Totalitarian and authoritarian political regimes, their signs and differences

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

The concept of authoritarianism was first coined in the middle of the 20th century by the political scientists of the Frankfurt School. It was understood that authoritarian political regimes are a set of features of the social structure and, first of all, a peculiar relationship between the people and the authorities. According to the proposed definition, this form of social and state structure sharply contradicted the notions of genuine democracy. At the same time, the features of an authoritarian political regime can be observed on the example of many states of the planet in the last century. Not to mention the deeper historical experience of humanity.

Signs of an authoritarian political regime

• The concentration of all power in the hands of one person or a small group: a military junta, a sole dictator, a theological leader, and so on.
• There is no separation of powers into independent branches, of course.

• In such a state, any real opposition force is often suppressed. However, this does not exclude the possibility of the existence of a demonstrative puppet opposition as long asas long as the situation is under control. Often, the so-called imitation of elections is initiated by the authorities themselves - that is, holding an event with all the formal attributes, creating the illusion of fair elections, which in practice have a pre-planned scenario.

  

• Governance usually takes the form of command-and-control methods.
• Authoritarian political regimes often declare their own democracy, protection of the rights and freedoms of their citizens. However, real protection is not provided in practice. Moreover, the government itself violates these civil rights in the political sphere.
• Power structures serve not to protect public interests and the rights of citizens, but to protect the established order (often acting against their own citizens).

Totalitarian and authoritarian political regimes

It should be noted that the authoritarian state power is determined by a number of features. The absence or coincidence of one of them is not a sufficient basis for conclusions. Authoritarian political regimes are often identified with totalitarianism. And although they have a number of common features, this is not entirely true. Authoritarian power rests on the personality of the leader (or group of leaders), whose qualities make it possible to usurp and retain it. However, if this leader or ruling group is eliminated (death), the authoritarian regime often undergoes a transformation, as successors cannot hold on to power.

The very concept of totalitarianism implies totality: the widespread control of the state in absolutely all spheres of public life. By controlling the processes of socialization of its citizens, the totalitarian state can already inspire the exceptional correctness of its course. This means that there will be no need for a harsh suppression of citizens brought up in an uncontested ideology imposed by the highest elite. And the personality of the leader is not essential, only the control of the elite over public sentiment matters.