Author Question: What are the distinct characteristics that differentiate totalitarian ideologies from other ... (Read 69 times)

WhattoUnderstand · **on:** Jul 8, 2018

What are the distinct characteristics that differentiate totalitarian ideologies from other political beliefs?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

How is communism different from fascism?

What will be an ideal response?

amcvicar · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 8, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Totalitarian ideologies are distinct in five ways:
They are overt: National leaders write them down and broadcast them publicly.
They are systematic: Governments discuss and update a highly detailed set of integrated ideological principles.
They are institutionalized: Leaders empower bureaucrats to serve as official ideologues, whose job it is to constantly articulate and update the regime's ideology, and spread government propaganda.
They are dogmatic: Regimes create and impose their own official political views on every citizen and brook no dissent. Anyone who suggests the government's view is wrong or who proposes an alternative interpretation of the regime's ideology is repressed.
They are totalizing: They provide individuals with behavioral guidance for all aspects of their lives and even seek to reshape individuals' interests and identities in the regime's image.

Answer to Question 2

Communism downplays nationalism and emphasizes commonalities between workers across nations, while fascism stresses the importance of the national community of the country.
Unlike fascism, communism rejects private property and capitalism.
Fascism rejects communism's emphasis on economic class identity and class conflict and emphasizes nationalism as the most important form of political identity.
Communism is associated with utopian, forward-looking extreme left-wing radical politics, while fascism is associated with nostalgic, backward-looking extreme right-wing conservative politics.