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Week 5 Assignment: Essay - Ideal Citizen In A Totalitarian Government
Ideal Citizen in a Totalitarian Government
[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]
Ideal Citizen in a Totalitarian Government
Introduction
Totalitarianism refers to the form of government which constrains the freedom of its subjects. The term was coined by Benito Mussolini who called it 'totalitarian' and meaning all within the state. None outside or against it. Post World war II the word totalitarian became,e synonymous with the absolute use of power through oppression. Totalitarian regimes are authoritative in their nature and are run according to the will of the sovereign governing it. Such regimes take their roots from a propagating a dominant ideology in the people. Totalitarian regimes operate on single-party political system. Adolf Hitler’s Germany before World War II was one such popular form of government in the recent past. In Nazi Germany, the citizens had depreciating liberty of thought and choices in action. The rights and freedoms of citizens were not recognized, demanding total loyalty and by enforcing terror and violence amongst them. The German citizens were secluded and atomized from the rest of the world. Although all these factors diminished their standards of living and attitudes however they still took pride in being the Aryan race executing the Jews believing in serving a cause in this mass movement. Being a good citizen meant obeying the totalitarian regime without questioning it.
Discussion
Controlling citizens in a country
Totalitarian virtually dictates all aspects of the citizen's life from their society to their professional and personal lives. Violence is said to at core of a totalitarian regime CITATION Mag16 \l 1033 (Magstadt, Understanding Politics: IOdeas, Institution and issues, 2016). Violence is used in the form of discrimination, execution, categorization, and genocide to inflict terror amongst the citizens. This induces fear of deviation amongst the citizens and therefore they comply and donot deviate from the rules and regulations. The Nazis created the rule of brutality and intimidation, that the Germans feared to disobey them. They had concentration camps where the undesirables i.e. jews were terrorized and tortured. The surveillance to keep strict on citizens was made by the ‘Gestapo’ which was a secret Nazi Police. In addition to this inclusion of propaganda to address the population to gain desired impressions for them through mass media is also used to control the citizens in the totalitarian regime. Hitler stated that propaganda should address the masses exclusively CITATION Tho16 \l 1033 (Magstadt, Understanding the Ideas; the Politics, Ideas, and Institutions, 2016). The ideology propagating the Nazi Germans was their superior race and all viewpoints criticizing them or against them were eliminated from the media. A large part of controlling citizens opinions and thought process was barred by censorship of media CITATION JHe84 \l 1033 (Herf, 1984). Scapegoating is also used to divert public attention to an absolute evil which shall take the burden of all national misconducts. Nazis used Jews as their scapegoat, by referring to them as lice and insects in the society CITATION Tho161 \l 1033 (Magstadt, Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues, 2016).
Stopping a totalitarian Regime
The totalitarian regimes can be stopped through a number of ways, the most effective are political socialization, civil disobedience, resistance to propaganda and voter apathy.
Political socialization refers the ideals of a political culture where the fundamental values of people are upheld and incorporated by the governing sovereigns, they are most popularly seen in the democratic governmental systems CITATION Tho162 \l 1033 (Magstadt, Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues, 2016). The elected bodies with a democratic system such as the United States of America believe upholding the believes which serve the public better CITATION Mar15 \l 1033 (Iovan, 2015). Civil disobedience takes its roots from political activism which is aimed at raising consciousness amongst the citizens regarding the brutality and oppression of the state. The civil disobedience to gain civil rights by Nelson Mandela. The totalitarianism can be rejected by masses by resisting propagative ideas from taking over their actions and thoughts, such resistance can be as shown by registering of protests and strikes. The ignorance and voters apathy can also encourage totalitarian regimes, the active involvement in voting procedures bring the best outcomes and may crack the totalitarian confidence from public favor.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Herf, J. (1984). The Engineer as Ideologue: Reactionary Modernists in Weimar and Nazi Germany -. Journal of Contemporary History.
Iovan, M. (2015). Political Culture; Political Socialization And Acculturation. Journal for Legal studies.
Magstadt, T. (2016). Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues. In Chapter#6 (p. 135). Wadsworth Publishing; 12th edition.
Magstadt, T. (2016). Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues. In Chapter#10 (p. 290). Wadsworth Publishing; 12th edition.
Magstadt, T. (2016). Understanding Politics: IOdeas, Institution, and issues. In Chapter#6 (p. 133). Wadsworth Publishing; 12th edition.
Magstadt, T. (2016). Understanding the Ideas; the Politics, Ideas, and Institutions. In W. Publishing, & 1. e. edition, Chapter#6 (p. 139). Wadsworth Publishing; 12th edition.
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