Totalitarianism Hannah Ardent Summary

Hannah Ardent a political theorist who fled from the Nazi’s condemns totalitarianism in her book “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” She sees totalitarianism as an attempt to impose total domination over all aspects of life, both within countries and beyond their borders through imperialism. She believes the Nazi and Stalinist regimes are similar because both were ruled through a combination of terror and ideology. Ardent claims totalitarianism is completely unprecedented and varies greatly from tyranny although frequent compared. The rulers don’t exist in isolation from the people like tyrants do, in totalitarianism, the rulers are not distinct from the people. Ardent claims totalitarian rulers depend on the ‘will’ of the masses he embodies

Philosopher John Rawls is known for his justice theory, he upholds “justice is the first virtue of social institutions.” Rawls concept of “justice as fairness” conveys the idea that the principles of justice are agreed to in an initial situation that is fair. Rawls claims to secure justice as fairness, we must enter a social contract with others where we all imagine ourselves in the “original position” which is an impartial point of view that will lead one to commit oneself to fair principles of social and political justice. Rawls predicates our political theory should come from none other than a “veil of ignorance” which we are under in the original position as that is our only way to be truly fair in our reasoning about fundamental principles of justice. With futures shrouded by a veil of ignorance, we wouldn’t know our class, social position, assets, and abilities. Rawls affirms “since all are similarly situated and no one is able to design principles to favor his particular condition, the principles of justice are the result of a fair agreement or bargain.” This veil of ignorance establishes the fair conditions in which individuals can choose the basic principles governing

Any reasonable and rational person would adopt fair principles with everyone’s best interest in mind. Rawls insists people will want two guiding principles, one addresses liberty and the other addresses inequalities among people. Rawls contends the first guiding principle is that “each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others.” The first guarantees the equal basic rights and liberties needed to secure the fundamental interests of free and equal citizens and to pursue a wide range of conceptions of the