The
political system under which the whole activity of a
nation's populace is coordinated and directed by the
government, and the government has authority over the entirety of each
citizen's life. There is no "
private sphere" of any sort: no activity, be it
economic or
personal, is private in the sense of being secure from state
intervention.
Trade,
family life,
employment,
religion,
property,
organization,
travel,
communication — all are subject to state approval or disapproval.
Totalitarianism is not confined to any particular political or economic ideology. Communist, fascist, and theocratic governments have all approached totalitarianism from their own directions. Today, there is concern among some that republican governments can also become totalitarian through corruption of the legislature and the unchecked growth of police powers.
Everything for the state; nothing outside of the state; nothing against the state!
— Benito Mussolini
Totalitarianism depends on
surveillance, the ability of the state to find out what its citizens are doing; and on
enforcement, its ability to stop them from doing unapproved things and require them to do approved ones. For this reason, people who fear a totalitarian future tend to suspect new technologies of surveillance and enforcement — be they
databases of
personal information,
censorship laws, the
militarization of the police, or
the use of children as informers upon their parents.
In one sense, the opposite of totalitarianism is anarchy -- a situation in which government has no authority whatsoever. However, in a more meaningful sense the opposite of totalitarianism is constitutional government -- in which the role of government is clearly defined and limited. Constitutions oppose totalitarianism both implicitly and explicitly: implicitly by granting only limited powers to government; and explicitly by enumerating areas into which government may not extend itself, as by incorporating bills or charters of rights.
To date, no government, no matter how repressive, has managed to create a fully functional totalitarian society. There always seem to remain pockets of protest, samizdat, and other resistance to the regime. Let us hope that remains the case.