Totalitarianism
Etymology
From Italian totalitario, built on “total,” and popularized in the 1920s in Mussolini’s Italy — where lo stato totalitario, “the total state,” was used approvingly. Critics soon turned the word against such regimes, and mid-century thinkers like Hannah Arendt developed it into an analytic term for systems, on both the far right and far left, that aim to dominate every sphere of life.
noun · /toh-TAL-ih-tair-ee-uh-niz-um/
A form of rule in which the state seeks total control over public institutions and private life, permitting no independent authority.
What it names
The extreme edge of state power — where the government tries to reach into thought, family, and culture, not just law and politics.
Example
What made the regime totalitarian, the historian argued, was its ambition to script even private conversation and leisure.
Related idea
Authoritarianism concentrates political power but tolerates some autonomy; totalitarianism is distinguished by its drive to control everything.