Table of Contents




Preface:

 

In order to clarify the discussion, it is necessary to first examine the differences between totalitarian regimes and authoritarian regimes very quickly, because although both regimes are sometimes called dictatorships, there is a relatively serious difference in the way countries are governed in these two. There is an existing view because, in authoritarian regimes, more attention is paid to the concentration of power and preventing the role of the people in determining their destiny, therefore, in order to preserve themselves, these regimes can change their ideology according to the requirements of the time, and their goal is to preserve power. , but totalitarian governments rely more on ideology, to be more precise, if we consider that in authoritarian countries, maintaining power comes first and ideology comes second, in totalitarian governments, ideology is of primary importance and Instrumental power is in the direction of achieving and accessing their ideology on the one hand and imposing their opinions on the society in order to achieve the ideology on the other hand! In such governments, the ideological ideals drawn by the government are considered sacred and all the actions of individuals and groups are evaluated based on it, thus making it easy to suppress its opponents!

What is a totalitarian Regime?

In fact, totalitarian regimes are trying to impose their ideology on all members of society, and they are not only trying to preserve their sovereignty and power but also to brainwash society in order to inject their desired ideology! With a closer look, we realize that the ideological governments that are ruling with the foundations of totalitarianism, not only for this generation but also for the future generations of the world, draw the situation and determine the goal! But the more important thing is that this drawing of the future, with a deeper look, remains more of a fantasy!

But the important point is here that totalitarian governments do not only restrict individual freedoms and possibly a part of the social freedoms of members of the society (which authoritarian governments deal with) but in addition to that, somehow with partial beliefs or All society or different cultures of the society or with different social views engage in coercion. The core of this debate is exactly the key ideological axes of such governments!

Totalitarian regimes have three phases during their life:

In the first phase, the majority of people drunk on “ideology” follow their leaders; It is as if they have found their “lost paradise”. They accept the ideology and do not want the slightest change in it.

In the second phase, the reality has shown its face and none of the deceptive promises of the leaders have been fulfilled. People get frustrated and disappointed with the system and a group thinks about “reforms”; But for many reasons, including the fact that “the principles of ideology cannot be changed”, the reforms do not lead anywhere.

The third phase is the final phase of totalitarian systems. In this phase, the totalitarian trustees try to use naked violence. Among the former like-minded people, anyone who has the smallest angle with them is expelled from the circle of “insiders”. Extensive purges begin and the circle of insiders becomes narrower and narrower, and the inefficiencies deepen and the number of opponents increases and finally the flood of protests comes and takes everything with it…

Prof. Siavosh Kaviani

The cause of the crash totalitarian regime

With this approach, we can easily understand that in totalitarian systems, not only political opponents are targeted, but also important parts of the ordinary people of the society who insist on their culture, and have beliefs that are not aligned with the ideology of the government, and in general, the ideological opponents of the government, as well. The goal is suppression.

This ideological coercion causes a part of the society to pretend to believe that they do not believe in it, and another part of the society engages in erosive struggles with the totalitarian government.

With these explanations, the output of these governments is based on a general ideology that those involved in the administration of the government are committed to that general ideology, these governments are usually led by one person, have an extensive security system that has extra-legal power, monopoly of means of communication. collective and ultimately the ruling economic monopoly.

Looking at the frameworks of totalitarian regimes, it is possible to identify how such regimes die, but in one sentence, it is this ideological coercion that makes the difference in the collapse of authoritarian regimes.

Although these regimes usually seem to have a magical power at the beginning, and they owe this power to the external or internal support of the majority of the people and to an alliance centered on the leader, and in order to show off this power in coercion with other members of the society on the one hand and foreign countries. On the other hand, they depict this power with spectacular and spectacular demonstrations, celebrations, and parades, but over time, during the lifetime of the ruler, and perhaps in the same generation, or the first generation, or the second generation, things happen that strongly undermine its authority. reduces

It seems that although the point that causes the collapse of totalitarian systems is related to the same coercion within the society, but considering totalitarian regimes are constantly looking for unity and cohesion and they see this unity in the existence of obedience to the “leader” and in Finally, all “society” should follow it, this issue causes totalitarian systems to put the elimination of personalities and people among their unwritten goals. In this matter, the criterion for removing or valuing people is not their level of activity, but the level of support that comes from the opinion of being a “leader”. Therefore, lazy and weak people can easily pretend to obey the leader and possibly express extreme behaviors. Not only to establish their position but also to get a tool to eliminate competitors who have a more expert view!

With this approach, it is very clear that the system that initially seemed dynamic due to the support of the majority of society becomes a slow, heavy, and ineffective system. With this approach, the totalitarian system not only closes its eyes to the social needs of the society and even the individual needs incompatible with the ideology, but also suppresses these needs in a way, and this causes serious conflicts with the members of the society and the masses. Over time, this issue causes totalitarian systems to face a crisis because their views, which are based on a certain ideology, affect the aspects of the life of all members of society and their individual and social needs.

In the first step, this crisis manifests itself in the spiritual sphere of the society, but the totalitarian system does not allow the emergence of different thoughts and opinions, and for this reason, a meaningful discourse for reforming the movement does not emerge. In a more complete way, it can be said that in totalitarian regimes, intellectual activity is, if not impossible, and we must state with certainty that it is very difficult. This causes many people, regardless of what they think inside and in their minds, to adapt themselves to the official model and ideology that governs the system. and this issue causes the space in which the human soul and mind move to become narrower and narrower. So people either have to stay in this circle and narrow their mental range or they have to leave this circle.

But if there is awareness in the opposition, it will cause those who actually try to defend themselves, their thinking, and their intellectual independence against such developments and leave the circle of supporters of the totalitarian government, their number will increase day by day, and these New people demand change with their protest. But the totalitarian system’s approach to any demand against its ideology only resorts to forcing or excluding people.

