Anti-democratic regimes. Totalitarian and authoritarian regime: the main features

The political regime of the state is a method of organization of the system, reflecting the relations of government bodies and representatives of society, social freedom and the specific features of the legal life in the country.

Basically, these properties are due to certain traditional features, culture, conditions of the historical formation of the state. Hence, we can say that in any country, a special and characteristic political regime has emerged. Nevertheless, most of them in different states can find similar features.

Scientific literary sources describe 2 types of social and legal devices:

• Anti-democratic regimes;
• Democratic regimes.

Signs of a democratic society

The main features that are characteristic of democracy are:

• Domination of legislative acts;
• Power divided into species;
• Existence of the present political and social rights of citizens of the state;
• Elective authorities;
• Presence of oppositional and pluralistic opinion.

Signs of anti-democracy

Antidemocratic mode of government is divided into totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Its main properties are:

• The supremacy of the only party organization;
• The supreme position of a single form of ownership;
• Infringement of rights and freedoms in political life;
• Repressive and coercive methods of influence;
• Infringement of the influence of elected bodies;
• Strengthening of executive power;
• Prohibition of the existence of opposition party organizations;
• Prohibition of poly-party and heterodoxy;
• The desire of the state to coordinate all areas of public life and relations between individuals.

Signs of an authoritarian regime (authoritarianism) also lie in the fact that power is concentrated in the hands of an individual person or group, but freedom outside of the political sphere is relatively relative. Such social and legal liberties in no way deny the characteristic properties of this type of government. The features of the totalitarian regime are the increased supervision by the power structures behind all spheres of public life of the state.

Comparative characteristics

Characteristics of anti-democratic regimes

An authoritarian state appears when power is concentrated in the hands of an individual or a group of individuals. Often, authoritarianism is combined with dictatorship. Opposition structure under this regime is impossible, but in the economic sphere, for example cultural or personal life, there remains personal autonomy and some freedom of action.

Totalitarian power is formed when all areas of public life are controlled by state monopolized power (individually or group of individuals), when there is a single worldview for all residents of the country. The absence of any dissidence is created by a strong controlling body, police persecution, coercion. Such anti-democratic regimes give rise to an initiativeless person who is prone to obeying all social issues.

Totalitarian power

Totalitarianism is a regime of all-round control, unlimited intervention in the daily life of society, including existence in the context of its leadership and compulsory management. The concept itself appeared in the late 1920s, when a certain part of political scientists tried to divide the socialist and democratic countries and find a clear understanding of socialist statehood.

Features of the totalitarian regime

1. The existence of a single, massively important party headed by an impeccable (in the eyes of the people) leader, and in addition to this - the actual reunification of party and state structural elements. In other words, it can be called a "state party". In it, in the foreground, the central apparatus of the party organization sits in the hierarchical staircase, and the state acts as a means of introducing the platform of the totalitarian system into reality.

2. Centralization and monopolization of government bodies. That is, in comparison with material, religious value concepts, political (obedience and loyalty towards a totalitarian party) come forward and become fundamental. Under this regime, the border between state and non-state oblasts (the country as a single collective) is lost. The entire life path of the population is subject to regulation, regardless, personal (private) or public nature it has. The authorities at all levels are formed by the way of bureaucracy and through closed information and non-informational channels.

3. The unified authority of a legitimate ideology, which through the media, the process of teaching, propaganda methods is imposed on the population as the only correct, true method of thinking. Here the emphasis is not on individual, but on "conciliar" values (nationality, race, etc.). The spiritual component of society is characterized by fanatical intolerance to dissent and "foreign action," according to the rule "who is not with us is against us".

4. Physical and psychological diktat, the existence of the police state regime, in which the main rule is dominated by the following: "Only that which is punished by the authorities is allowed, everything else is prohibited." To achieve this, ghettos and concentration camps are formed, using hard work, violence against people, suppression of civil will to resist, mass destruction of innocent people.

To this dictatorial mode of government is also the communist and fascist anti-democratic regimes.

Authoritarianism

An authoritarian state is a country with a way of life that is characterized by a regime of dictatorship of a single person with a personal control method. This is a "compromise solution" between the totalitarian and democratic regime, a transitional stage between them.

Authoritarian order is quite close to totalitarian management on a political basis, and to a democratic one on economic grounds, that is, people who do not have political rights are fully endowed with economic.

The main signs of an authoritarian regime

This kind of anti-democratic government of the state has the following features:

1. Power is characterized by unlimited, uncontrollable and centralized in the hands of a single person or group of individuals. It can be a dictator, a military junta, etc.
2. Potential and real emphasis on force. This regime may not use mass repressive actions and even enjoy sufficient recognition of a large part of the population. But nevertheless, the authorities can afford to take any steps towards their citizens in order to force them to obey.
3. Monopolization of power and political life, the non-existence of opposition structures, the sole, independent of anything, legal activity in society. Such a condition does not affect the existence of an unlimited number of party organizations, as well as trade unions and some other societies, but their activities are strictly controlled and regulated by the authorities.
4. Updating the staff of managers by the method of self-replenishment, rather than competitive struggle in the pre-election period, the lack of legitimate mechanisms of continuity and the transfer of power. Such anti-democratic regimes are often established through coups with the help of armed forces and coercion.
5. The power structures are engaged solely in providing personal security and order in the society, although they are able to influence the priority directions of economic development, implement an active public policy without destroying the construction of their own market regulation.

The features described above give grounds to assert that authoritarian power is a method of government with flawed moralism: "Everything is allowed, except politics."

Additional types of political regimes

Under the slave system, the following types of government were distinguished:

• despotic;
• theocratic;
• monarchical;
• aristocratic;
• democratic.

The feudal system, in turn, is divided into:

• Militaristic-police;
• democratic;
• Clerical-feudal;
• Absolutist;
• "Enlightened" absolutist.

The bourgeois system, accordingly, is divided into:

• Democratic;
• Fascist;
• Military police;
• Bonapartist.

Classification of political regimes by SA. Komarov

SA Komarov subdivides the regime of people's power in:

• Slave-owning;
• feudal;
• bourgeois;
• Socialist democracy.

Antidemocratic regimes are divided by this politician into:

• totalitarian;
• fascist;
• autocratic.

The latter, in turn, is divided into individual (despotism, tyranny, regime of individual power) and collective (oligarchy and aristocracy).

Political regimes at the present stage

At the present stage, it is considered that democracy is the most perfect regime, unlike any antidemocratic regime. This is not entirely correct. Historical facts show that totalitarian countries (a certain part) exist efficiently and perform their functions, for example, in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In addition to this, totalitarianism is largely able to mobilize the entire population of the state in order to solve a certain (no less important and difficult) state problem.

For example, the Soviet Union was able to gain victory in military operations with fascist Germany, although totalitarian Germany at the very beginning of military operations significantly exceeded its forces by internal military power. In the post-war years, this socio-legal structure created a record economic recovery of the USSR. Even if it was achieved at a considerable price. Thus, the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes are characterized by both positive sides and negative ones.