Theme 5: Totalitarianism as a New Political Form

Totalitarianism is qualitatively different from older authoritarianism. It claims absolute control over every domain of human life. It mobilizes mass populations through ideology and propaganda. It uses modern technology to project the leader's image and to surveil and terrorize the population. It justifies any cruelty in the name of higher goals. Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese militarists all built such regimes. Maria should be able to identify their common features and their important differences.