Nondemocratic regime: concept, types. Totalitarian and authoritarian political regimes

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

Nondemocratic regimes are divided into authoritarian and totalitarian. They are states based on the power of a dictator or an isolated ruling elite. In such countries, the common population cannot put pressure on the authorities. Numerous wars, terror and other horrors of despotism are associated with undemocratic regimes.

Features of totalitarianism

Any non-democratic regime deprives the people of the status of a source of power. In a country with such a system of government, citizens for the most part cannot interfere in public affairs. In addition, people who do not belong to the elite are deprived of their freedoms and rights. Non-democratic regimes are divided into two types - totalitarian and authoritarian. There is no de facto democracy in either case. The entire administrative and power resource is concentrated in the hands of a certain group of people, and in some cases even one person.

The main basis on which the totalitarian non-democratic regime rests is the figure of the leader, which, as a rule, is put forward by a powerful group (party, military, etc.). Power in such a state is retained to the last due to anyfunds. In relation to society, including violence is used. At the same time, the totalitarian government is trying to look legitimate. To do this, such regimes enlist mass social support through propaganda, ideological, political and economic influence.

Under totalitarianism, society is deprived of its civil basis and independence. His life activity is in many ways nationalized. Totalitarian parties have always sought to infiltrate any social structures - from municipal authorities to art circles. Sometimes such experiments can even affect the personal and intimate life of a person. In fact, all people in such a system become small cogs in a huge mechanism. An undemocratic regime cracks down on any citizens who try to interfere with its existence. Totalitarianism makes it possible to repress not only ordinary people, but also those close to the dictator. They are necessary to strengthen and maintain power, as periodically renewed terror allows you to keep others in fear.

Propaganda

A typical totalitarian society has several characteristics. It lives under a one-party system, police control, a monopoly on information in the media. A totalitarian state cannot exist without universal control over the economic life of the country. The ideology of such power is, as a rule, utopian. The ruling elite uses slogans about a great future, the exclusivity of their people and the unique mission of the nationalleader.

Any non-democratic regime necessarily uses in its propaganda the image of the enemy against which it is fighting. Opponents can be foreign imperialists, democrats, as well as their own Jews, peasant kulaks, etc. Such a government explains any of its failures and internal disorder in the life of society by the intrigues of enemies and wreckers. Such rhetoric allows people to mobilize to fight invisible and real opponents, distracting them from their own problems.

For example, the political state regime of the USSR constantly turned to the topic of enemies abroad and in the ranks of Soviet citizens. At various times in the Soviet Union, they fought against bourgeois, kulaks, cosmopolitans, pests in production, spies and numerous foreign policy enemies. The totalitarian society in the USSR reached its “flourishing” in the 1930s.

Priority of ideology

The more actively the authorities put pressure on their ideological opponents, the stronger the need for a one-party system becomes. Only it allows to eradicate any discussion. Power takes the form of a vertical, where people "from below" rigorously implement the next general line of the party. In the form of just such a pyramid, the Nazi party existed in Germany. Hitler needed an effective tool that could put the Fuhrer's plans into practice. The Nazis did not recognize any alternative to themselves. They de alt ruthlessly with their opponents. On the cleared political field, the new government becameeasier to navigate your course.

The dictatorial regime is primarily an ideological project. Despots can explain their policies by scientific theory (like the communists, who talked about the class struggle) or by the laws of nature (thus the Nazis reasoned, explaining the exceptional importance of the German nation). Totalitarian propaganda is often accompanied by political education, entertainment and mass actions. Such were the German torchlight processions. And today, parades in North Korea and carnivals in Cuba have similar features.

Cultural policy

A classic dictatorial regime is a regime that completely subjugates culture and exploits it for its own purposes. In totalitarian countries, monumental architecture and monuments to leaders are often found. Cinema and literature are called upon to glorify the imperial order. In such works, in principle, there can be no criticism of the existing system. In books and films, only all that is good is emphasized, and the message “life has become better, life has become more fun” is the main message in them.

Terror in such a coordinate system always operates in close conjunction with propaganda. Without ideological support, it loses its massive impact on the country's inhabitants. At the same time, propaganda itself is not capable of fully influencing citizens without regular waves of terror. The totalitarian political state regime often combines these two concepts. In this case, the actions of intimidation become a propaganda weapon.

Violence and expansion

Totalitarianism cannot exist without law enforcement agencies and theirdominance over all aspects of society. With the help of this tool, the authorities organize complete control over people. Everything is under close supervision: from the army and educational institutions to art. Even a person who is not interested in history knows about the Gestapo, the NKVD, the Stasi and their methods of work. They were characterized by violence and total surveillance of people. They have weighty signs of a non-democratic regime in their arsenal: secret arrests, torture, long-term imprisonment. For example, in the USSR, black funnels and a knock on the door became a symbol of an entire pre-war era. "For prevention" terror can be directed even at the loyal population.

