Contemporary development and the need for a critical theory of totalitarianism. A provisional sketch.

Authors

  • H. C. F. MANSILLA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/45128

Keywords:

Authoritarianism, civic culture, Hannah Arendt, François Furet, populism, totalitarianism.

Abstract

A critical theory of totalitarianism is necessary because of the permanence of those conditions which produced the «classical» totalitarian regimes. This phenomenon can be also perceived today in some regions of the Third World. A clear distinction between authoritarianism and totalitarianism is useful, in order to analyse further the possibilities of totalitarianism contained in charismatic populism and in the despotic routines of non democratic and antipluralistic cultures. In the Third World and because of a partial modernization process, the pathologies of modernity can be also found, which are distinctive of totalitarianism.

Published

2008-06-11

Issue

Section

ARTICLES