercively ends individual and collective freedoms, installing a regime of total terror against the nation.
Therefore, the totalitarian state it is a police state, governed by the physical and psychological violence. The State exercises constant and permanent surveillance over the life of the population. In totalitarianism, the state even controls the personal and family life of individuals, that is, an extreme and radical case of authoritarianism.
The main characteristic of totalitarianism is the permanent and assiduous use of the means of communication (television, radios) to spread the ideology of the totalitarian regime. The advertisements carried by the government were intended to extol the government and exalt the totalitarian leader. In the 20th century, as already elucidated, the main examples of totalitarian states were the Nazi germany, a Fascist Italy and the Stalinist Russia.
Leandro Carvalho
Master in History
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