In this article you will learn about the Totalitarian State in Political Science.
Meaning of Totalitarian State
Totalitarian state is one in which the state has full control over the world life of the individual. No part of his life is beyond the control of the state. It claims jurisdiction over the whole social life in the state. If the Bible teaches that “we live, move, and have our being in God”, totalitarianism teaches that “we live, move and have our being in the State.” In it “an individual's life is not his own. It is a trust given to him by the state to be used in the service of the state.” The Totalitarian State declares itself to be omnipotent and infallible. In practice it means the all-powerfulness and infallibility of the ruler of the state.
Finer says, “Totalitarian state is the veritable contradictory of the liberal democratic type of government. The authority and scope of government is not limited, but just the reverse is total.”
While discussing the meaning of Totalitarian State, Asirvatham observes : “in current political literature, the term ‘Totalitarian State’ is used in contrast with the term “Liberal Democratic State.”
Explaining the meaning of a Totalitarian State, the Foreign Policy Association of America defined it as a state 'which embraces all the activities of the individuals and subordinates them to national (ruler’s) ends’. It is a state of truly sovereign authority which dominates all spheres of the country. It practices a cult of state worship. Authority of the state is unlimited. The individuals are the components of the state and they have to think, live and act as the state wishes them to do so.
To sum up, we can write that Totalitarianism is a political concept which conceptualises the state as an all powerful institution exercising unlimited authority, power and control over its all people and their all social, economic, political and cultural organisations, and associations in society. In fact, there exists no difference between the state and society and the state power penetrates in almost every aspect of the social, economic, political, cultural, religious and ideological life and activities of the people. Mass media, civil society and all public and private institutions work under state control and power. There is little respect for the rights and freedoms of the individual and the state is considered to be the end and the individuals as the means. State is characterised by political repression, dependence on force and fear for commanding obedience to laws and policies, single centralised leadership and its authority, monolithic ideology of the ruling leadership, and absence of social, economic, political checks upon the ruling establishment. These are the hallmarks of a Totalitarian State.
The Totalitarian State has been known to us by different names : Bonapartism in France, Nazism in Germany, Fascism in Italy, Communism in China and other communist states. The key characteristic of a Totalitarian State is its solid opposition to any institutional division of power. There is a total centralisation of power and authority of state in the hands of a single ruler or the ruling group or the ruling party.
Western political scientists hold that there are the two basic types of Totalitarian States :
- The Radical Totalitarian State e.g., Communist States, i.e. states ruled by all powerful and centralised communist parties; and
- The Conservative Totalitarian States e.g., Nazi and Fascist State i.e. states ruled by single dominant parties or family of the ruler of each such state.
This article on Totalitarian State in Political Science is contributed by Dipshikha Anand. If you like LawStudyPoint.com do follow us on our Twitter handle.