Authoritarianism is a form of government that has a strong central power. This strong central leader is sometimes one person or it can also be a small group of people. Authoritarianism also limits people’s freedom. Authoritarianism originated in Europe in the 15th century AD. Authoritarianism was more prominent 100 years ago than today. Authoritarianism is often used as an excuse to correct problems that some people might think a society has. For example, an argument for an authoritarian rule could be because there is a lot of terrorism happening in a country or area. Authoritarianism is often short-sighted, while it may be good for the short term it may have long lasting damaging effects on a country. Authoritarianism has a strong …show more content…
In addition to this, the Authoritarian governments can be greedy and self-centered. Authoritarianism also limits people's freedom of their choice and people aren’t allowed to protest the current laws with the hope of changing them. Times and situations can change, and the authoritarian governments aren’t likely to change with them. Authoritarianism doesn’t take into account the will of most people, it usually only is for the few who are have power. These types of governments are hard towards their peopel and limit the free thought and new ideas. Civil liberties are also limited under authoritarianism. Civil liberties are the rights that are afforded to all of the citizens. Authoritarianism is usually based on authority and tradition, not on knowledge of the logic and reason. Power is taken away from the people and majority does not decide things. Authoritarianism assumes that certain people know better than others, however, if all people are supposed to be created equal this is not the case. With authoritarianism, there is often no limit to how long a person is in power, unlike democracy in America where there are term limits. Change of authority in authoritarianism is often not a peaceful process. Changing power can requires taking it by force by a rebellion of people instead of a peaceful change that we usually have in America today. Authoritarianism can …show more content…
This same idea shows up in the book A Separate Peace. Finny and Gene are friends, but Finny could be viewed as the authoritarian ruler between the two. In Gene’s view Finny is at a higher level than Gene. Finny is better at everything like sports and school. But after Gene caused Finny’s fall, both Gene and Finny are now on a level playing field, more like how a democracy is supposed to work - all people created equal. Some might say that Gene secretely wanted Finny to fall so that he was not as good at sports anymore. Also, even though Gene and Finny are friends, there is a hidden jealousy or hate of Gene towards Finny, much like how authoritarianism is often built on hate, envy or jealousy. Finny also acts like an authoritarian because he always thinks that people agrees with him and wants to do what he does mostly. Another character that could be authoritarian is Brinker Hadley could also be viewed as authoritarian. Bradley is similar to Fin and has opinions on things and how they should be done and he likes law and order, just like authoritarians do. Law and order is usually good but most people should agree on the laws or have the power to change the laws when they don’t
In addition, they are also hostile and punitive in their attitudes towards people who do not adhere to them. Authoritarian right’s members want society and social interactions develop in ways that increase uniformity. Therefore, they support social control and coercion. Moreover, they use the group authority to place constraints on the behaviors of people. The Authoritarian right’s members are characterized by obedience to authority and punish towards
Authoritarianism could be fascist, communist, or militaristic; all emphasized nationalism to some degree. It, too, emerged from the Great Depression but with an aggressive military expansion and a string leadership. This ideology developed in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, communistic Soviet Union, and militaristic Japan. Short term, it was successful; however, it was not successful long
Totalitarianism can be defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the centralized control by an autocratic authority. The leaders of these societies are obsessed with complete control and will take whatever steps are necessary to reach such a goal. In many totalitarian societies, children are separated from their families. This is enforced on the citizens because rulers want them to be loyal to the government. Such living arrangements can be portrayed in Ayn Rand’s novel, Anthem.
Imagine living in a world of complete rejection of liberal ideas and absolute conformity. Citizens of this world do not have the freedom to choose their occupation. In fact, these citizens have no rights. They cannot speak freely, they do not enjoy any personal freedoms or privacy, and the media is aggressively censored. This is the world of George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. The protagonist of Fahrenheit 451 is Guy Montag, and he is a fireman. His job is to destroy books completely by setting fire to them. Winston Smith is the main character in 1984, where he works as a civil servant in the lower class ruling party. Both of these men become entranced with the past and how life was before a totalitarian government. This fascination gives rise to a rebellion inside both men. Both societies that are revealed in these books face loss of freedoms, and are very highly controlled. The loss of personal freedoms allows a totalitarian government to instill loyalty in its citizens by using propaganda to condition the thinking of the citizens, stealing away the privacy of individuals, subjecting them to poverty, and constant fear of punishment as demonstrated by the novels Fahrenheit 451 and 1984.
