The authoritarian and totalitarian political regimes, and their characteristics

Authoritarian political regime.

Authoritarianism is usually regarded as a type of regime that is intermediate between totalitarianism and democracy.

Authoritarianism – a political regime in which all power is concentrated in one person (monarch, dictator) or ruling group.

Authoritarianism is one of the most common modes of political modernity. It was developed mainly in several countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, resigned the Soviet Union, when, after the death of Stalin, began the transformation of the totalitarian regime in authoritarian.

The essential features of authoritarianism are:

- The monopoly of power of one group, party or coalition that to no one accountable.

- Complete or partial ban on the opposition.

- Highly centralized power structure.

- Save limited pluralism, the existence of differentiated relationship between society and the state.

- Inheritance and cooptation as the main ways of forming the dominant political elite.

- Lack of nonviolent change of government.

- Use the power structures to maintain power.

At the roots of authoritarianism included:

- The preservation of the traditional type of society with a focus on common and persistent forms of social life and authority;

- Preservation of patriarchal nationality type of political culture as overwhelming;

- Significant influence of religious norms (most of Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism) on the political orientation of the population;

- Economic backwardness;

- Lack of civil society;

- A high degree of conflict in societies [12, p. 246].

Relevant authoritarian political system occupies an intermediate position between totalitarianism and democracy. Under the influence of a complex set of economic, social, political, cultural and other factors, it will eventually evolve toward democracy or totalitarianism. This transient nature of authoritarian political regime wore in the last decades of the twentieth century. Thus, the authoritarian regime F. Castro established in 1959 in Cuba, then turned into totalitarianism. In the same number of other countries (Korea, Chile, Thailand, Haiti, Panama, Argentina and some other Latin American countries) authoritarianism gradually evolved towards democracy. However, there are states with very pronounced authoritarian regime (Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, etc.). [14, p. 76].

Totalitarian political regime.

The term "totalitarianism" is derived from the medieval Latin word «totals», which means "whole", "full", "general". Totalitarianism – a complete control and strict regulation of the state in all spheres of society, every person by direct armed violence. State absorbs all of society and a particular person [12, p. 243].

Dictatorship (from Lat. Dictatura – “unlimited power”) – the mode of government of one person or group of people led by a leader without any control by the governed, there was a long time and had many historical forms of its manifestation. First, in Rome republican dictator called emergency official (magistrate), destined for a term not exceeding six months to provide protection from external threats or to suppress domestic rebellion.

Since Sulla and especially Caesar, who often received dictatorial powers, the nature of dictatorship has changed significantly. The dictator was impervious law, unaccountable people and changed the laws to their advantage.

Totalitarianism is a new type of dictatorship in which the special role is played by the state and ideology. The term "totalitarian" entered the political lexicon of Italian Fascists leader B. Mussolini (1883-1945). The purpose of the fascist movement, in his opinion, was to create a strong state, the use of force only principles of exercising power. The essence of totalitarianism B. Mussolini expressed formula: "Everything in the State, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state." Since 1925 he began to use the term "totalitarianism" to describe the Nazi state. And from 1929 (the newspaper "Times"), this term was taken against the regime that emerged in the Soviet Union.

Totalitarianism arises in the twentieth century as the political regime and as a special model of socio-economic order, characteristic of the stage of industrial development, and as an ideology. Creating an extensive system of mass communications allowing for ideological and political control over the entity. The person is in the destruction of traditional ways of life become vulnerable to world market forces and competition. Complications of social relationships required to strengthen the role of the state ("statism") as a universal regulator organizer and interaction of individuals with no matching interests. Experience shows that totalitarian regimes tend to arise in extreme conditions: the growing instability in society; deep crisis that covers all aspects of life, and finally, if necessary, the strategic objectives, critical to the country [14, p. 350].

Among the main features that characterize totalitarianism as a political regime, are the following:

• centralized management and control in the economy;

• the system overall control over the behavior of individuals in social field;

• recognize the leading role of one party in policy and its implementation dictatorship;

• domination of official ideology in the spiritual realm and the forced imposition of members of society;

• concentration in the hands of the party and the state of the media (press, radio, television, film);

• cult guiding people at all levels, government at all levels is handed by unaccountable people nomenclature administration;

• fusion of party and state apparatus, the control of the executive elected bodies;

• absence of punitive laws and subjugation of society and as result, arbitrary form of state terror and mass arrests.

These features are common to all totalitarian regimes. However people distinguish several varieties of totalitarianism: Communist totalitarianism ("left"), fascism, national socialism ("right").

Communist totalitarianism existed in the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Now in one way or another it exists in Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and China.

Totalitarianism in its communist form was the most tenacious. About a third of mankind lived in totalitarian states to the 80-th of century.

Fascism was first established in Italy in 1922. Here totalitarian features were not fully expressed. Fascist regimes also existed in Spain. Portugal, Chile.

The third kind of totalitarianism – national socialism arises in Germany in 1933. It characterized almost all common features of totalitarianism. National Socialism has an affinity with fascism combines the features of one and another.

The main differences are the main varieties of totalitarianism distinct in their political purposes: building communism, the rebirth of the Roman Empire, the consolidation of world domination Aryan race. They also identified in social preferences: the working class, the descendants of the Romans, Germanic nation [2, c. 158].

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