Despots and Demagogues

Abstract

Totalitarian regimes rule not only by instilling fear but by their ideological appeal and the charisma of their leaders. Four totalitarian leaders who initiated war are investigated here: Mussolini; Hitler; Mao; and Saddam Hussein. These case histories demonstrate that totalitarianism is conducive to war because of the enthusiasm it arouses, because of its violent ethos, because its advisory process corrupts rather than corrects the dictator and above all because it concentrates power to an incomparable degree in the hands of men with an unrestrained lust for power and proclivity to violence. These are not only the worst regimes, but the most dangerous.