Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism refers to a political system in which the state extends its control over all spheres of life, including economics, culture, media, language, family, child care, and personal issues. The state takes a strongly paternalistic approach toward its subjects and leaves little or no space for individual choices and individual responsibility. Under totalitarianism, the state delegitimizes alternative forms of authority and social solidarity, including church, family, and independent associations, to serve as the sole source of legitimacy. The state is also the sole source of justice and authority, and the sole agent through which all benefits and privileges are received. Totalitarian regimes are characterized by an official ideology, a single-mass party, state-controlled monopoly of communication, media censorship, intense state propaganda, virtual absence of [Page 845]oppositional ...