Question

Provide an overview of totalitarianism, socialism and democracy

Answer 1

Totalitarianism is a political concept of a system of government that forbids opposition parties, restricts individual opposition to the state and its arguments, and maintains extremely high power over public and private life. It is considered to be the most severe and full type of authoritarism. A dictator who uses all-encompassing propaganda campaigns transmitted by state-controlled mass media has often retained political power in totalitarian states by statute. Totalitarian regimes are often characterized by political repression, complete lack of democracy, personality culture, economic control, speech restriction, mass surveillance, and widespread use of state terrorism. Other aspects of a totalitarian regime include the use of concentration camps, repressive secret police, religious persecution or state atheism, common practice of capital punishment, possibility of possession of WMD, unfair elections (if they occur), and the possibility of a mass murder committed by the state.

Democracy is a political science and political theory. It states that, by means of a popular vote, almost all or every person in a nation state is eligible to engage in the nation's political machinations through the representatives elected by them to government offices. The government and its leaders are thus accountable to the people who voted in favor of them. Modern Democracy also incorporates the principle of power separation between the president(executive), the parliament(legislative) and the court(judicial) so that no single body can do what it wants.

On the other hand, communism is an economic concept. This promotes the distribution of the means of production among all the people in a society to encourage greater income and social equality. This developed as the anti-thesis to capitalism which states that in the hands of private individuals, capital or the means of production must rest. Some of the economic policies of those who advocate socialism are: reduction of private ownership, increased production of goods and services by state-owned monopolies, increased social welfare from government coffers for those who need it, increased taxation (income, wealth, inheritance, consumption), increased government intervention in the free market, etc. The radical forms of socialism are called communism, which promotes a revolution against the existing government to create a world where the people can conquer the state and actively enforce socialist policies. The milder types support quick adoption of policies by government legislation and training.