Definition Of Totalitarianism

Before we move on, it would be important to add the more general argument against the traditionalist view of totalitarianism to retain focus towards the case in point – that the 6 defining points in question may not be as useful as we first thought. Friedrich’s list of points were created for a specific purpose, being the definition of the general ideologies and features that only totalitarian systems share: if these features were not, to a great extent, specific to those societies then it would become irrelevant. Anthony James Gregor argues this point thoroughly, claiming there is simply not enough data to create a sustainable definition: Friedrich and Brzezinski’s 6 points are nothing but ambiguous theory. Where other historians have suggested

It may seem like the arguments we have just explored would become invalid too, because cultural changes may not be quantifiable by any known method; we could respond by acknowledging that whilst cultural or domestic changes are not empirically quantifiable, they are definitely measurable. We know to what extent tourism affected the Francoist Regime by the leaflets and posters promoting the ‘War Route of the North’ found in countries around the world . Therefore, Gregor’s point about the usefulness of the 6 points themselves gives us a wider understanding of the core concepts of totalitarianism, and how to properly define

The role of women in dictatorships, a subject which also enjoyed a spike in interests around the 1990s, has come into light thanks to the releasing of records and accounts of oral histories, no doubt following the surge in liberalist interest of totalitarian regimes. What has been found is a struggle between the pre-WWII ideals of freedom for women, and contemporary ideals of ‘doing your part for the state’ from which traditional domestic standards were re-integrated. What escapes Friedrich and Brzezinski’s definition is the importance of domestic control that totalitarian states so zealously imposed – which arguably formed the basis of the more ‘personal’ side of totalitarianism that encroached into people’s lives. Undoubtedly, it was of paramount importance to a totalitarian government to control domestic matters: generally declining fertility rates causing the growth in population of many ethnic minorities, which even created a gulf between rates of fertility between the poor and the elite, was an issue all totalitarian governments had to deal with. So it’s no wonder the “restructuring of gender relations… went hand in hand with the recasting of economic and political institutions” as Victoria De Grazia mentions . Clearly, it seems, the goal of every totalitarian state would be to nationalise women as a commodity due to their importance in sustaining