Totalitarianism and Fascism

Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a political system, distinct from authoritarianism.
Fascism is a form of totalitarianism, but not the only one.
Totalitarianism can exist on both the political left and right.
It addresses issues within Western civilization: class conflict, economic problems (from the Industrial Revolution and capitalism), and nationalism.
It is generally defined as a single-party state where individuals and groups are subordinated to the will of the state with a use of force, violence, intimidation, and propaganda to ensure compliance.

Old-style conservative absolutism (pre-19th century) or authoritarianism (19th century) aimed to prevent changes that would undermine the social order.
Popular participation was forbidden or limited.
Examples: Prussia, France (18th century), Russia (19th century).
Authoritarian powers lacked the modern communication and technology to affect many aspects of their subjects' lives.
The goal of an authoritarian state was primarily the survival of the government.
Absolutist governments were content with raising taxes, recruiting for the army, and achieving passive acceptance.
The population was excluded from decision-making, which was reserved for the king and nobility.

World War I changed the dynamics, subordinating individuals, classes, and institutions to the objective of victory.
The war required sacrifices from soldiers and civilians, with increased restrictions on personal freedoms.
Civilians faced food restrictions and were required to work in emissions factories.
Modern war, at that time, foreshadowed modern totalitarianism in terms of its development.

Use of modern technology and communications (radio, movies, trains).
Dictatorship of a leader and a party with almost complete political power.
Takeover and control of economic, social, intellectual, and cultural elements of life; nothing is outside the scope of the state.
Steady reduction in individual freedom.
Radical revolt against 19th-century ideals of classical liberalism and democracy.
The individual is insignificant, and the state is all-powerful; there are no basic or inalienable rights, only rewards for service to the leader.
Masses are at the base of the system, politicized by nationalism (hypernationalism or grievance nationalism) or socialism.
Society is fully mobilized towards a goal, with further goals arising at the leader's command, leading to a permanent state of revolution (e.g., rearmament in Germany, five-year plans in the Soviet Union).
Rapid change from above.

Parliamentary democracies existed, but many fell back into autocratic regimes by the late 1930s.
Totalitarian regimes: Germany and Italy (fascism on the right), the Soviet Union (Stalinism on the left).
Franco's Spain was more of an authoritarian society than a fully fascist one.

With the development of Bolshevism in the Soviet Union more nations were willing to consider alternatives on the right, often falling back to authoritarianism.
Fascism presented itself as the only reasonable alternative to socialism and communism.
Rejection of the heritage of the Enlightenment, reason, and the concept of human beings as rational beings.
Rejection of constitutional monarchies and democracies based on classical liberalism.
Embracing nationalism for unity and a sense of higher purpose, deemphasizing class conflict.
Dictatorship of the state over cooperating classes.
The leader embodies the nation and possesses superhuman qualities, above criticism.
Mass mobilization and involvement of all people in support of the leadership.
Cult of violence for the military to achieve political ends, without pretense.
Antisemitism (except in Italy, where it was less prominent due to a smaller Jewish population). Jews were seen as the scapegoat diluting the purity of the state.
Violently anticommunist because class struggle divides the nation.
Appealed to people disturbed by rapid industrialization and economic change: small farmers, businessmen, craftspeople, ex-soldiers, officers and young people.
The result of deep social and economic crises within Western society.

High inflation in the early 1920s, with reparations draining the country, devastated the middle class.
Belief that Germany had been stabbed in the back by pacifists, socialists, and Jews.
Pamphlets in 1919 called Jews the vampires of Germany, growing rich over a ruined middle class.
This set the stage for a leader to recognize and take advantage of the existing sentiment.
Adolf Hitler: An Austrian (but ethnically German).
Son of a customs agent; lost his parents at a young age.
Not an intellectual like Mussolini; relied on gut instinct rather than intellect.
Failed artist who lived a marginal existence in Vienna and later Munich.
Volunteered for the German army in World War I.
Served as a dispatch runner, was a victim of a gas attack, and rose to the rank of corporal.
Upset over the Versailles treaty and absorbed antisemitic and racist ideas.
Believed that Jews and Marxists lost the war for Germany.
Joined the German Workers' Party (later the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or Nazis) in 1919 and took it over.
The term "Nazis" comes from the German pronunciation of "national."
The term "National socialist" reflected the experiences of soldiers in the trenches that shared a feeling of solidarity rather than a class consciousness.