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The Meaning of the Term Totalitarianism Essay

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The Meaning of the Term Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism was a one-party political system that was based on dictatorship. It first started in Europe in the 1920s and 30s. It was an absolutism that emphasized the importance of the state at the expense of individual liberties. It displays the following features:

One-party dictatorship and one-man rule were emphasized in a totalitarian state. Only one party ruled in a totalitarian state, for example, the Fascist Part in Italy, the Nazi Party in Germany and the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. All other political parties were made illegal, banned and suppressed by terrorist acts. The party and the part leader had absolute control over the …show more content…

Workers were not allowed to hold strikes. All corporations aimed to promote trade and supported the state. Hitler carried out a four-year plan to put all economic activities under state control. Stalin carried out three five-year plans in Soviet Russia – production targets were set up by the Soviet Union for the collective farms and factories to achieve. Workers in Germany were forced to join Nazi-controlled Labor Front. All economic production aimed to support the state.

An official ideology was promoted as state religion in the totalitarian state, for example, Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and Communism in Soviet Russia. The leader had supreme power and demanded absolute obedience of the citizens.

The totalitarian state adopted an aggressive, expansionist foreign policy. The totalitarian states – both the Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany adopted an aggressive foreign policy to regain glory and prestige.

From the above, we can see that totalitarianism is an absolutism that emphasized the state’s importance. Individual freedom was not allowed. It was a one-party rule and one-man dictatorship, which developed in Europe after the First World War.

b)

After the First World War, there was a revival of totalitarianism in Europe: Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and Communism in Russia. The revival of

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