Totalitarian hierarchy depends on top-down appointment, not elected authority

Evidence

Heiden, op. cit., p. 292, reports the following difference between the first and the following editions of Mein Kampf: The first edition proposes the election of party officials who only after their election are vested with “unlimited power and authority”; all following editions establish appointment of party officials from above by the next higher leader. Naturally, for the stability of totalitarian regimes the appointment from above is a much more important principle than the “unlimited authority” of the appointed official. In practice, the subleaders’ authority was decisively limited through the Leader’s absolute sovereignty. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2656

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the scaffolding concept of how modern bureaucratic hierarchy inscribes loyalty downward rather than accountability upward. — connects to: Federal selection of leaders distorts how whole nations make their decisions — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 183