Democracy Paper

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Democracy versus Totalitarian

Democracy and totalitarian are two forms of leadership by the government. In a

democracy, the law considers all citizens equal, and their opinions are highly valued in a

legislation process. In a democracy, citizens' views and decision are put into consideration since

it affects their lives. There is freedom of speech, and the media is allowed to express citizens

concern freely without the fear of consequences. In generally democracy will enable citizens to

have full control over their lives. Totalitarian is where the government uses terror, restrict

freedom of speech and imposes to the citizens to control every aspect of their lives by spreading

propaganda to ensure their popularity and public favor. Every citizen would love to enjoy a state

of democracy in their country to have the freedom to make decisions and express themselves

without the fear of repercussions. Unfortunately, not every country is privileged to enjoy that

kind of freedom. For an instant, countries like Russia and Germany tried to bring the democratic

regime into bound but failed and gave way to totalitarian that led the two countries into the

darkness of the Second World War. The following are the reasons why democracy failed in both

Russia and Germany.

Russia is a big country that needs strong leadership to keep the Kremlin Elites and

Oligarchs’ in check. The parliamentary parties of Russia are also young to deal with

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parliamentary democracy which is full of election fraud. Russia tried to adopt democracy, but it

turned into a disaster because of Oligarchs' corruption and ineffective support from the west. The

Russian's nature of the parliament also prevents it from being a democracy country. The country

has three major parties, two of which are considered to be extremists in the Western sense;

therefore, none would be appropriate to lead Russians. The only light to Russians is the United

Russia party which unfortunately lacks leadership ideologies, and it's pro-Kremlin. Neither the

Modern Russian governmental parties nor the Russian communist party has tried to fight for

democracy; instead, they usually bring up old memories of USSR which in turn prevent their

possibility of being elected. Existence of Kremlin hinders democracy reforms because they end

up convincing others that the country needs such elites to be united and remain together. The

Russian opposition who try to bring about democracy is anti-Kremlin and pro-western making

them be seen as anti-Russians. If a democracy-oriented opposition becomes the dominant party,

it has to be pro-Russian and accept the political reality of Russians instead of coming up with

systems that fail Russian.

Germany is another country that tried democracy but failed and gave in to totalitarian due

to the following reasons. The surrender of Wilhelm II dissatisfied many Germans and they

longed to return to the Empire. They blamed the social democrats in power for the loss of the

war. The economic crisis hit globally, and Germany would no longer pay their debts, and in

return, millions of Germans lost their jobs leading to a political crisis. Cabinets failed, and new

elections were held now and then resulting in difficulties in forming a majority government.

The rise of the German NSDAP, National Socialists Workers Party, which was known

for its nationalism due to Hitler's influence and talent to attract many members. Despite Hitler

being arrested after attempting to lead a coup that failed he was realized after a short sentence.

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While in prison he wrote a book explaining his plans for Germany. Since then, Nazis took

advantage of the economic crisis and condemned the government and the Versailles peace treaty.

They decided to stick to the law and let elections give them the power. By 1930, NSDAP had

increased votes to 6.4 million. The party gained its popularity and strength due to its

programmes. Germans were attracted to the young and quite leaders unlike the old politicians,

and in the process, Hitler gained a considerable following. He was ready to unite Germans and

end the political differences.

Notably, Nazis attracted people from all walks of life such as the workers, believers and

many others. By 1932 the party was at to its peak, the economy was recovering, and the votes

decreased by 11% compared to the previous year (Lederman & Shmuel 20). The minority

parties that did not gather enough votes pressured Paul to appoint Hitler as a chancellor for their

self-interest which later would turn into a disaster to the public. In 1933, Paul gave in and

appointed Hitler chancellor, and suggestive disaster quotes immediately started to be written

around. Despite people not voting Hitler he still gained power legally, and the National

Socialists were delighted that they celebrated their victory which Hitler approved. Hitler still was

far from being extremely powerful, so he appointed two cabinets of which took control of the

police force of Prussia, the most substantial part of Germany. Nazis saw it as a way to celebrate

their revolution, but most of the Germans did not like the news. They did not expect the new

government to last for long because historically, they had experiences of a government coming

into power and leaving soon for another.

Hitler accumulated more power. The fire broke in the parliament building, guards

noticed and the caught the suspected culprit, Dutch communist and he was executed before any

evidence was found to be rendered guilty. Nazi leaders arrived in the scene, and they claimed

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war, Hitler stating ‘there will be no mercy now for anybody who will try to hinder them will be

cut down.' The following morning Reichstag Fire Decree was promulgated by the president and

totalitarian regime began. There were no more civil rights of the German citizens. Freedom of

speech was snatched from people and police would search the houses and arrest civilians. The

opposition had no voice of reason or freedom of speech anymore. The rate of threats and arrest

increased even after the March 1933 elections. The communist party was banned, and many of

the members were arrested such that concentration camp was opened to host the large numbers

of the arrest. While in the camp, they were ill-treated, toured and even killed. Guards would die

and get away with it, for an instant; there is a time the shot dead four Jewish and claimed they

had tried to escape which was not valid.

