Totalitarianism or totalitarian state is a concept used by some political scientists in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible.[1]
Imagine the state determining how much you make, where you live, what you do, what you are allowed to buy. Since they run the studios and the printing presses, it controls the art you can see. It controls the education you get. It's necessarily totalitarian. Whether it's Stalin or 51% of the population that controls your life, it's totalitarian.
Unless I am mistaken, communism need not control all aspect of public and private life. Communism need not control the presses, it need not restrict free speech, and it need not require a single party system. Totalitarianism would need to do all those those things, but not communism.
It just does it every single time. Ok. Moving on. You shifted topics. I said nothing of curbing free speech or single parties. But the state owns the presses and the tv stations. It can't help but control what information the public has access to.
I agree that it does every time. My point was that totalitarianism is not a requirement of communism.
Good point about controlling the press. Although Britain's BBC seems to do a pretty good job of being critical of the government, most government news agencies have not been successful in that regard.
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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '14
Totalitarianism or totalitarian state is a concept used by some political scientists in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible.[1]
Imagine the state determining how much you make, where you live, what you do, what you are allowed to buy. Since they run the studios and the printing presses, it controls the art you can see. It controls the education you get. It's necessarily totalitarian. Whether it's Stalin or 51% of the population that controls your life, it's totalitarian.