A totalitarian and authoritarian state often seeks territorial expansion in relation to its neighbors. For example, the far-right regimes of Italy and Germany had a whole theory about the "vital" space for the further growth and prosperity of the nation. For the left, this idea is disguised as a "world revolution", helping the proletarians of other countries, etc.

Authoritarianism

The well-known researcher Juan Linz identified the main features characteristic of authoritarian regimes. These are the limitation of pluralism, the lack of a clear guiding ideology and the low level of people's involvement in political life. To put it simply, authoritarianism can be called a mild form of totalitarianism. All these are types of non-democratic regimes, only with varying degrees of distance from the democratic principles of government.

Of all the features of authoritarianism, the key is precisely the lack ofpluralism. The one-sidedness of accepted views may exist simply de facto, or it may be fixed de jure. Restrictions primarily affect large interest groups and political associations. On paper, they can be extremely blurry. For example, authoritarianism allows the existence of “independent” parties from the authorities, which are in fact either puppet parties or too insignificant to influence the real state of affairs. The existence of such surrogates is a way to create a hybrid regime. He may have a democratic showcase, but all his internal mechanisms work according to the general line, set from above and not subject to objection.

Often, authoritarianism is only a stepping stone on the path to totalitarianism. The state of power depends on the state of state institutions. Totalitarianism cannot be built overnight. It takes some time (from several years to decades) to form such a system. If the government has embarked on the path of the final "crackdown", then at a certain stage it will still be authoritarian. However, as the totalitarian order becomes legally consolidated, these compromise features will begin to lose more and more.

Hybrid Modes

In an authoritarian system, the government can leave the remnants of civil society or some of its elements. However, despite this, the main political regimes of this kind rely only on their own vertical and exist separately from the main mass.population. They regulate themselves and reform themselves. If citizens are asked for their opinions (for example, in the form of plebiscites), then this is done “for show” and only in order to legitimize the already established order. An authoritarian state does not need a mobilized population (unlike a totalitarian system), because without a solid ideology and widespread terror, such people will sooner or later oppose the existing system.

What is the difference between democratic and non-democratic regimes? In both cases, there is an electoral system, but its position is quite different. For example, the US political regime depends entirely on the will of citizens, while in an authoritarian system, elections become a sham. An excessively powerful government can use the administrative resource in order to achieve the necessary results in referendums. And in presidential or parliamentary elections, she often resorts to cleaning up the political field, when people are given the opportunity to vote only for the “right” candidates. In this case, the attributes of the electoral process are externally preserved.

Under authoritarianism, an independent ideology can be replaced by the supremacy of religion, tradition and culture. Through these phenomena, the regime makes itself legitimate. Emphasis on tradition, dislike for change, conservatism - all this is typical for any state of this kind.

Military junta and dictatorship

Authoritarianism is a general concept. You can go to himinclude a variety of control systems. Often in this series there is a military-bureaucratic state, which is based on a military dictatorship. Such power is characterized by the absence of ideology. The ruling coalition is an alliance of military and bureaucrats. The US political regime, like any other democratic state, is somehow connected with these influential groups. However, in a system governed by popular rule, neither the military nor the bureaucrats have a dominant privileged position.

The main goal of the authoritarian regime described above is to suppress active population groups, including cultural, ethnic and religious minorities. They can be a potential danger to dictators because they are better organized than the rest of the country. In a military authoritarian state, all posts are distributed according to the army hierarchy. It can be either a one-man dictatorship or a military junta consisting of the ruling elite (such was the junta in Greece in 1967-1974).

Corporate authoritarianism

In the corporate system, non-democratic regimes are characterized by monopoly representation in the power of certain interest groups. Such a state arises in countries where economic development has achieved certain successes, and society is interested in participating in political life. Corporate authoritarianism is a cross between one-party rule and a mass party.

Limited representation makes it easy to manage. A mode based on a specificsocial stratum, can usurp power, while at the same time giving handouts to one or more groups of the population. A similar state existed in Portugal in 1932-1968. under Salazar.

Racial and colonial authoritarianism

A unique form of authoritarianism appeared in the second half of the 20th century, when numerous colonial countries (primarily in Africa) gained independence from their mother countries. In such societies, there was and remained a low level of well-being of the population. That is why post-colonial authoritarianism was built “from below” there. Key positions have been taken over by an elite with few economic resources.

Slogans of national independence become the backbone for such regimes, which overshadow any other internal problems. For the sake of maintaining imaginary independence in relation to the former metropolis, the population is ready to give up any state leverage to the authorities. The situation in such societies traditionally remains tense, it suffers from its own inferiority and conflicts with neighbors.

A separate form of authoritarianism can be called the so-called racial or ethnic democracy. Such a regime has many of the characteristics of a free state. It has an electoral process, but only representatives of a certain ethnic stratum are allowed to vote, while the rest of the country's inhabitants are thrown out of political life. The position of outcasts is either fixed de jure or exists de facto. Within privileged groups there iscompetition typical of a democracy. However, the existing inequality of races is a source of social tension. The unfair balance is supported by the power of the state and its administrative resources. The most striking example of racial democracy is the recent regime in South Africa, where apartheid was paramount.