Commissioned Book Review: Alan Haworth, Totalitarianism and philosophy
| Date | 01 May 2022 |
| Author | Porkkodi Ganeshpandian |
| Published date | 01 May 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/14789299211030763 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Review |
Political Studies Review
2022, Vol. 20(2) NP17 –NP18
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
1030763PSW0010.1177/14789299211030763Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
research-article2021
Commissioned Book Review
Totalitarianism and philosophy by Alan
Haworth. Oxon: Routledge, 2020. 112 pp. #13.59
(e-book). ISBN: 9780367438265
The term “totalitarianism” came into popular
political discourse in the 1920s as Giovanni
Gentile attributed such a description to
Fascist Italy (Bongiovanni, 2005: 5–17). The
concept was later used to describe Nazi
Germany and Stalinist Russia by Hannah
Arendt (1968: 9–17) in her seminal work,
“Origins of Totalitarianism.” Over the years,
scholars have contributed voluminously to
the expansion of the attributes of totalitarian-
ism, without much agreement (Pauley, 2013:
2). This is chiefly due to the misrepresented
case for totalitarianism, rising from its pejo-
rative usage in scholarly discussions (Zizek,
2002: 15–16). At this juncture, Haworth’s
pioneering work discusses the genuineness
behind the idea of totalitarianism as a new
phenomenon in conjunction with the totali-
tarian philosophies of the twentieth century.
Chapter 1 introduces this work’s central
idea of analyzing totalitarianism’s birth from
a philosophic perspective. (p. 1) Chapter 2
attempts to portray the general lack of concur-
rence that characterizes a political discussion
of prevailing totalitarian regimes (pp. 5–11).
Haworth proceeds to comparatively analyze
Plato’s tyranny with the present totalitarian-
ism, concluding that the lack of agreement on
the defining features of totalitarianism and an
evolved international order inevitably distin-
guishes totalitarianism from Plato’s tyranny
(pp. 12–16).
Chapter 3 delves into the philosophy of
“the total state.” The questions of human
nature and the idea of “nation” are discussed
within the framework of the totalitarian phi-
losophy of Gentile and Schmitt (pp. 19–25).
The hostility to the individualism advocated
by liberalism is discussed as a feature of sim-
ilarity of totalitarian regimes (pp. 29–30).
Haworth’s distinction between ideology and
philosophy (pp. 19–20, 32–34) is enlighten-
ing in understanding his acceptable argu-
ments for the prevalent voids (pp. 34–35) in
the concept of totalitarianism.
Chapter 4 deals with the question of
“total control” that characterizes a totalitar-
ian regime, similar to a tyranny and des-
potic state (pp. 36–38). Haworth briefly
explains the role of individual will and
available choices to the people as the dis-
tinguishing factors between partial and
total control (pp. 38–42). The description
of “control” as a factor in totalitarian sys-
tems (pp. 43–45) enlightens the reader that
total control was never a prevalent feature
of a totalitarian regime (pp. 45–46).
Chapter 5 is an analysis of two promi-
nent dystopian literary works that discuss
the nature of totalitarianism: Huxley’s
“Brave New World” and Orwell’s “1984”
(p. 48). The total control depicted in both
these works that transformed human nature
is argued to be possible only in dystopian
literature (pp. 49–50). This is due to the
prioritization of happiness over freedom in
both scenarios, which conflicts with the
reality of human rationality (pp. 52–58).
Haworth concludes this chapter with a dis-
concerting question of human rationality
choosing happiness over freedom, which
would coincide with totalitarianism as
depicted by Orwell and Huxley, as was the
case in Europe in the earlier half of the
twentieth century (p. 58).
Chapter 6 is a brief summary of totalitari-
anism as an “interim” concept that cannot be
placed within its own conceptual framework
due to the lack of a set of characteristics to
define it (pp. 60–62). Chapter 7 delves into a
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