General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRussia is a totalitarian country, not an authoritarian one, isn't it?
Totalitarianism comes from the word total with the government controlling all aspects of life. There is no freedom of speech in Russia, no freedom of association, no freedom of the press, and the only religions that can be practiced are those religions approved by the state.
Elessar Zappa
(13,650 posts)OAITW r.2.0
(23,862 posts)Russians have been there, done that.
dchill
(38,324 posts)Gore1FL
(21,034 posts)It probably costs less to be authoritarian than totalitarian. Putting the forces in place to really monitor and enforce the "total" can't be cheap.
lastlib
(22,981 posts)When the state suppresses free speech, press, assembly and religion, as well as rights of those accused of crimes against the state, they embody the essence of totalitarianism.
brooklynite
(93,873 posts)There are some opposition media outlets,and social media options to share news and information.
Metaphorical
(1,601 posts)Putin is bad, but remember that millions of Russians died under Stalin. Russia is unraveling, not becoming more authoritarian. Of course, the danger with collapses is that what usually emerges is the most brutal strong man left standing.
moondust
(19,917 posts)But that's pretty much how it's always been in Russia--from the czars to the commies to the current autocracy. The Russian people have long been conditioned to the idea that that's how things work so accept it; that's all many have ever known. That's why I hesitate to blame them too much for Putin. As long as he controls the elections I'm not sure there's much the Russian people can do about him.
Like TFG, I don't think he cares about his country or its people; all that matters is what he wants.
Jerry2144
(2,046 posts)Government by the assholes
TygrBright
(20,733 posts)"Authoritarian" is the description for a heavily-controlling government by a person or people whose will is the source of all direction, enforcement, action, etc.
"Authoritarian" can be an individual, or a group (a junta, an oligarchy, etc.) The key characteristic is that what they want is the operative authority for all power - military, governmental, police/security forces, business operations, even international relations.
And if "what they want" changes, so does what the police crack down on, what the military enforces, how money gets stolen/laundered, what the press is allowed/forced to publicize, etc.
"What they want" can sometimes change rather quickly, and radically, which can be useful, in the sense of being able to respond quickly to changing internal/external conditions. Or it can be problematic, destabilizing conditions and escalating chaos.
"Totalitarian" refers to a heavily-controlling government that is structured by some form of law, constitution, or other form of authority that persists even when the people holding positions of power change. The Soviet Constitution of 1918 and the Soviet Civil Code provided one kind of structure. In Iran and other Muslim theocratic totalitarian systems, the Shari-a law provides another structure.
Neither "authoritarian" nor "totalitarian" is a descriptor of left/right ideology carried to extreme (although that correlation has been - erroneously - made).
Nor are they mutually exclusive.
In fact, they tend to morph into combinations - Imperial Russia was an amalgam of the authoritarian elements of an absolute monarchy but was propped up by the totalitarian elements of its Orthodox Church. After the Soviet Revolution, the Soviet Constitution defined a totalitarian structure but that was mitigated by the personality cult and authoritarian control exercised by Stalin, replaced by an unstable junta-type oligarchy that exercised some authoritarian control on the back of the totalitarian structure.
All extreme-control government models are also to some extent kleptocratic and corrupt, although they may periodically "purge" such elements as power-consolidating or power-transferring mechanisms.
helpfully,
Bright
Silent3
(15,020 posts)...they are mainly used to control who benefits most from the kleptocracy.