Totalitarian succession fails because knowledge of the power apparatus equals supreme power

Evidence

The absence of a ruling clique has made the question of a successor to the totalitarian dictator especially baffling and troublesome. It is true that this issue has plagued all usurpers, and it is quite characteristic that none of the totalitarian dictators ever tried the old method of establishing a dynasty and appointing their sons. Against Hitler’s numerous and therefore self-defeating appointments stands Stalin’s method, which made the succession one of the most dangerous honors in the Soviet Union. Under totalitarian conditions, knowledge of the labyrinth of transmission belts equals supreme power, and every appointed successor who actually comes to know what is going on is automatically removed after a certain time. A valid and comparatively permanent appointment would indeed presuppose the existence of a clique whose members would share the Leader’s monopoly of knowledge of what is going on, which the Leader must avoid by all means. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 921

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the mechanism by which the Leader’s monopoly on knowledge of transmission belts structurally prevents any legitimate successor from forming.