Hannah Arendt's Totalitarian Government

Totalitarian Governments
(Arendt Views) What is a totalitarian government? Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to it’s authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private live wherever feasible. Totalitarian government is run by a sort of dictator that has immense power over the state and the people who are under him. “A totalitarian society is usually ruled by a dictator, and there is very little or no freedom. In totalitarianism, the government controls almost every aspect of life.” (Wintrobe) Totalitarian government is the strictest most dictated form of government there is. We often identify totalitarian government with communism. Communism has been a topic of issue in the U.S. for quite some time now. Hannah Arendt experienced a totalitarian government first hand when she was
She comments on the “principle of action,” as the twin criteria of organization. She also comments on the difference between “lawful” and “lawless.” “Arendt argues that Western political thought has customarily distinguished between ‘lawful’ and ‘lawless’, or ‘constitutional’ and ‘tyrannical’ forms of government” (Dietz) Arendt reveals that terror is at the core of a totalitarian government and that terror is based on ideology. Arendt uses two types of governments to prove a point; fascist Germany and communist Russia. These governments are very controlling and difficult to live in, like totalitarian governments. She clears up the fact that totalitarian governments are not run by tyranny. She explains that even though it seems as if tyranny could be the only way a government would be run like that, that it wasn’t. Having first hand experiences with a type of totalitarian government makes her arguments very