Totalitarian Governments

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the conditions that contribute to the evolution of totalitarian governments and presents the variables that distinguish totalitarianism from other forms of government. The paper also identifies and discusses specific totalitarian countries that provide case studies of the rise of totalitarianism.

From the Paper:

"There is no single cause that leads to totalitarianism although its theoretical roots have been traced to the political theories of Plato, Hobbes, Rousseau and Marx at different times. Some theorists have even suggested that the rapidity, with which totalitarian governments have arisen in modern times, indicates that "there is something in human nature to which they correspond and on which they draw for their moral energy." (Scruton 1998) That "something," according to Scruton is an overwhelming sense of "resentment" among the people which is exploited and stoked by a group of people (usually the elite) to embark on the path of a totalitarian government."

More papers on Totalitarian Governments:

• Comparison Essay # 139440 : "Totalitarian and Authoritarian Systems of Government"
• Term Paper # 112423 : "Arendt and Jaspers on Totalitarianism"
• Analytical Essay # 10096 : "Totalitarianism in George Orwell's "1984"

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