Authoritarianism/Totalitarianism

 Most authoritarian regimes rely on a mix of legitimacy and coercion.

 The tools available to a regime in control of a modern state both to communicate its legitimacy
and to apply coercion far outstrip what was available to historical autocrats
 Authoritarian systems are nondemocratic systems.
 Put another way, authoritarianism is the absence of or limit on polyarchy
 Although the absence of democracy is at the heart of the definition of authoritarianism, it is
important not to equate authoritarianism simply with the absence of elections.
 Elections are used as a tool of legitimation by virtually all regimes, given the almost universal
need to claim to rule on behalf of the people.
 There are many techniques whereby an election or referendum can be manipulated to achieve
the outcome desired by the incumbents or to limit the outcome to a circumscribed range of
possibilities
 A totalitarian regime is one that successfully controls all aspects of society, abolishing the
distinction between public and private, aspiring even to control the most intimate aspects of
individuals’ lives and thoughts
 One objection to the application of the term in political science is that arguably such societies
have not existed historically, even if regimes have aspired to such levels of control
 Some have objected to the term totalitarianism as theoretically empty, for instance on grounds
that it is simply a particular instance along the spectrum of authoritarianism, while others want
to apply it quite widely in recognition of the ambitions of many modern authoritarian regimes,
even if they ultimately fall short of total management of society
 But one of many important contributions to the field by Juan Linz argued for a threefold
distinction between totalitarian, authoritarian, and democratic regimes, arguing that totalitarian
and authoritarian were distinctive types of nondemocratic regimes rather than instances along a
continuum.
 For Linz, the characteristics of authoritarian regimes that distinguished them from totalitarian
regimes were the presence of limited political pluralism and either demobilization of the
population or limited and controlled mobilization.