Hitler's gain of more power was another reason for failed democracy in Germany. Hitler

was able to enact new laws without anyone interfering for four years. He had promoted SA and

the SS of the NSDAP to take over as the police forces. In his speech during meetings, he would

give the attendees the choice of war and peace in a manner that portrayed threat and intimidation

thus hindering the process of democracy. Nazis through a process known as Gleichschaltung

brought the society in line with their ideals. They dismissed any forum that they suspected

politically they forcibly replaced trade union with Deutschen Arbeitsfront to prevent any possible

organization by the opposition. They banned all existing political parties. Everything that was

un-Germany according Nazis was wiped away. Written Jewish books, left-wing and pacifist

writers were burned. Nazis directed most of their energy on the opponents. Despite Germany

Jews being the primary victims of oppression, humiliation, harassment, and violence and not

opposing the ambitions of the Nazis, the government still took first official actions against them

by boycotting their products among the series of measures that were going to follow leading to

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Holocaust. Germany, therefore, was turned into a dictatorship, totalitarian country by Hitler and

Nazis where they made a law that favored them to make legal decisions that gave them the

advantage of legality.

The totalitarian of Stalin and Hitler were the first decentralized governance in which they

received widespread support for their leadership. The support was not however obvious, but it

highly depended on the mode of appeal by the leaders which were possible due to developed

communication and transport systems. The totalitarian regime of Stalin and Hitler represented

the popular society in the sense that they made decisions for the public but denied them the

freedom of speech and imposed rules and regulations without giving them the right to agree or

disagree. In a totalitarian rule, the respective leaders allowed violence of large scale because they

believed it would help achieve the states ideology and their goals. For example, Nazi Germany

and Stalin believed they would be representing the society if they prosecuted and executed the

Jews and kulaks for being linked with external enemies thus state troubles. Public opinion was

only aroused against them, but their fate was left in the hands of police and military. On another

point of view, we can say neither Hitler nor Stalin represented the popular society because they

did not permit change to be predicted thus leading to the rise of terror threats among the citizens

and repressing the dissent (Corner & Paul 28). However, the leadership of the two countries

thought they represented their society in their way.

Both democracy and totalitarian forms of government have a similarity in that

they can oppress its people. It is possible for the majority of the people to take over,

corrupt the system and empower a small party and oppress the minority both in

democracy and totalitarian. Voters may select a candidate due to selfish personal interest

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without considering the welfare of the others. When the elected are given too much

power, they abuse it and end up controlling the state.

Democracy and totalitarian differ in the sense that in a democracy there is freedom

for the people to express their opinions and can influence decision making while in

totalitarian the country controls speech and freedom of media expression and they have

no contribution in the decisions by their leaders (Ramon para 4). Democracy allows many

leaders to represent the interests of public equality while in totalitarian there is only one

party which gives power to only those who actively support them. Generally, democracy

allows the citizens' voice to be heard while in totalitarian government silences the people

through threats, violence, and oppression. In the Russian and Germany country

totalitarian was characterized by the power they gained through dictatorship, ruled by one

party that used threats to instill fear, used secret police to intimidate individuals and

prohibited the state criticism (Friedrich et al. 37).

Rights of the minority are protected in democracy. Even though the majority

makes the decision and rules, the minority needs protection unlike in a totalitarian regime

where the ruling party's will is supreme and tends to oppress the minority. Unlike a

democratic regime that protects the minority rights totalitarian identifies the minority as

the unwanted rebellious groups that are internal enemies which need elimination — for

example, the Nazi genocide of European Jews and the prosecution of the homosexuals

and Gypsies. Stalin totalitarian regime attempted to wipe out the kulaks also.

In conclusion, it is transparent democracy and totalitarian are two different forms

of government leadership. Mostly a country starts well with, but due to the power

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invested in them, they end up oppressing their subject. Democracy allows individuals to

express freedom of speech, as well as their opinions, are put into consideration while the

leaders are making decisions. In the totalitarian, the ruling part instills fear to its citizens

by imposing rules and regulations, making laws that favor them and having their secret

police to intimidate those who do not support them. In both Russia and Germany they

tried democracy that failed due to the decisions mostly made by the voters.

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Work Cited

Corner, Paul, ed. popular opinion in totalitarian regimes: Fascism, Nazism, Communism. Oxford

University Press, 2009.

Friedrich, Carl J., and Zbigniew K. Brzezinski. "Totalitarian dictatorship." Cambridge, MA:

Harvard UP (1965).

Lederman, Shmuel. "Federations, Councils, and the Origins of Totalitarianism." Hannah Arendt

and Participatory Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. 11-38.00:00\

Ramon. What Is the Difference between a Democracy & a Totalitarian Government n.d?

Accessed on 30/4/2019 https://classroom.synonym.com/difference-between-

democracy-totalitarian-government-8358.html

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