"Totalitarian democracy" is a term coined by Israeli historian J. L. Talmon to refer to a system of government in which lawfully elected representatives maintain the integrity of a nation state whose citizens, while granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process of the government. Jacob Leib Talmon (1916-1980) was an Israeli historian in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that studied the Modern Age, especially the French Revolution. ... A legislature is a governmental deliberative body with the power to adopt laws. ... The term nation-state, while often used interchangeably with the terms unitary state and independent state, refers properly to the parallel occurence of a state and a nation. ... Citizenship is membership in a political community (originally a city but now a state), and carries with it rights to political participation; a person having such membership is a citizen. ... Voters at the voting booths in the United States in 1945. ... Participation in political science and theory of management is an umbrella term including different means for the public to directly participate in political, economical or management decisions. ...

Criticism of Rousseau's ideas

Talmon's 1952 book The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, which discusses the transformation of a state in which traditional values and articles of faith shape the role of government into one in which social utility takes absolute precedence. His work is a criticism of the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a French philosopher whose ideas influenced the French Revolution. In The Social Contract, Rousseau contends that the interests of the individual and the state are one and the same, and it is the state's responsibility to implement the general will. A tradition is a story or a custom that is memorized and passed down from generation to generation, originally without the need for a writing system. ... This article discusses faith in a religious context. ... A critic (derived from the ancient Greek word krites meaning a judge) is a person who offers a value judgement or an interpretation. ... Jean Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 – July 2, 1778) was a Franco-Swiss philosopher, writer, political theorist, and self-taught composer of The Age of Enlightenment. ... A philosopher is a person devoted to studying and producing results in philosophy. ... The period of the French Revolution is very important in the history of France and the world. ...

The political neologism messianic democracy also derives from Talmon's introduction to this work: A political neologism is a newly coined term (neologism) for political use, to craft the public view of policy or social agenda in language that appeals most to a current political culture. ... Messianic democracy is a neologism originally used by Jacob Talmon is his book Origins of Totalitarian Democracy (1951) to describe the democracy by force doctrines of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and its philosophical decendents, as an effective tyranny that demotes democratic principle to rhetorical use only. ...

Indeed, from the vantage point of the mid twentieth century the history of the last hundred and fifty years looks like a systematic preparation for the headlong collision between empirical and liberal democracy on the one hand, and totalitarian Messianic democracy on the other, in which the world crisis of to-day consists. [1]

In a similar vein, Herbert Marcuse, in his 1964 book One-Dimensional Man, describes a society in which, in his words, "…liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination. … Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves." Herbert Marcuse Herbert Marcuse (July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a prominent German-American philosopher and sociologist of Jewish descent, member of the Frankfurt School. ... One-Dimensional Man is a work by Herbert Marcuse, first published in 1964. ...

Differences in democratic philosophy

The philosophy of totalitarian democracy, according to Talmon, is based on a top-down view of society, which sees an absolute and perfect political truth to which all reasonable humans are driven. It is contended that not only is it beyond the individual to arrive at this truth independently, it is his duty and responsibility to aid his compatriots in realizing it. Moreover, any public or private activities which do not forward this goal have no useful purpose, sap time and energy from those which do, and must be eliminated. Thus economic and social endeavors, which tend to strengthen the collective, are seen as valuable, whereas education and religion, which tend to strengthen the individual, are seen as counterproductive. "You cannot be a citizen and a Christian at the same time," says Talmon, referring to Rousseau's arguments, "for the loyalties clash." The term philosophy derives from a combination of the Greek words philos meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom. ... Totalitarianism is a typology employed by political scientists to describe modern regimes in which the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior. ... When someone sincerely agrees with an assertion, they are claiming that it is the truth. ... Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ... // Latin root meaning The term social is derived from the Latin word socius, which as a noun means an associate, ally, companion, business partner or comrade and in the adjectival form socialis refers to a bond between people (such as marriage) or to their collective or connected existence. ...

