totalitarianism

[toh-tal-i-tair-ee-uh-niz-uhm]

noun

1. the practices and principles of a totalitarian regime.

2. absolute control by the state or a governing branch of a highly centralized institution.

3. the character or quality of an autocratic or authoritarian individual, group, or government.

   the totalitarianism of the father.

totalitarianism

1. Domination by a government of all political, social, and economic activities in a nation. Totalitarianism is a phenomenon of the twentieth century: earlier forms of despotism and autocracy lacked the technical capacity to control every aspect of life. The term is applied both to fascist governments (see fascism) and to many forms of communism.

Other Word Forms

• totalitarianist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of totalitarianism¹

First recorded in 1920–25; totalitarian + -ism

Example Sentences

Leave it to America, the land of free enterprise if not free speech, to devise a hybrid totalitarianism that outsources the actual implementation of repression to nongovernmental entities.

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George Orwell’s 1939 novel, “Coming Up for Air,” tells the story of an unremarkable suburban London householder who is seized with a feeling of overwhelming dread by the looming terrors of war and totalitarianism.

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And it’s heartening to see him still on the road, laying into what he sees as the creep of totalitarianism every night in his eighth decade of life.

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In a sense, these are true reactionaries, whereas totalitarianism tends to have a revolutionary element.

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“To look at this video and see what happened reeks — reeks — of totalitarianism. This is not what democracies do.”

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Related Words

• authoritarianism www.thesaurus.com
• autocracy 
• despotism 
• tyranny