HANNAH ARENDT AND THE ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS TO TOTALITARIANISM: THE MASS SOCIETY AND THE TERROR

a sociedade de massa e o terror

Abstract

The totalitarian regimes are an indelible mark of our time. The ascent of the totalitarianism and the manner which these systems were able to solidify themselves as forms of government raise a number of questions about the political relations and power. In this sense, the dawn of the totalitarianism and the cooptation of individuals around the purposes of these governments may reveal itself as a fertile ground for research. The objective of the article presented here is to try to explore, through the thought of German philosopher Hannah Arendt, two essential conditions for the emergence and maintenance of these totalitarianisms: the mass society and the operation of terror. For this, first of all, we seek to describe briefly the mass society and the way in which it forms the basis for the principle of totalitarian systems. That is, as the transformation of the class society in a mass society is the first societal aspect to this dawn. Secondly, we aim to delineate the place that occupies the element of terror for structuring these regimes and how it operates to strengthen them; namely, to present the essential function of the terror in the process of the mass cooptation.