schooling, jobs, residence, and IDEOLOGY. The state
imposes a single value system on every citizen (MARX-
ISM-LENINISM, Fascism) and abolishes any independent
groups, businesses, clubs, or associations. Everything
in society is somehow tied to the state, and loyalty is
enforced through domestic spies, secret police, torture,
prison, and executions. Fear and desperation charac-
terize totalitarian societies, and individual FREEDOM
and free association are eliminated. It is contrasted
with DEMOCRACYand CAPITALISM.
Leading writers on totalitarianism include Karl POP-
PER, Hannah ARENDT, and Jean-François Revel. Critics
of totalitarian regimes tend to be CONSERVATIVE, LAISSEZ-
FAIRE, and LIBERTARIANthinkers. Liberal COMMUNITARI-
ANSsuch as Benjamin BARBERtend to see discussions of
totalitarianism as a simple expression of cold-war
resistence to communism by the Western democracies.
In the 1980s, U.S. President Ronald REAGAN
adopted Jeane Kirkpatrick’s distinction between RIGHT-
WINGauthoritarian governments and LEFT-WINGtotali-
tarian states. This allowed U.S. foreign policy to assist
various conservative dictatorships (especially in Latin
America) in opposing SOCIALISTregimes (such as Cuba
and Nicaragua). The U.S. rationale for this was that
Rightist states allowed a measure of autonomy and
freedom (in business, religion, cultural and family
life), while totalitarian states strictly controlled every-
thing.
The strict regulation of individual and social life by
totalitarian states bred despair and frustration in Nazi
and Soviet countries. Widespread dissatisfaction, alco-
holism, emigration, and lack of productivity led to the
destruction of these totalitarian realms. Since the
demise of fascism and Soviet communism, most of the
world recognizes the danger of centralized, concen-
trated governmental power and seeks to preserve, by
constitutional means, individual rights and freedom,
LIBERTYof association, intermediate social groups, and
private PROPERTY. But one effect of totalitarian rule has
been to make the people living under it incapable of
independence and self-government. The difficulty of
the former Soviet countries’ transition to democracy
and their tendency to return to ABSOLUTIST politics
show that the consequences of totalitarianism take a
long time to overcome.
Further Readings
Arendt, H. The Origins of Totalitarianism,2nd ed. New York:
Meridian Books, 1958.
Revel, J.-F. The Totalitarian Temptation.Garden City, N.Y.: Dou-
bleday, 1976.
tradition/traditional
The political, social, and religious values, practices,
and institutions of the past. Concern with historical
traditions and their value emerged in 18th-century
political theory and is associated with such CONSERVA-
TIVEthinkers as Edmund BURKE. It is partly a response
to the MODERNdestruction of MEDIEVALculture (MONAR-
CHY, FEUDALISM, HIERARCHY, CATHOLIC Christianity) by
DEMOCRACY, CAPITALISM, INDUSTRIALISM, and Protestant
Christianity. Traditional thinkers seek to justify and
preserve the good and valuable qualities of the past
Western civilization (classical education, art, music,
manners, etc.). Traditionalism tends, therefore, to be
aristocratic, antitechnology, and critical of innovation.
The rise of traditionalism is discussed in Burke
(Britain versus the French Revolution); Karl MARX
(feudalism versus capitalism); Max WEBER (rational
versus traditional); and Alexis de TOCQUEVILLE(tradi-
tional versus democratic).
Although most conservative theorists have a nostal-
gic, ROMANTICview of past traditions, Modern liberal
and SOCIALISTthinkers regard history as PROGRESSIVE
and, therefore, new things to be superior to traditions.
Early Moderns (as in the ENLIGHTENMENT) had con-
tempt and hatred of the past as oppressive, ignorant,
and impoverished. Tradition, then, has been both
praised and condemned in political thought; as a rally-
ing point for NATIONALISMand PATRIOTISM, however, it
has often been employed during times of crisis and war.
PLATOmaintains (in The Republic) that a society
must carefully preserve and transmit its best traditions
through education. RENAISSANCEthinker MACHIAVELLI
advises leaders to use and manipulate traditions to
secure their power and position. Edmund Burke, the
archetypical Modern British traditionalist, sees the
preservation of the best in Western civilization as
dependent on the respect given tradition (especially
LAW, religion, the aristocracy, CLASSICALlearning, and
property).
Contemporary democratic INDIVIDUALISM tends to
wish to choose its traditions, which diminish their
force, uniformity, and influence.Trotsky, Leon (1879–1940) Russian Marxist
philosopher and revolutionary
One of the leaders of the Soviet COMMUNISTRevolution
of 1917, along with V.I. LENINand Joseph STALIN, Trot-
sky is best known for his theory of uneven develop-296 tradition/traditional