The Revolutionary Totalitarian Personality

Theodor Tudoroiu

• 06 januari 2016
• 9781137473479

Samenvatting:

This book uses the case studies of Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, and Hugo Chávez in order to introduce the concept of revolutionary totalitarian personality, and to show that this type of personality is decisive in choosing a totalitarian regime-building project and in shaping the ensuing totalitarian process.

Tudoroiu uses the case studies of Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, and Fidel Castro to introduce the concept of the revolutionary totalitarian personality as an independent type. Using a combination of 'intentionalist' and 'functionalist' factors, the author explains the decisive role played by a leader's personality type in choosing a totalitarian trajectory and in shaping the totalitarian process. The book contrasts this under-studied category with the impact of structural constraints on the development of totalitarian regimes, which are indirect, limited, and distorted. In the second half of the book the author focusses on Venezuela's late President, Hugo Chávez, and considers present political and ideological developments in Latin America, and especially the Middle East, as likely sources of future totalitarian experiments decisively influenced by the revolutionary totalitarian personality of their leaders. A vital contribution to the existing literature, the book goes beyond the descriptive level to conceptualize this crucial aspect of totalitarianism.