In his paper Advances in Chinese Social Sciences (2001), Mao Shoulong, a professor of Public Policy at Beijing University, takes a different position. He posits that "totalitarian democracy", or what he terms equality-oriented democracy, is founded on the idea that it is possible, and necessary, that the complete rights and freedoms of people ought not be held hostage to traditions and social arrangements. Shoulong recognises that the term "totalitarian" has a connotation attached to it, coined as it was by Benito Mussolini, the Second World War Italian dictator, to describe his own fascist government. He sees the proponents of liberal democracy (or "Western" democracy) as holding a negative attitude to the world and believing that force is not an appropriate way to achieve a goal no matter the value of that goal. He prefers the term freedom-oriented democracy to describe such a political entity. Peking University 博学审问慎思明辨 Peking University or Beijing University (pinyin Běijīng Dàxué), colloquially Beida (北大, pinyin běidà), is one of the most prestigious universities in China. ... Benito Mussolini created a fascist state through the use of propaganda, total control of the media and disassembly of the working democratic government. ... Dictator was the title of a magistrate in ancient Rome appointed by the Senate to rule the state in times of emergency. ... Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy where elected representatives that hold the decision power are moderated by a constitution that emphasizes protecting individual liberties and the rights of minorities in society (also called constitutional liberalism), such as freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, the right to...

Fundamental requirements

A totalitarian democracy, says Talmon, accepts exclusive territorial sovereignty as its right. It retains full power of expropriation and full power of imposition, i.e., the right of control over everything and everyone. Maintenance of such power, in the absence of full support of the citizenry, requires the forceful suppression of any dissenting element except that which the government purposefully permits or organizes. Liberal democrats, who see political strength as growing from the bottom up (cf: "grass roots"), reject in principle the idea of coercion in shaping political will, but the totalitarian democratic state holds it as an ongoing imperative. Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise supreme authority over a geographic region, group of people, or oneself. ... In law, eminent domain is the power of the state to appropriate private property for its own use without the owners consent. ... For the political magazine, see Dissent Magazine For the G8 protest group, see Dissent (network) Dissent is the sentiment of non-agreement with the majority, or the leader, of a group to which the dissenter is supposed to belong or to obey. ... Liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy where elected representatives that hold the decision power are moderated by a constitution that emphasizes protecting individual liberties and the rights of minorities in society, such as freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, the right to private property and privacy... Grassroots democracy is the political processes which are driven by groups of ordinary citizens, as opposed to larger organisations or wealthy individuals with concentrated vested interests in particular policies. ... Coercion is the practice of compelling a person to act by employing threat of harm (usually physical force, sometimes other forms of harm). ... Imperative programming, as opposed to functional programming, is a sort of programming employing side-effect as central execution feature. ...

A totalitarian democratic state is said to maximize its control over the lives of its citizens, using the dual rationale of general will (i.e., "public good") and majority rule. An argument can be made that in some circumstances it is actually the political, economic, and military élite who interpret the general will to suit their own interests. Again, however, it is the imperative of achieving the overarching goal of a political nirvana that shapes the vision of the process, and the citizen is expected to contribute to the best of his abilities; the general is not asked to guide the plow, nor is the farmer asked to lead the troops. Majoritarianism (often also called majority rule) is a political philosophy or agenda which asserts that a majority (sometimes categorized by religion, language or some other identifying factor) of the population is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in society, and has the right to make decisions that affect the... The Elections and Parties Series Democracy Liberal democracy History of democracy Referenda Representative democracy Representation Voting Voting systems Elections Elections by country Elections by calender Electoral systems Politics Politics by country Political campaigns Political science Political philosophy Related topics Political parties Parties by country Parties by name Parties by ideology... Economics (from the Greek οίκος [oikos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules, hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ... In sociology as in general usage, the élite (the elect, from French) is a relatively small dominant group within a larger society, which enjoys a privileged status which is upheld by individuals of lower social status within the structure of a group. ...

t can approach the condition of totalitarianism; totalitarian states can also approach the condition of democracy, or at least majoritarianism. Citizens of a totalitarian democratic state, even when aware of their true powerlessness, may support their government. The Nazi government that led Germany into World War II appears to have had the support of the majority of Germans, and this view holds that it was not until much later, after Germany's losses began to mount, that support for Hitler began to fade. Josef Stalin was practically worshipped by hundreds of millions of Soviet citizens, many of whom have not changed their opinion even today, and his status ensured his economic and political reforms would be carried out. The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (over 11 miles) into the air, August 9, 1945 after the Allied atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... Joseph Stalin Iosif (Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 18791 – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a political leader in the Soviet Union. ...

