The most influential work in the concept and theory of totalitarianism
is Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism (1958)
The most persuasive and powerful theory of the origins of totalitarianism. In an influential study, which was originally published five years after Arendt’s, Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski identify the following key characteristics of a totalitarian system:
A totalitarian ideology professing to be universal in its applicability and a ‘true’ theory to govern the life of the individual and the state;
A single mass party under the leadership of the dictatorship;
A system of state terror in which the key instrument is the secret police;
Total control over communications;
A monopoly of control of the military and military armaments; and
Centralized control over the economy.
The debate on totalitarianism