TOTALITARIANISM

absolutism, totalitarianism, totalism

(noun) the principle of complete and unrestricted power in government

dictatorship, absolutism, authoritarianism, Caesarism, despotism, monocracy, one-man rule, shogunate, Stalinism, totalitarianism, tyranny

(noun) a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

totalitarianism (countable and uncountable, plural totalitarianisms)

A system of government in which the people have virtually no authority and the state wields absolute control, for example, a dictatorship.

Usage notes

Contentious usage: precise definition, application to specific cases, and distinction from similar terms varies by author. Narrowly, a government in which everything is political and controlled by the state, coined to describe fascism, in contrast to the older terms and concepts of autocracy, dictatorship, and tyranny, which focus more on centralization of power, not its pervasiveness. Later applied to communism by right-wingers and Stalinism by other communists and socialists, to emphasize its commonalities with fascism and Nazism. Sometimes considered an extreme form of authoritarianism, in other cases contrasted with it.

Source: Wiktionary