Totalitarian and authoritarian political regimes, their signs and differences

The concept of authoritarianism was first introduced in the middle of the 20th century by the political scientists of the Frankfurt School. It was understood that authoritarian political regimes represent a combination of features of the social order and, first of all, peculiar relations between the people and the authorities. According to the proposed definition, this form of socio-state structure was in sharp contrast to the notion of true democracy. At the same time, the features of an authoritarian political regime can be observed on the example of many states of the planet of the last century. Not to mention the deeper historical experience of mankind. Signs of an authoritarian political regime

• The concentration of full power in the hands of one person or a small group: the military junta, the sole dictator, the theological leader, and so on.

• The separation of powers into branches independent of each other is, of course, absent.

• In such a state, any real opposition force is often suppressed. However, this does not exclude the possibility of the existence of a demonstrative puppet opposition, as long as the situation is under the control of the authorities. Often, on the part of the authorities themselves, the so-called imitation of elections is initiated - that is, holding an event with all the formal attributes, creating the illusion of fair elections, which in practice have a pre-planned scenario.

• Public administration usually takes the form of command-administrative methods.

• Authoritarian political regimes often declare their own democracy, protect the rights and freedoms of their citizens. However, real protection is not ensured in practice. Moreover, the government itself violates these civil rights in the political sphere.

• Power structures serve to protect not public interests and citizens' rights, but to protect the established order (often acting against their own citizens).

Totalitarian and authoritarian political regimes

It should be noted that authoritarianism of state power is determined on a number of grounds. The absence or coincidence of one of them is not a sufficient basis for conclusions. Often authoritarian political regimes are identified with totalitarianism. And although they have a number of common features, this is not entirely true. Authoritarian power rests on the personality of a leader (or a group of leaders) whose qualities are allowed to usurp and hold it. However, in case of elimination (death) of this leader or ruling group, the authoritarian regime often undergoes a transformation, since heirs can not retain power.

The very concept of totalitarianism implies totality: the universal control of the state of absolutely all spheres of public life. Controlling the processes of socialization of its citizens, a totalitarian state can already inspire the exceptional correctness of its course. This means that there will be no need for harsh repression of citizens raised in the non-alternative ideology imposed by the higher elite. And the personality of the leader is not significant, only the control of the elite over public sentiment is important.