Cold War and socio-economic illustrations

The period of the Cold War following WWII saw great ideological polarization between the so-called "Free World" and the Communist states. Yet the irony was, and is, that both Eastern and Western governments were faced with the same barriers in achieving their objectives - the objections of their own citizens. In the East, religious and intellectual repression was met with increasing resistance, and the Hungarian revolt of 1956 and Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring in 1968 are two well-known acts of defiance. In the United States, in the meantime, alleged Communists and Communist sympathizers were being investigated by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Shortly after the time of Talmon's book, the Vietnam War would bring active hostility between the American government and many of its citizens. For the generic term for a high-tension rivalry between countries, see cold war (war). ... German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... An ideology is a collection of ideas. ... This article treats polarization in electrodynamics. ... The Free World is a Cold War-era term used by non-communist nations to describe themselves. ... A Communist state is a state governed by a single political party which declares its allegiance to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. ... The Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság   listen?) or Hungary (Magyarország   listen?) is a landlocked country in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. ... Alexander Dubček Alexander Dubček (November 27, 1921 – November 7, 1992) was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia (1968-1969). ... Czechs in a café watch Soviet tanks roll past The Prague Spring (Czech, Pražské jaro) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5, 1968, and running until August 20 of that year when the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies (except for Romania) invaded the country. ... Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician of the Democratic Party and later of the Republican Party. ... The Vietnam War was fought from 1957 to 1975 between Soviet and Chinese-supported Vietnamese nationalist and Communist forces and an array of Western and pro-Western forces, most notably the United States. ...

One concept fundamental to both "liberal" and "totalitarian" democracy is that of liberty. According to Talmon, totalitarian democracy sees freedom as something which can be achieved only in the long term, and only through collective effort; the political goal of ultimate order and ultimate harmony will bring ultimate freedom. In addressing every aspect of the lives of its citizens, the totalitarian democratic state has the power to ensure that all material needs are met from cradle to grave, and all that is required of the citizen is to carry out his role, whatever it may be, to the best of his ability. Liberal democracy, on the other hand, posits freedom as something which can and should be achieved by the individual in the short term, even at the expense of things such as material well-being, and sees as an element of this freedom a "freedom from government" wherein the individual is able to exercise "freedom" in his own terms to the extent that they do not contravene the law. Proponents of both kinds of democracy argue that their particular approach is the best one for the citizens of their respective countries. Liberty is generally thought of in English as a condition in which an individual has immunity from the arbitrary exercise of authority; it often also implies the right to exercise political rights such as standing for office. ...

It is Mao Shoulong's contention that "equality-oriented democracy recognises the value of freedom but holds that (it) can't be attained by individual efforts," but rather, by collective efforts. He argues that while equality-oriented democracy stresses the value of equality over individual freedoms, the reverse is true for freedom-oriented democracy, and in each case, the state will move either to ensure equality by limiting individual freedom, or to ensure individual freedom by giving up equality. Some critics of this view may argue that equality and individual freedoms are inseparable, and that one cannot exist (or be sustained) without the other. Other critics argue that equality can only be ensured by continuous coercion, while ensuring individual freedom only requires force against coercive individuals and external states.

Shoulong also holds that a law is not valid if it does not have the approval of the public. Laws passed by the state do not require approval by the citizen on a case-by-case basis, and it can be easily argued that some laws currently in place in some countries purporting to be liberal democracies do not have the approval of the majority of citizens. Cynics frequently note that in many so-called democracies, individuals are politically free only once every two or four years, when they vote for their representatives.

