List of totalitarian regimes

The list distinguishes between totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, listing the former and not the latter. Totalitarianism is an extreme version of authoritarianism. Authoritarianism primarily differs from totalitarianism in that social and economic institutions exist that are not under governmental control.[1]

This is a list of totalitarian states.

List

Country	Leader(s)	Ruling Party	Ideology	Government	Start of totalitarianism	End of totalitarianism
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics[2]	Joseph Stalin as General Secretary of the Communist Party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union	Stalinism Soviet socialist patriotism Marxism–Leninism Communism	Federal Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic	1924[2]	1953[2][3][4][5]
German Reich[2]	Adolf Hitler as the Führer of Germany	National Socialist German Workers' Party	Nazism Pan-Germanism Antisemitism Scientific racism	Unitary National Socialist one-party state[6]	1934[2]	1945[2]
Equatorial Guinea[7][8]	Francisco Macías Nguema as President of Equatorial Guinea	United National Workers' Party	African nationalism Pan-Africanism Anti-intellectualism Anti-colonialism Anti-imperialism	Unitary one-party republic	1969	1979
National Legionary State[9][10]	Ion Antonescu as Conducător of Romania Horia Sima as the head of the Iron Guard	Iron Guard	Clerical fascism Legionarism Romanian nationalism Antisemitism Antiziganism	Fascist one-party state under a constitutional monarchy	1940	1941
People's Socialist Republic of Albania[11][12][13][14]	Enver Hoxha (1946-1985) Ramiz Alia (1985-1991) as First Secretaries of the Party of Labour of Albania	Party of Labour of Albania	Communism Hoxhaism Marxism–Leninism Anti-revisionism	Unitary Hoxhaist one-party republic	1946	1990
Democratic People's Republic of Korea[15][16][2]	Kim dynasty as the Supreme Leaders of North Korea	Workers' Party of Korea	Juche Songun	Unitary one-party republic[17]	1948	Active
People's Republic of China	Mao Zedong as Chairman of the Communist Party of China	Communist Party of China	Chinese communism Marxism–Leninism Mao Zedong Thought	Unitary one-party socialist republic	1949	1976[2]
Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma[18]	Ne Win as Chairman of the Burma Socialist Programme Party	Burma Socialist Programme Party	Burmese Way to Socialism	Unitary one-party socialist republic	1962	1988
Socialist Republic of Romania[19][20]	Nicolae Ceaușescu as Conducător of Romania	Romanian Communist Party	Communism Marxism–Leninism National Communism	Unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist republic	1971	1989
Democratic Kampuchea[18][21]	Pol Pot as the Leader of the Khmer Rouge	Communist Party of Kampuchea	Agrarianism Communism Khmer nationalism	Unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic	1975	1979
State of Eritrea[22][23]	Isaias Afewerki as the President of Eritrea	People's Front for Democracy and Justice	Eritrean nationalism Left-wing nationalism Secularism	Unitary one-party presidential republic	1993	Active
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan[24][25][26]	Mohammed Omar as Amir al-Mu'minin of Afghanistan[27][28]	Taliban (de facto)	Deobandi fundamentalism[29] Islamism[29] Pashtunwali[30] Religious nationalism[30] Salafist jihadism[27]	Unitary Islamic theocracy[28]	1996	2001

Notes

References

1. Sondrol, Paul C. (2009). "Totalitarian and Authoritarian Dictators: A Comparison of Fidel Castro and Alfredo Stroessner" (PDF). Journal of Latin American Studies. 23 (3): 599–620. doi:10.1017/S0022216X00015868.
2. "Totalitarianism". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2018.
3. Rutland, Peter (1993). The Politics of Economic Stagnation in the Soviet Union: The Role of Local Party Organs in Economic Management. Cambridge University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-521-39241-9. after 1953 ...This was still an oppressive regime, but not a totalitarian one.
4. Krupnik, Igor (1995). "4. Soviet Cultural and Ethnic Policies Towards Jews: A Legacy Reassessed". In Ro'i, Yaacov (ed.). Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-714-64619-0. The era of 'social engineering' in the Soviet Union ended with the death of Stalin in 1953 or soon after; and that was the close of the totalitarian regime itself.
5. von Beyme, Klaus (2014). On Political Culture, Cultural Policy, Art and Politics. Springer. p. 65. ISBN 978-3-319-01559-0. The Soviet Union after the death of Stalin moved from totalitarianism to authoritarian rule.
6. "Foundations of the Nazi State". www.ushmm.org.
7. http://www.egjustice.org/post/equatorial-guinea
8. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/08/07/equatorial-guineas-president-said-to-be-retired-not-ousted/b21f82be-7401-4b7c-b6ea-1774dc0639e5/
9. "A Unique Death Cult". Slate. 21 February 2017.
10. Final Report, pp.115, 323
11. "Info". eujournal.org. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
12. Mullahi, Anila; Dhimitri, Jostina (2015). "Education Issues in a Totalitarian State (Case of Albania)". Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 174: 4103–4107. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1161.
13. Bedini, Belina (2014). "The Legitimation of the Albanian Totalitarian Regime". Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. 5 (16): 500–5. doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n16p500.
14. "Albania's EU aspirations still hampered by totalitarian past | DW | 22.03.2012".
15. "North Korea country profile". BBC News. 9 April 2018 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
16. "Kim Jong Un's North Korea: Life inside the totalitarian state". Washington Post.
17. Inc, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1 March 2014). Britannica Book of the Year 2014. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. ISBN 9781625131713.
18. Rummel, R.J. (1994). "Democide in totalitarian states: Mortacracies and megamurderers.". In Charney, Israel W. (ed.). Widening circle of genocide. Transaction Publishers. p. 5. There is much confusion about what is meant by totalitarian in the literature, including the denial that such systems even exist. I define a totalitarian state as one with a system of government that is unlimited constitutionally or by countervailing powers in society (such as by a church, rural gentry, labor unions, or regional powers); is not held responsible to the public by periodic secret and competitive elections; and employs its unlimited power to control all aspects of society, including the family, religion, education, business, private property, and social relationships. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union was thus totalitarian, as was Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Hitler's Germany, and U Ne Win's Burma
19. "Bulletin" (PDF). www.umk.ro. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
20. Thompson, M. R. (1 June 2002). "Totalitarian and Post-Totalitarian Regimes in Transitions and Non-Transitions from Communism". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 3 (1): 79–106. doi:10.1080/714005469.
21. O'Kane, Rosemary H T (1993). "Cambodia in the zero years: rudimentary totalitarianism". Third World Quarterly. 14 (4): 735–748. doi:10.1080/01436599308420354. JSTOR 3992949.
22. Taylor, Adam (12 June 2015). "The brutal dictatorship the world keeps ignoring" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
23. "UN calls Eritrea a 'totalitarian' state ruled by fear". Daily Nation. Kenya. 8 June 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
24. "Download Limit Exceeded". citeseerx.ist.psu.edu.
25. Whine, Michael (1 September 2001). "Islamism and Totalitarianism: Similarities and Differences". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 2 (2): 54–72. doi:10.1080/714005450.
26. "David Arnett" (PDF). turkishpolicy.com. 2008. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
27. "The Totalitarian Present - The American Interest". 1 September 2009.
28. Gall, Carlotta (30 July 2015). "Mullah Muhammad Omar, Enigmatic Leader of Afghan Taliban, Is Dead" – via NYTimes.com.
29. "Did you know that there are two different Taliban groups?". www.digitaljournal.com. 1 April 2013.
30. "NCTC Home". www.dni.gov.