Duplicated secret services let totalitarian power keep contradictory options open

Evidence

One of the reasons for the duplication of secret services whose agents are unknown to each other is that total domination needs the most extreme flexibility: to use our example, Moscow may not yet know, when it gives its order for pipes, whether it wants pipes—which are always needed—or a purge. Multiplication of secret services makes last-minute changes possible, so that one branch may be preparing to bestow the Order of Lenin on the director of the factory while another makes arrangements for his arrest. The efficiency of the police consists in the fact that such contradictory assignments can be prepared simultaneously. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 954

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the mechanism of duplicated secret services as a means of preserving extreme flexibility under total domination.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 954
• XREF: connects to: Totalitarian regimes duplicate every state function with a parallel party organ; Power holders can deliberately manufacture distrust conditions to secure control; Totalitarian secret police lose autonomy and become wholly dependent on the Leader — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 952 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Totalitarian regimes duplicate every state function with a parallel party organ #expands (0.85)
• Confused hierarchies make totalitarian rule shock-proof and command-certain #expands (0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 922
• Power holders can deliberately manufacture distrust conditions to secure control #expands (0.80)
• Totalitarianism emerges when a conspiracy sector escapes party control #complicates (0.78) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 874
• Totalitarian secret police lose autonomy and become wholly dependent on the Leader #complicates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 952