comparative politics
type: Concept
narrower: totalitarian regimes

concepts
type: Collection
type: ConceptGroup
member: totalitarian regimes

totalitarian regimes
type: Concept
broader: comparative politics
definition: The most common definition of totalitarian regimes, categorized generally under the concept of “totalitarianism,” refers to modern antiliberal and antidemocratic regimes based on the monopolization of power by a revolutionary single party led by a charismatic leader and dominating over the state and society by means of terror and propaganda. Totalitarian regimes carry out their policy using a variety of institutions controlled by the single party: a highly centralized bureaucracy, an official and secret police, a party militia, the manipulation of culture and public opinion through the monopoly of mass media, and a network of organizations set up all over the country under the control of the single party, whose tasks are to regiment, indoctrinate, and mobilize permanently the individual and the masses. [Source: International Encyclopedia of Political Science; Totalitarian Regimes]