Despite the primitive backwardness of this collectivist society, the power of its suppressive methods must be recognized. The dictators have succeeded in subjugating the populace in ways that go beyond the stifling policies of such murderous tyrants as Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot. These real-life collectivist rulers forced millions of human beings to surrender their individuality in practice. The dictatorial regimes of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China, and Communist Cambodia forced their citizens, in action, to serve the state. Individuals had no right to their own lives, and their actions were brutally controlled; they were slaves of Nazism or Communism.
A revolution has begun by the people in the Middle East against their long time dictators. The domino effect began first with Tunisia then Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya. Thousands of protestors were gathered on the streets with posters, shouting for change and democracy. Why would there be protests unless the people are unsatisfied with the way the country is governed. Why would they go against their dictator unless they feel they have no rights and that they have no voice. Unlimited power should never be given to one person; the chances of corruption are very high because power can change even the most virtuous individual. That is why the path of a dictatorial country is a path of strife, oppression and economical downfall.
In the movie “Antz”, the producers tied many governmental issues into the story. The colony was led like a Monarchy, Communism, and Democracy. Communism for example was a major part of the story. Communism is a system where everything belongs to "the community", so people own nothing much more than the clothes on their back, and the State owns everything. It leaves no reward for personal incentive, and even the lives of the populace don't belong to them, but to the State. Resisting was often death. Communism is the next step between socialism and death. The government dictated the entire colony and every aspect of the ant’s lives. The person leading this type of government was General Mandible. An example of why it is communism is because
You will make yourself comfortable... Once feeling comfortable and safe in your chosen place… You will close your eyes… Listen to my voice… Any noises in the background are unimportant… From now on, you will only hear my voice… Concentrate on your breathing… Breathe in… Hold it for a few seconds… Breathe out… Notice how each breath in, is equal to the amount of time it takes to breathe out… Repeat this one more time… Now you are going to relax your mind and body by allowing any tension to flow from your head, to the extremities of your toes… Keep concentrating… You are in control… You will be in control throughout this session…Continue with your breathing as you would normally … Now relax the
Outline the similarities and differences between Adorno et al.’s (1950) and Altemeyer’s (1981) approach to authoritarianism
Those who are in power are not accountable to constituencies and public policy does not derive from social consent. Within sociology and political science, particularly within comparative politics, authoritarianism has been understood as a modern type of political regime. Therefore, the concept focuses on the way of accessing, exercising, and organizing power, on the nature of the belief system, and the role of citizens in the political
Throughout its long history, Russia has been trapped in a continuous cycle of authoritarian regimes; only interrupted briefly with periods of tumultuous democratic transitions that were plagued by poor bureaucracy and weak institutions. Therefore, time and time again, Russia has turned towards authoritarianism. In the late 1900’s to early 2000’s, Russia again saw the fall of democracy coincide with the rise of a competitive authoritarian regime. This rise of competitive authoritarianism in Russia in the late 1900’s to early 2000’s was largely the result of the resource curse which granted Putin’s Administration false economic performance legitimacy. This in turn reinvigorated past strongman ideals, while at the same time solidified negative
Under an authoritarian regime, specifically a dictatorship, the ruler has the political and executive power to persecute an individual or group for political reasons, which demonstrates a form of political oppression.
Imagine living in a world where politics are everything and all forms of individuality and personal identities are shattered. A world where everybody is stripped of their rights to talk, act, think, or even form their own opinions, simply because they do not agree with the government’s beliefs. These aspects are just a few of the examples of things dictators would have control over in a totalitarianism form of government. Aggressive leaders such as Hitler and Joseph Stalin are examples of such dictators. They used their power for terror and murder, and their motive is simply to maximize their own personal power. George Orwell had
Imagine living in a world of complete rejection of liberal ideas and absolute conformity. Citizens of this world do not have the freedom to choose their occupation. In fact, these citizens have no rights. They cannot speak freely, they do not enjoy any personal freedoms or privacy, and the media is aggressively censored. This is the world of George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. The protagonist of Fahrenheit 451 is Guy Montag, and he is a fireman. His job is to destroy books completely by setting fire to them. Winston Smith is the main character in 1984, where he works as a civil servant in the lower class ruling party. Both of these men become entranced with the past and how life was before a totalitarian government.
Shortly after the murder of LaPorte, the Canadian government established harsh state repression, not only in Quebec, but all over Canada. The government’s explanation for this aggressiveness was the belief that state repression would bring a stop to the current terrorist attack. Once the FLQ was stopped and James Cross was recovered, there was also the belief that the state repression stopped future terrorist attacks from happening in Canada. The question we are thus faced with is whether state repression decreases the number of future attacks after the repression has taken place. To answer this question, we could conduct a causal experiment on the effect of state repression on terrorist attacks.
The article, “The Authoritarian Personality,” written by Erich Fromm discusses the common and different characteristics between the two forms of an authoritarian personality. He starts to explain how one becomes a mature person. He states that to become a mature person, said person needs to have developed love and reason. He then states that an authoritarian character has not reached maturity, and therefore, has not developed love or reason. Erich Fromm continues to explain that the difference between the ruler and the ruled is how they start to feel “greater.” The way the ruled feels “greater” is by depending on their ruler for guidance and by following the ruler to become a part of the larger group. The way the ruler feels “greater” is by depending on the ruled to continue to look at them as strong and powerful. He then points out that one person can hold both the ruler and the ruled characteristics. Erich Fromm continues to explain the differences between rational and irrational authority and where these two forms of authority are found. He ends by saying that the understanding of love and reason, and developing said characteristics is the foundation to a person’s own authority and political democracy. While reading this article, it brought me back to all the times I have dealt with people who have authoritative personalities and how it affected me. As stated by Erich Fromm, all people with authority personalities contain components of both the ruler and the ruled.
Authoritarianism is a form of government in which the leader or leaders have exclusive power concerning matters of the state. Although these
Whenever composing "The Great Dictator" in 1939, Chaplin was as well known worldwide as Hitler, and his Homeless person character wore the same mustache. He chose to ditch his big name and silliness against the dictator’s own superstar and fiendishness. He profited “ if that is the right word for it, given the times â€" from his character as a Jew, which he was not”.
Schedler argues that authoritarian regimes – particularly since the end of the Cold War era have been replaced by electoral authoritarian regimes that combine the façade of electoral democracy with systemic abuse of democratic procedures. They have reproduced institutional arrangements present in the democratic system, such as elections, the legislative and judicial powers, and independent local governments. However, these institution creations are never meant to become autonomous, rather manipulative in order to be instruments of pretentious delegation of power from the executive.