No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Question of Totalitarianism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
Extract
Professor Brzezinski's paper moves along a number of planes of discourse. Some of it is describable as general theory of modern dictatorship, some as analysis of a particular political order, that of Russia, and some as discussion of current Russian political affairs and tendencies. In these necessarily rather brief remarks, I shall be concerned chiefly with issues that arise under the first two headings.
In Section I, where the notion of totalitarianism is expounded as a comprehensive conceptual key to the nature of the Soviet and other like systems (presumably both Communist and Fascist), Professor Brzezinski stresses the difference in kind between “traditional” or “old-fashioned” dictatorship and modern totalitarian dictatorship.
- Type
- Discussion
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1961
References
1 Kovalevsky, M. M.,Russian Political Institutions (Chicago, 1901), p . 100.Google Scholar
2 In a paper presented at the meeting of the American Political Science Association in New York, September, 1960, a revised version of which was published in American Political Science Review for June, 1961, under the title 'Towards a Comparative Politics of Movement-Regimes.'
3 Kelsen, Hans,The Political Theory of Bolshevism (Berkeley, 1948), p . 6.Google Scholar
4 The historical applicability of the concept of totalitarianism has been argued by Wittfogel, Karl in his Oriental Despotism (New Haven, 1957)Google Scholar and other writings. See also Wolfe, Bertram, “;The Durability of Soviet Despotism,” inSoviet Conduct in World Affairscomp. Dallin, Alexander (New York, 1960).Google Scholar
5 Florinsky, Michael T.,Russia: A History and an Interpretation (2 vols.; New York,1953),II,772.Google Scholar
6 Some of the reasoning underlying this position is presented in the paper cited in note 2.