The Nature of single-party states

1. Why do Friedrich and Brzezinski say that they cannot explain the rise of totalitarian
dictatorships?

Friedrich and Brzezinski say that they cannot explain the rise of totalitarian dictatorship
because there are too many factors to explain it fully.
So both of them conclude that only a multiple-factor analysis will give an adequate overview
over the circumstances and causes for the single-party state to emerge.
It’s even harder to explain the causes for the development of single-party states, because
single-party states are a phenomena first appearing in the 20th century and therefore historians
don’t know much about repeating circumstances and they can’t take into consideration every
factor because they don’t know every factor.
The rise of totalitarian dictatorships is hard to explain because there has never been anything
like it before and there are too much factors you have to take into account.

2. Is it necessary for a crisis to exist for a single-party state to emerge?

After CJ Friedrich, there are two approaches of explanation for single-party states to emerge.
He describes that you need n ideological movement to exist and he brings out that on the one
hand, they could emerge due to a theoretical ideology, which spreads out under the
population. On the other hand, you need many factors to favour the development of a single-
party state. These factors have to lead to unhappiness under the population and can be of
different natures, e.g. economic crisis, post-war phenomena and war aftermaths and personal
dissatisfaction. Only with these factors, ideological movements emerge, and a crisis is a very
important factor in this causal explanation.

3. What are the common traits of totalitarian states?

There are many common traits of totalitarian states and the following are the most obvious.
Single-party states should contain an ideology, which everyone in the nation has to obey. This
ideology has to be based on radical refusal of prevalent circumstances. Furthermore, you need
a mass party with a hardcore of people accepting the ideology without reservation. In
addition, every oppositional thought has to be oppressed ether physical or psychic, but always
using modern science and scientific psychology.
The media in a single-state party has to be controlled by the government respectively the
party. The same technological control has to be lead concerning weapons and armed combats.
At a last point, a totalitarian government needs a central control of the economy and all
former independent entities, such as other associations and group activities.
There are more traits to apply on totalitarian states, but without the named a totalitarian state
can’t govern and exercise power.

Zbigniew Brzeziński:
Außenpolitischer Berater von Barack Obama
1960er Berater für kennedy und johnson

Carl Joachim Friedrich:

Führender Theoretiker über den Totalitarismus.
Beteiligt an Entnazifizierung und der Ausarbeitung der deutschen Landesverfassungen