Totalitarianism concentrates state powers in ways traditional despotism could not

Evidence

Totalitarianism is distinct from traditional despotism, but is all the more frightening as a result. Totalitarian rule connects political, military, and ideological power in more concentrated form than was ever possible before the emergence of modern nation-states. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 31

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Totalitarianism is inherently, not just contingently, connected to modernity — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 401; Liberal ideas evolved into totalitarianism through logical stages governed by external circumstances and emotions. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2337; Rousseau’s general-will system inevitably yields totalitarianism — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2535 (+12 more)

Related

• Totalitarian government differs categorically from dictatorship and tyranny (similarity 0.89)
• Tyranny is dissolved by predictability or by independent overriding power (similarity 0.89)
• Gramsci’s ‘totalitarian intelligentsia’ means a unified, all-absorbing intellectual stratum, not a despotism (similarity 0.87)
• The despotism analogy for totalitarian police applies only in early rule (similarity 0.87)
• Rousseau’s general-will system inevitably yields totalitarianism (similarity 0.86)
• Totalitarianism introduces unprecedented concepts of power and reality (similarity 0.86)
• Totalitarian parties absorb the Crown’s arbitrating function. (similarity 0.85)
• Totalitarianism is inherently, not just contingently, connected to modernity (similarity 0.85)
• Totalitarian domination cannot be derived from one-party systems (similarity 0.85)
• Totalitarianism works through manipulated needs, not terror (similarity 0.82)
• Totalitarian movements subordinate the nation’s institutions to the movement itself (similarity 0.82)
• Imperialism’s global politics supplied the preconditions for totalitarian rule (similarity 0.82)
• Totalitarianism transforms classes into masses and creates entirely new political institutions (similarity 0.82)
• Totalitarianism expresses rather than repudiates Enlightenment’s inherent dynamic. (similarity 0.82)
• Marcuse’s dialectical method treated totalitarianism as both reaction and continuation of liberalism (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Totalitarianism is inherently, not just contingently, connected to modernity #expands (0.75) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 401
• Rousseau’s general-will system inevitably yields totalitarianism #exemplifies (0.60) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2535
• Liberal ideas evolved into totalitarianism through logical stages governed by external circumstances and emotions. #expands (0.55) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2337