A regime is perceived as an ideology, a movement or a form of government where there is no freedom, or is seriously limited by the government itself, and the State exercises all power without limit. One of the most important characteristics of totalitarian regimes is contempt, hatred for democracy and parliament. Democracy is banished, transforming into a single party that directs all areas of the State. This type of regime takes advantage of democracy to come to power and once achieved, they make democracy disappear.
"Totalitarianism, when it has reached power, imposes total uniformity among men and reduces singularity to the minimum expression, to the fact of belonging to the human species" (Arendt, 1951).
"Totalitarianism reduces the diversity of man to a single model. It despises the ambivalence of the world and suppresses the difference, that which distinguishes individuals from each other "(Polin, 1977)
This abomination limits life, which is developed through political action, since the true life is that of the citizen and where is there a citizen in a totalitarian system? “A life without action or speech is literally dead to the world; it has ceased to be a human life because men no longer live it ”. (Arendt, 1974)
Another basic feature is the control of society through the political party is the cornerstone of the regime. The party is led by a minority, which indicates the behaviors to follow. The leader's authority is a word blindly fulfilled, his party is blunt, all the media are used as tools to convey the leader's voice.
This regime creates social movements (youth, women's associations, population minorities) in order to increase control over citizens. The leader is charismatic, symbolizing the single party and the nation. He is almost worshiped, and uses the media to show his charisma. Collective interest prevails over the individual, that is, freedoms are separated and the rights of the person unprotected. These regimes differ from other forms of government in that they are led by only one political party, that is, they are one-party.
There are prime examples, called Nazism, Fascism, and Stalinism. Totalitarian regimes are born in a period between wars. Both Italian fascism and German national associationism were intrinsically efforts to suppress all class and group differences within the sole purpose of imperialist aggrandizement, therefore the practical result of both was the totalitarian internal organization of the state. This attempt to unify the nation's population and to mobilize all the country's resources was guided in one direction, that is, in preparation for war. Consequently, Nazism and Fascism were basically governments of war and war economies, established as permanent political systems.
This purpose could not be justified through material benefits, but had to be justified through mystical values that led to the acceptance of discipline and heroism as ends to which it was not necessary to attribute any rational purpose, that is, it had to be justified in herself to the will and to the action.
In the case of German National Socialism, Hitler proposed the expansion of Germany since it was humiliated by the triumphant countries of the First World War and justified the realization of the war because Germany had to reach its vital space so that being German could really be and develop in freedom. When Hitler speaks of living space, he uses it as a metaphysical conception to refer to achieving maximum expansion that Germany had achieved centuries ago with the Holy Roman Empire. Since, at the time that Hitler proposed these measures, the German people were devastated based on the post-war situation in which they found themselves in the country, and therefore quickly managed to secure popular support.
As a principle of political organization, totalitarianism meant dictatorship, in order to dominate the environment in which the individual lives as well as organize and direct all 3 economic and social aspects, excluding any possibility of private life or voluntary decision. This control exercised by totalitarianism naturally extended to the press, education, research and art, to all aspects of national culture that the party was interested in controlling.
Referring to the labor aspect of totalitarian regimes (which is closely linked to the country's economy), the Italian system was self-governing, with associations in which employers and workers were equally represented. While the German system, it was an open regulation of the industry by the government. In both systems, they placed the economy under political control. Totalitarian society was truly atomized.
The town was built by the masses without any information except what the propaganda organs wanted to provide it and without any power to direct it to their own ends. Hitler can be pointed out as a leader since in Germany he concentrated all power and was in charge of all acts, which could not be criticized.
There are three forms of domination according to the origin of the mandate, in the case of Hitler, his domination was charismatic. The power of the leader acts on the basis of the proper use of suggestion and all subconscious motivation; Its success is due to the skillful psychology and the ability to achieve the mental processes of the great masses of the population. This is directly linked to the propaganda he exercised on the masses. Neither Hitler nor Mussolini ever doubted that their position depended on the fidelity and fanatical personal sacrifice they inspired.
Despite the use of terror, they were true mass movements and owed their power to that fact. The characteristic peculiarity of National Socialist propaganda was the use of the resource of insult and flattery. "Hitler characterized the leader, in terms of propaganda. The leader is neither an intellectual nor a theorist, but a practical and organized psychologist to know the methods by which he can attract the greatest number of passive adherents, an organizer to be able to build a compact nucleus of followers and consolidate their conquests ”(Sabine, 1994)
Neither Hitler nor Mussolini refuted Nietzsche's thought, about the contempt of the masses they led, since they considered them in a category of inferior beings, whose healthy instinct is to follow their leader. They also shared hatred for democracy and Christianity. Because they depended on the masses, nationalism claimed to be democratic, but did not provide the masses with any criteria of judgment that had value to their political opinions. This is an important feature of totalitarian regimes, where all democratic mechanisms were suspended, turning the country into an authoritarian state.
The authoritarian state that Hitler suggested in his book "My Struggle" (written while in prison) had a non-liberal constitutional monarchy politically, but capable of offering a high degree of civil liberty and orderly legal procedure, that is, a government of law and not of individuals.
Within what characterizes a totalitarian regime, it can be seen that the person ceases to have rights, to begin to have obligations to the State, which is a bit of what Hitler advanced in his book and then carry it out in his mandate but in a more violent and demanding way. "The purpose of fascism was to reestablish Italian thought, within the sphere of political doctrine, in its own traditions, which are the traditions of Rome."
(Bigongiari, 1925).
In the case of the purpose of Nazism, Hitler believed in the need for reform, a renewed belief in honor as the supreme virtue of the person, the family, the nation, and the race. The practical effects of racial theory, characteristic of the politics of the totalitarian regime in Germany, were three. In the first place, a general policy of stimulating the increase of the population was carried out, essentially of the supposedly Aryan elements. Second, it produced legislation to prevent the transmission of hereditary diseases, but in practice the sterilization or extermination of the defective physical or metal was carried out. And third, it produced anti-Jewish legislation that tended to increase or maintain purity of race. Racial theory was nothing more than a sociological resource to unify German society,orienting all their antagonisms towards a single enemy that could be easily eliminated.
In conclusion, totalitarian regimes were not just simple ideologies, they were insistent currents of philosophical irrationalism, and although fascism and Nazism were not philosophically beneficial, they constantly tried to raise their level by boasting an affinity with that thought, as it allowed them to attract to the masses. This irrational force contrasted with reason for a character that was more creative than critical, deeper than superficial. Thus totalitarianism was able to naturally control every aspect of the life of the individual and of the national culture, suppressing all possibility of private life, completely dividing the individual, in favor of the measures imposed by the leaders of the authoritarian state.
References
Arendt, H. (1951). The origins of totalitarianism.
Arendt, H. (1974). The human condition.
Bigongiari, D. (1925). The political doctrine of Fascism.
Polin, C. (1977). L'esprit totalitaire.
Sabine, GH (1994). History of political theory, 3rd Edition. Mexico.
