Totalitarianism Case Study

3. Case Study
3.1 The concept of totalitarianism was first established in the 1920s by the German jurist, and later Nazi academic, Carl Schmitt, and Italian fascists (1958, new ed. 1966). Totalitarian states are built on the principle of ‘government for the people’ and were developed under fascist dictatorship. As stated in the introduction, Totalitarian states have many characteristics. Totalitarian regimes are identified through a ‘six-point syndrome’ (Friedrich and Brzezinski, 1963): (1) An official ideology, meaning that it is a system of ideas and ideals. In this case it is a system of ideas and ideals where government tries to control all aspects of society; (2) Totalitarian regimes are a one-party state, this means that only one political

At the time, the vast majority of European states were monarchies, with political power held either by the monarch or the aristocracy. Lynn (1999) shares that democracy presupposes the existence of three types of rights, political, economic and social: the right to participate in the political process; to enjoy a fair distribution of resources; and to be free from oppression (p.129). A liberal democracy has many features, namely: (1) They right to rule is gained through success in regular and competitive elections based on universal adult suffrage; (2) Constraint on government imposed by a constitution, institutional checks and balances and protections for individual and minority rights and lastly; (3) A vigorous civil society including a private enterprise economy, independent trade unions and a free press (Haywood, 2013, p. 270). 3.5 A clear example of a liberal democratic state would be South Africa. Liberal traditions began to form in South Africa from 1990-to date. In 1948 the National Party was elected to power. The Nationalist government classified all people into 3 categories and developed rights and limitations for each. The white minority controlled the large majority of black people. This was known as Apartheid. While white people enjoyed the highest standard of living in all of Africa, the black majority remained disadvantaged by almost every standard, including income, education, housing, and life expectancy. It was only in 1955 when the Congress Alliance adopted the Freedom Charter that this inhumane treatment started to get recognised. The Freedom Charter demanded a non-racial democracy and an end to discrimination. Because South Africa was being governed on the basis of racial segregation, the country was excluded and rejected by countries around the world, for example, the country could not participate in the Olympics, to sign deals and contracts with specific