Modern contexts and Western powers

It would be unproductive to permanently consign modern governments to boxes labelled either "liberal" or "totalitarian," for most governments can be found someplace between, and most, moreover, have either subtly or dramatically shifted positions over the decades. Instead governments should be placed on a continuous spectrum from liberal to totalitarian, with careful documentation of the point in time for any particular consignment. For example, at the beginning of the 20th Century, most Western nations did not have universal suffrage. One needs only to examine who was allowed to vote. In the U.K., for example, fully half the population was disenfranchised until 1930, when women were finally able to vote. In many parts of the United States, it was not until 1920 that white women were granted the right to cast a ballot, and while the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution had nominally granted the vote regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude", the Jim Crow laws effectively denied the vote to African Americans in the U.S. South and it was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that they had an effective means to exercise their franchise. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Universal suffrage (also general suffrage or common suffrage) consists of the extension of suffrage, or the right to vote, to all adults, without distinction as to race, sex, belief or social status. ... UK redirects here. ... Contemporary drawing depicting the first vote by African-Americans Amendment XV (the Fifteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War, Reconstruction amendments. ... Page I of the Constitution of the United States of America Page II of the United States Constitution Page III of the United States Constitution Page IV of the United States Constitution The Syng inkstand, with which the Constitution was signed The Constitution of the United States is the supreme... A depiction of T.D. Rices Jim Crow In the United States, the so-called Jim Crow laws were made to enforce racial segregation, and included laws that would prevent African Americans from doing things that a white person could do. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... The United States Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed requiring would-be voters to take literacy tests and provided for federal registration of African American voters in areas that had less than 50% of eligible voters registered. ...

Moreover, a different aspect of 'totalitarian democracy' is portrayed by powerful states that function by democratic principles internally, but act with force and hegemony outside their borders. Both the former Soviet Union and the United States have enjoyed so-called "superpower" status and both have had a long, well-documented history of acting both overtly and covertly outside of their borders to "protect the national interest". The United States espouses and prescribes the adoption of its own internal democratic principles by other nations. But even should all nations develop and embrace standardized democratic principles and practices, some academics think that because whatever nation has the military or economic capacity to set expectations for the behaviors of other nations has historically chosen to do so, modern democracies will continue to do so in the future. This is a rather common external interpretation of American policy, a view which holds that America's Dulles-Kennan-influenced social, military, and economic foreign policies are equivalent to hegemony, and bear no relationship to the internal democratic processes by which the US elects its representatives. A superpower is a state with the ability to influence events or project power on a global scale. ... John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (February 2, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American statesman who served as Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 - 1959. ... George Kennan in the 1940s George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005), advisor, diplomat, political analyst, and historian, was best known as the father of containment and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War. ... Hegemony is the dominance of one group over other groups, with or without the threat of force, to the extent that, for instance, the dominant party can dictate the terms of trade to its advantage; more broadly, cultural perspectives become skewed to favor the dominant group. ...

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, few Western governments would deny the label of liberal democracy, and in many respects, it is a fair analysis. Governments are more open and responsive to the concerns of their citizenry than has traditionally been the case.

At the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, the ubiquity of the mass media, and in particular, its immediacy and visual power, have been influential in shaping political policy in nations around the world. Modern nations, whether they like it or not, have become more accountable, not just to the rest of the world, but to their own citizens for their actions, and it has become increasingly difficult to get away with objectionable behavior such as the 1991 Kurdish massacre in Iraq.

See also

• List of democracy and elections-related topics
• Bicameralism
• consensus
• J. L. Talmon

Politics is the process and method of gaining or maintaining support for public or common action: the conduct of decision-making for groups. ... In government, bicameralism is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. ... Consensus has two common meanings. ... Jacob Leib Talmon (1916-1980) was an Israeli historian in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that studied the Modern Age, especially the French Revolution. ...

External links

• Extensive excerpts from Talmon's The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy
• Paradigm: from totalitarian democracy to libertarian polyarchy
• Criticizing Totalitarian Democracy: Herbert Marcuse and Alexis de Tocqueville (Zvi Tauber)