Anti-democratic regimes. Totalitarian and authoritarian regime: main features

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

The political regime of the state is a method of organizing the system, reflecting the relationship between authorities and representatives of society, social freedom and the peculiarities of the legal life in the country.

Basically, these properties are due to certain traditional features, culture, conditions of the historical formation of the state. So, we can say that in any country its own special and characteristic political regime has been formed. Nevertheless, most of them in different states can find similar features.

Scientific literary sources describe 2 types of social and legal devices:

• anti-democratic regimes;
• democratic regimes.

Signs of a democratic society

The main features that are characteristic of democracy are:

• dominance of legislative acts;
• power divided into types;
• existence of real political and social rights of citizens of the state;
• elected authorities;
• presence of oppositional and pluralistic opinion.

Signsanti-democracy

Anti-democratic government is divided into totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Its main properties:

• supremacy of a single party organization;
• supreme single form of ownership;
• infringement of rights and freedoms in political life;
• repressive and coercive methods of influence;
• infringement of the influence of elected bodies;
• strengthening executive power;
• prohibition of the existence of opposition party organizations;
• prohibition of polypartyism and dissent;
• the desire of the state to coordinate all areas of public life and relationships between individuals.

Signs of an authoritarian regime (authoritarianism) also lie in the fact that power is concentrated in the hands of an individual or group, but outside the political sphere, freedom remains to a relative extent. Such social and legal liberties in no way negate the characteristic properties of this type of government. The features of the totalitarian regime are the increased supervision by the authorities of all spheres of public life of the state.

Comparative characteristics

Democratic Regime (democracy)	Presidential power
	Parliamentary power	One party majority
		Party coalition
		Regional or ethnic majority consensus
Anti-democratic regime (anti-democracy)	Totalitarian power	Pre-totalitarianism
		Post-totalitarianism
	Authoritarian power	Neototalitarianism
		Monarchy in less developed countries
		Theocracy
		Military rule
		Personalized Board

Characteristics of anti-democratic regimes

An authoritarian state appears when power is concentrated in the hands of an individual or a group of individuals. Often authoritarianism is combined with dictatorship. An opposition structure is not possible under this regime, but in the economic sphere, such as cultural or personal life, personal autonomy and some freedom of action remain.

Totalitarian power is formed when all areas of public life are controlled by state monopolized power (separately by an individual or a group of persons), when there is a single worldview for all residents of the country. The absence of any dissent is created by a strong controlling body, police persecution, and coercion. Such anti-democratic regimes give birth to a non-initiative person who is inclined to obedience on all social issues.

Totalitarian power

Totalitarianism is a regime of all-round domination, unlimited interference in the daily life of society, including existence in the context of its leadership and forcedmanagement. The concept itself appeared in the late twenties of the 20th century, when a certain part of political scientists tried to separate socialist and democratic countries and find a clear understanding of socialist statehood.

Features of a totalitarian regime

1. The existence of a single, significant party, headed by an impeccable (in the eyes of the people) leader, and in addition to this, the actual reunification of party and state structural elements. In other words, it can be called a "state-party". In it, the central apparatus of the party organization sits in the foreground in the hierarchical ladder, and the state acts as a means of implementing the platform of the totalitarian system.

2. Centralization and monopolization of government bodies. That is, in comparison with material, religious value concepts, political ones (obedience and loy alty to the totalitarian party) come forward and become fundamental. Within the framework of this regime, the border between state and non-state areas (the country as a single collective) is lost. The entire life path of the population is subject to regulation, regardless of whether it has a personal (private) or public character. Authorities at all levels are formed in the way of bureaucracy and through closed information and non-information channels.

3. The unified power of a legitimate ideology, which through the media, the learning process, propaganda methods is imposed on the population as the only correct one,true method of thinking. Here the emphasis is not on individual, but on “cathedral” values (nationality, race, etc.). The spiritual component of society is characterized by fanatical intolerance towards dissent and “other action”, according to the rule “who is not with us is against us.”

4. Physical and psychological dictatorship, the existence of a police state regime, in which the main rule is based on the following: “only what is punished by the authorities is allowed, everything else is prohibited.” To achieve it, ghettos and concentration camps are being formed, in which the hardest labor, violence against people, suppression of the civil will to resist, mass destruction of the innocent population is used.

This dictatorial method of government also includes communist and fascist anti-democratic regimes.

Authoritarianism

An authoritarian state is a country with a way of life that is characterized by the regime of dictatorship of a single person with his own method of control. This is a "compromise solution" between the totalitarian and democratic regimes, a transitional stage between them.

The authoritarian order is quite close to totalitarian management on political grounds, and to democratic - on economic grounds, that is, people who do not have political rights are endowed with full economic rights.

Main signs of an authoritarian regime

This type of anti-democratic government of the state has the following features:

1. Power is unlimited,uncontrolled and centralized in the hands of a single person or group of persons. It can be a dictator, a military junta, etc.
2. Potential and real emphasis on forceful influence. This regime may not use mass repressive actions and even enjoy sufficient recognition of the majority of the population. But nevertheless, the authorities can afford to take any steps against their citizens in order to force them to obey.
3. Monopolization of power and political activity, prohibition of the existence of opposition structures, sole, independent, legal activity in society. Such a condition does not affect the existence of an unlimited number of party organizations, as well as trade unions and some other societies, however, their activities are strictly controlled and regulated by the authorities.
4. Renewal of the cadres of managers by the method of self-replenishment, and not by competition in the pre-election period, the absence of legal mechanisms for succession and transfer of power. Such anti-democratic regimes are often established through military coups and coercion.
5. Power structures are exclusively engaged in ensuring personal security, order in society, although they are able to influence the priority areas of economic development, to pursue an active public policy, without destroying the structure of their own regulation of the market.

The signs described above give grounds to assert that authoritarian power is a method of government with a flawedmoralism: "Everything is allowed except politics."

Additional types of political regimes

Under the slave system, the following types of government were distinguished:

• despotic;
• theocratic;
• monarchical;
• aristocratic;
• democratic.

The feudal system, in turn, is divided into:

• militarist-cop;
• democratic;
• clerical-feudal;
• absolutist;
• "enlightened" absolutist.

Bourgeois device, respectively, is divided into:

• democratic;
• fascist;
• military-police;
• Bonapartist.

Classification of political regimes according to S. A. Komarov

S. A. Komarov subdivides the power regime of the people into:

• slave;
• feudal;
• bourgeois;
• socialist democracy.

Anti-democratic regimes are divided by this politician into:

• totalitarian;
• fascist;
• autocratic.

The latter, in turn, is divided into individual (despotism, tyranny, regime of sole power) and collective (oligarchy and aristocracy).

Political regimes at the present stage

At the present stage, it is believed that democracy is the most perfect regime, unlike any anti-democratic one. This is not entirely correct. Historical facts show thattotalitarian countries (a certain part) exist quite effectively and perform their functions, for example, in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In addition to this, totalitarianism is largely able to mobilize the entire population of the state in order to solve a certain (no less important and difficult) state problem.

For example, the Soviet Union managed to win the hostilities with Nazi Germany, although totalitarian Germany at the very beginning of hostilities significantly exceeded its forces in terms of internal military power. In the post-war years, such a social and legal structure created a record rise in the economy of the USSR. Even if this was achieved at a considerable cost. Thus, totalitarian and authoritarian regimes are characterized by both positive and negative sides.