Totalitarianism

Definitions

A system of government in which the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control, for example, a dictatorship.

countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“And if it is true that in the final stages of totalitarianism an absolute evil appears (absolute because it can no longer be deduced from humanly comprehensible motives), it is also true that without it we might never have⟳ known the truly radical nature of Evil.”

“The film Repentance caused a sensation across the Soviet Union not only because it publicly condemned the evil of totalitarianism but also because it encouraged tens of thousands of Soviet people to reflect⟳ upon the source and root cause of the evil.[…]”

“Mr. Yudin argues that Russia is moving out of authoritarianism – where political passivity and civic disengagement are key features – into totalitarianism, which relies on mass mobilization, terror and homogeneity of beliefs.”

CEFR level