Looking back at history indicates that it was not used as a critical judgement on a government, and was probably first used in the earlier years of Italian Fascist rule to describe a comprehensive socio-political system.
It was defined more fully in the post 1945 Cold War period by Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski in Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (1956). Their theoretical model, derived from the history of the 20th Century, had 6 key features:
- An official ideology to which general adherence was demanded, the ideology intended to achieve a "perfect final state of mankind"
- A single mass party, hierarchically organised and closely interwoven with the state bureaucracy and typically led by one man.
- Monopolistic control of the armed forces
- A similar monopoly of the means of effective mass communication
- A system of terroristic police control
- Central control and direction of the entire economy
The government of Nazi Germany was a fascist, totalitarian state. Fascism is a form of right-wing totalitarianism which emphasises the subordination of the individual to advance the interests of the state. Nazi's fascism ideology included a racial theory against the Jews. There was extreme nationalism which called for the unification of all German-speaking people, the use of primary paramilitary organisations to stop dissent and terrorize opposition, and the centralisation of decision-making by, and loyalty to, a single leader.
Totalitarian regimes, due to technology and mass communication, has made it so that everything is subject to control: Economy, politics, religion, culture, philosophy, science, history and sport.
A totalitarian state was a fully mobilized society, constantly moving towards a goal, but as soon as one goal was reached, it was replaced by another, such as Stalin's Russia. During the Five Year Plan to build up the Soviet Union, another Five Year Plan was announced.
Stalinist society did feature an existence of brutal and unrestrained police terrorism. They were first used against the Kulaks, and terror was increasingly used against party members, administrators and ordinary people. Some were victims for deviating from the party line.
3 years after Stalin died, Krushchev's secret speech was held, illuminating the terror, criminality and totalitarian regime of Stalin. He was also accused of mass murder and genocide of the Kulaks.
Sources
www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture10.htm
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