An authoritarian leader is a leader is someone who doesn’t take input from the group, but makes decisions based on what they think is best for the group. One of the many authoritarian leaders in this movie is Julius because he was telling everyone on the bus ride to camp to shut up. Another example that Julius is authoritarian is when Gary asks about Julius’s family so they don’t have to keep doing three a day practices Julius decided to not talk about his family because he knew Gary didn’t really want to know about him and just wanted to not have to do practices. He also still put a poster up in his room he shared with Gary during camp even though Gary told him to take it down. Another authoritarian leader is Gary because he had the team huddle up at practice and he
A totalitarian government is place that no person should ever be forced to live in because this type of government controls almost every aspect of its citizens’ lives. The dictators controlling these kinds of government’s take away people’s basic human rights, brainwash kids into showing no loyalty towards their families, and imprison or execute all who might be a remote threat to their party. The government then controls the remaining population with the fear of being arrested by secret state police regardless if they have committed, or planned to commit, a crime. The leaders of these societies have no regard for the wellbeing of anybody but themselves, and once they come to power, it is usually too late to stop what happens next.
Intolerance of Authority Versus Individual Freedom and Integrity. “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller is a play, about the Salem Witch. Trials. The.
I believe a totalitarian dictator must attempt to control every aspect. of life for the people of the nation also dictate as a single party. and only one ruler, they should also have full control over aspects. such as the media and what gets into papers; on the television and on the radio. the radio, the education system and the way the new generation is.
The repression used in authoritarian regimes is defined as “actual or threatened use of physical sanctions against an individual or organization, within the territorial jurisdiction of the state, for the purpose of imposing a cost on the target as well as deterring specific activities” (Gerschewski, 2012)) . Repression is defiantly seen as the defining feature of autocracies but again alone like legitimation, an authotarian regime would fail. There are 2 types of repression, one is hard repression which is the use of force for example being put into jail for political reasons and the second type is soft repression which is non-violent for example censoring a newspaper. Both these types of repressions are used in China and Iran. (Lecture notes) China has defiantly used hard repression throughout the years and there is many examples of this. 25 years ago, the Chinese regime shot unarmed pro-democracy protesters and 5 years ago an activist jailed for 11 years protesting for civil rights. The CCP use repression to maintain their reign in government and use these activists as examples of what will happen if people go against the government. As social demands are being repressed it is probably right to say that china will soon overcome this regime and democratize, showing the durability of this regime will crash at some point. (Nathan, 2014) It is also seen that China uses soft repression, the censorship of the internet is used in china.
Time and time again, humanity has seen the rise and fall of totalitarian ruling bodies. From ancient empires to modern dictatorships, a pattern of cyclical ascent and decay of totalitarianism emerges. What is it about such autocracies that inevitably cause them to collapse? In theory, the ability of a ruling body to control all aspects of its citizens’ lives is the optimal method of maintaining power. However, as depicted in the novels 1984, Animal Farm, and Fahrenheit 451, it is extremely unrealistic to successfully uphold totalitarian rule over a long period of time.
In modern history, there have been some governments, which have successfully, and others unsuccessfully carried out a totalitarian state. A totalitarian state is one in which a single ideology is existent and addresses all aspects of life and outlines means to attain the final goal, government is ran by a single mass party through which the people are mobilized to muster energy and support. In a totalitarian state, the party leadership maintains monopoly control over the governmental system, which includes the police, military,
Freedom and equality are intertwined with one another. Freedom is defined as the custom of being free, political independence, and the possession of civil rights. When reflecting upon the history of the twentieth century many people all over the world were not afforded the luxury of being born with freedom or born with equal rights. In most cases, those people were often oppressed or subjugated by various forms of systematic state sponsored authoritarianism and terror. In order to receive the freedom necessary to survive and the equality required to live a happy and successful life the oppressed people had to take action. Often times the action took on various forms such as, revolts or nonviolent campaigns. Because the governments reliance on authoritarianism and terror to control their citizens, often times revolts and/or nonviolent campaigns were the consequence. Therefore, any advances towards gaining freedom and equality cannot happen without some form of systematic state-sponsored authoritarianism and terror taking place first. It is no coincidence because the two phenomena are linked.
Authoritarian-parents who are punitive and focus on gaining a child's obedience to parental demands rather than responding to the demands of the child.Authoritarian parenting styles give little to no options to a child. What the parent says goes. It is a rigid approach to raising children that may have been most effective in times of great famine or toil. It was used most commonly in large, traditional families in which the father was the patriarch, and everyone else was called to follow his command. Times have changed greatly since. Doctors see a problem with this approach in modern times,it creates a distance between parent and child in which the child doubts the parent's love for him. It is based on punishment, which can easily create anger.
It is also down to institutional differences and checks and balances on the regime. An autocratic regime can be defined as those where power is vested in a person, or a body of people, by an undemocratic process. In other words, leaders are not competitively selected by the whole population. There are often negative connotations of autocratic regimes; however this has not always been the case.
Authoritarian style governments come in different forms and apply varying amounts of violence when enforcing their rule. People who live in democratic style governments often do not understand why people accept living in an authoritarian state, forgetting that in fact the authoritarian form of government is the oldest form of government on earth. A dictatorship government is one type of authoritarian government that gains world attention most notably by the extreme violence used to control their citizens. This paper will review authoritarianism; why humans put up with it; traits of paranoid, narcissistic, and charismatic personalities; and highlight Idi Amin Dada as a case in point.