TOTALITARIANISM AND RATIONALITY

In: American political science review, Band 50, Heft 3, S. 757-763

Abstract

The distinctive quality of totalitarianism is its institutionalized revolutionary zeal. It is this feature which distinguishes it from other dictatorial systems. It can be defined as a system where technologically advanced instruments of pol'al power are wielded without restraint by centralized leadership of an elite movement, for the purpose of effecting a total soc revolution, including the conditioning of man, on the basis of certain arbitrary ideological assumptions proclaimed by the leadership, in an atmosphere of coerced unanimity of the entire pop. The totalitarian qualities of the system manifest themselves some time after the seizure of power, when the regime proceeds to engage in soc engineering according to its ideological predispositions. It is then that some of the 'irrational' aberrations of totalitarianism, such as terror, manifest themselves. Nonetheless, these 'irrational' qualities are not inherent in all phases of totalitarian development & a 'rational' totalitarianism can be conceived, without the 'rational' features produced for instance by technocratic considerations leading inevitably towards a democratic development. The factors which would prevent such an evolution are the party, the ideology & the goal-oriented & centrally directed economy. Furthermore, the pol'al process itself cannot be fully made subject to technocratic rationality. (AA-IPSA). Adapted from the source document.