This is why totalitarian governments rely on the police security system, judicial courts, prisons and executions, and the physical elimination of opponents.

In fact, it should be said that at the beginning of the formation of the totalitarian system, the number of supporters of this system is very large throughout the society and the reason for the support of these people is due to their religious ideology, but over time, the supporters not only fall, but those who remain they remain, the form of their support for the regime has other reasons because “what makes them inclined to support the regime is no longer the ideology and the enthusiasm to achieve it, but it is the fear or the individual interests of the people that make them support the totalitarian regime”.

It is very natural that these people in such conditions either look for their personal interests and wealth accumulation or because of the fear of punishment caused by opposition, creativity, vision, innovation, prosperity, and everything that can move society forward. They shake hands!

But the point of collapse of totalitarian systems starts here because when the number of apparently loyal citizens (who are either looking for their own interests or are uncreative and ineffective due to fear of punishment) reaches its peak, the structure of the regime due to Abuses on the one hand and inefficiency, on the other hand, will gradually cease. The slow abandonment of the government structure causes the crisis to spread from the intellectual and spiritual spheres to the social spheres of society, such as human relations and ethics, and with this infrastructure, it becomes widespread in the economy, environment, welfare, employment, etc.

But the totalitarian system usually denies the existence of the crisis and tries to take advantage of this situation, that is, it tries to make everything that was a normal human need an important privilege, which has become something rare due to totalitarianism. Is. In this context, you may be very familiar with the term “If we don’t have…, we have security”!

In general, the approach of totalitarian systems at this stage is that they present the basic rights of individuals as a gift that has reached the people from the heart of their government, for example, the right to have healthy food, healthcare, information flow, permission to travel, education and Education, housing and finally life itself is shown to be a gift from the government and not a right of the basic rights of the members of the society, this is where the next step in corrupting the body of the society is taken because the regime has turned many human rights into an important privilege. and these factors become a tool to corrupt people. In fact, the civil awareness regime targets the people and their self-confidence. With this movement coming from the side of the totalitarian structure, depending on how deep this crisis is and how advanced the degeneration of society is, a thin layer of people who have exceptional privileges (nomenklatura) will expand.

These people or groups can do things that others cannot, they can even do things that are considered crimes by the rest of society. This causes this group of privileged people to lose morals more quickly and this makes them corrupt, incapable of managing affairs, and incompetent who serve the system. But these people, with the power they have gained from the totalitarian structure and in order to gain their personal (or ideological) interests, most of all fuel the emerging social crises and make these crises deeper. It causes the obvious unworthiness and incapacity of the totalitarian regime to be fueled.

Perhaps it can be said that although totalitarian systems come to power by promising to improve society and the lives of their citizens, they lose their power by destroying the way society is organized and with this approach make the living conditions of the majority of people worse than before.

Conclusion

Although I have stated the pathology of the collapse of totalitarian systems which is caused by ineffectiveness, the form of the end of totalitarian regimes can appear in various forms, sometimes with revolution and possibly bloodshed, and sometimes surprisingly quickly and with peace and tranquility. Sometimes it is with a popular uprising and sometimes it is due to the efforts of reformists (real reformists and not continuityists) who come from within the system in a period when the other regime has clearly lost all the necessary tools to maintain social order even at the most basic levels. Is.

The remarkable thing in Iran is that not only the real reformists have not been able to achieve significant progress in advancing the civil struggles from within the government, but the reform tool seems to be a means for the government to lead the society in the direction that the system The totalitarian follows, has become.

On the other hand, the violent behavior of some of the apparent fighters and the threat of all their opposing opinions to trial on the day of the overthrow has caused the gray strata of the society to not be with them, who are looking for the least stressful and least expensive way to change, and has caused the lack of progress. The civil movement of the people of Iran has become. With each other and respecting the votes of the people after the fall of the totalitarian regime, they should succeed in identifying the real reformists in order to attract the maximum number of opponents and create confidence in the gray strata of the society in the absence of violence during the transfer of power and ultimately to gain the support of the members of the society. !

Website | + posts

Professor Siavosh Kaviani was born in 1961 in Tehran. He had a professorship. He holds a Ph.D. in Software Engineering from the QL University of Software Development Methodology and an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Chelsea.

KSRA Scientific Research Association | Website | + posts

KSRA research association of Empowerment is a global non-profit organization committed to bringing empowerment through education by utilizing innovative mobile technology and educational research from experts and scientists. KSRA research association emerged in 2012 as a catalytic force to reach the hard-to-reach populations worldwide through mobile learning.

The KSRA research association team partners with local under-served communities around the world to improve the access to and quality of knowledge based on education, amplify and augment learning programs where they exist, and create new opportunities for e-learning where traditional education systems are lacking or non-existent
WE FOCUS ON KNOWLEDGE-BASED ON EDUCATION

+ posts

Education Director for a local non-profit organization with a background in presenting, developing, and managing programs. Award recipient in volunteer outreach and student growth.

+ posts

Nile Blue initially graduated from a French leading engineering school “Arts et Metiers” (MSc Mech.&Elec.) and a Master in Entrepreneurship from HEC, school of management (Paris) in 1995. Nile Blue is a Construction specialist, and usually held the role of ‘FIDIC Engineer’ more particularly in large infrastructures such as Dam (HPP), Water Treatment Plants, water networks, and other hydraulic infrastructures as a pumping station. He’s able to manage all aspects of large international hydraulics projects. He also specialized in contract management and more specifically in FIDIC contracts. He is head of ‘Dams & Hydraulic Works’ at Egis one of the French leading engineering firms.