What does totalitarianism mean?

Definitions for totalitarianism
to·tal·i·tar·i·an·ism

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word totalitarianism.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. dictatorship, absolutism, authoritarianism, Caesarism, despotism, monocracy, one-man rule, shogunate, Stalinism, totalitarianism, tyrannynoun

    a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

  2. absolutism, totalitarianism, totalismnoun

    the principle of complete and unrestricted power in government

Wiktionary

  1. totalitarianismnoun

    A system of government in which the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control, for example, a dictatorship.

Wikipedia

  1. Totalitarianism

    Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regulation over public and private life. It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism. In totalitarian states, political power is often held by autocrats, such as dictators (totalitarian dictatorship) and absolute monarchs, who employ all-encompassing campaigns in which propaganda is broadcast by state-controlled mass media in order to control the citizenry. By 1950, the term and concept of totalitarianism entered mainstream Western political discourse. Furthermore this era also saw anti-communist and McCarthyist political movements intensify and use the concept of totalitarianism as a tool to convert pre-World War II anti-fascism into Cold War anti-communism.As a political ideology in itself, totalitarianism is a distinctly modernist phenomenon, and it has very complex historical roots. Philosopher Karl Popper traced its roots to Plato, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's conception of the state, and the political philosophy of Karl Marx, although Popper's conception of totalitarianism has been criticized in academia, and remains highly controversial. Other philosophers and historians such as Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer trace the origin of totalitarian doctrines to the Age of Enlightenment, especially to the anthropocentrist idea that "Man has become the master of the world, a master unbound by any links to nature, society, and history." In the 20th century, the idea of absolute state power was first developed by Italian Fascists, and concurrently in Germany by a jurist and Nazi academic named Carl Schmitt during the Weimar Republic in the 1920s. Scholars and historians have considered Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union, to be one of the first to attempt to establish a totalitarian state. Benito Mussolini, the founder of Italian Fascism, called his regime the "Totalitarian State": "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State." Schmitt used the term Totalstaat (lit. 'Total state') in his influential 1927 work titled The Concept of the Political, which described the legal basis of an all-powerful state.Totalitarian regimes are different from other authoritarian regimes, as the latter denotes a state in which the single power holder, usually an individual dictator, a committee, a military junta, or an otherwise small group of political elites, monopolizes political power. A totalitarian regime may attempt to control virtually all aspects of social life, including the economy, the education system, arts, science, and the private lives and morals of citizens through the use of an elaborate ideology. It can also mobilize the whole population in pursuit of its goals.

ChatGPT

  1. totalitarianism

    Totalitarianism is a political system or form of government where a single party or leader holds absolute power, controls all aspects of public and private life, and suppresses all forms of political dissent, typically through the use of propaganda, surveillance, and state-controlled mass media. It often features a centralized economy, restriction or absence of individual freedoms, and an emphasis on nationalism or ideology.

Wikidata

  1. Totalitarianism

    Totalitarianism is a political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life whenever necessary. The concept of totalitarianism was first developed on a positive sense in the 1920s by the Italian fascists. The concept became prominent in Western anti-communist political discourse during the Cold War era, in order to highlight perceived similarities between Nazi Germany and other Fascist regimes on the one hand, and Soviet communism on the other. Aside from Fascist and Stalinist movements, there have been other movements that are totalitarian. The leader of the historic Spanish reactionary conservative movement called the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right declared his intention to "give Spain a true unity, a new spirit, a totalitarian polity..." and went on to say "Democracy is not an end but a means to the conquest of the new state. When the time comes, either parliament submits or we will eliminate it." The political and societal goals and practices of militant Islam have also been labeled as totalitarian.

How to pronounce totalitarianism?

How to say totalitarianism in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of totalitarianism in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of totalitarianism in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of totalitarianism in a Sentence

  1. Herman Hesse:

    Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective conscience does violence to the individual and is the first step toward totalitarianism.

  2. Mahatma Gandhi, "Non-Violence in Peace and War":

    What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

  3. Mark Levin:

    The Democrat Party doesn't believe in speech and that's the whole point of this book, ‘American Marxism.’ We have these elements in this country that are embracing the totalitarianism of an Americanized form of Marxism, it’s on our college campuses, where academic freedom is really a joke, free speech on the internet is really a joke. More and more of our liberties are being smothered, and somebody needs to bring attention to it, needs to give it the right name and needs to talk about how we confront it. And that's the point of the book.

  4. Lev Gudkov:

    Of course it is not Stalinist totalitarianism and mass repressions, but there are nevertheless now 'prophylactic repressions'.

  5. Douglas Brinkley:

    Havel oozed democracy and had seen totalitarianism up close, nobody thought Havel, a playwright, could end up being a great world leader, and he did.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

totalitarianism#10000#50246#100000

Translations for totalitarianism

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for totalitarianism »

Translation

Find a translation for the totalitarianism definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"totalitarianism." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/totalitarianism>.

Discuss these totalitarianism definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for totalitarianism? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Image or illustration of

    totalitarianism

    Credit »

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Browse Definitions.net

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy; impenetrable to sight
    A reassuring
    B suspicious
    C brilliant
    D opaque

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for totalitarianism: