Dictatorship and totalitarianism

By: Pedro Corzo - 08/09/2026

Guest columnist.
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A few days ago, at a meeting among friends, one of the attendees commented that, in his opinion, dictatorship and totalitarianism were synonymous, which generated a passionate discussion that prompted this reflection that I had been meaning to make for some time, since it is clear that there are quite a few people who are confused by both terms.

First, these are concepts with more than 2000 years of origins; however, we tend to use them interchangeably as if they were similar. I have heard the Venezuelan regime described as totalitarian and the Cubans as the "dictatorship of the Castro brothers." So, without being a theorist or anything close to it, I delve into texts and my own experiences, because books, although fundamental, I assure you that the fears and consequences of having the executioner living in the neighborhood are overwhelming.

The dictatorship, which comes to us from the Roman Republic, was a legal and temporary function of government designated, at least in theory, by the Senate, with the abuse of the mandate leading to its conversion into an unjust government, without laws or end, alien to the popular will.

Perhaps it is very thorny to define the time and place of the first dictatorship as we know it today, even more thorny to identify the pioneer who claimed the title, that one, who, far from the toga praetexta, whether in a loincloth or a tuxedo, said to himself and to others, in a delirious machismo, I am the man.

Dictators have come in all shapes and sizes. Military, civilian, religious, and of course, insurrectionist—all of them always eager to use the adjective "revolutionary," a term to which each person applies their preferred meaning, as can be seen in Cuba. For example, Fulgencio Batista called the military coup of March 10, 1952, revolutionary, and Fidel Castro characterized the attack on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953, in the same way.

Totalitarianism is much more recent than dictatorship, another European invention that shows that from the old world we have received very good things along with many disastrous ones, such as the topics we are addressing, cultural contributions that compete with the insanity of many of our chieftains.

Totalitarianism, according to Hannah Arendt, the most knowledgeable person on the subject, emerged in 1922 in Italy, with Benito Mussolini formulating his vision of government, “everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state,” a purpose that Fidel Castro repeated when he told intellectuals at the University of Havana in June 1961, “Within the Revolution, everything; against the Revolution, nothing,” an expression that Cuban scholars of the time understood as being directed exclusively at culture, when in reality what he did was mark Cuba as his territory, as the true beast that it was. However, I consider that the pioneer of totalitarian thought, the one who first made that intention public, was Louis XIV, when he declared in the parliament in Paris in April 1655, at only 16 years old, “I am the state.”

Hanna Arendt states that totalitarianism seeks to dominate human beings from within, by destroying their ability to think freely, while simultaneously destroying the public life of its subjects. It establishes mechanisms of social control, such as total terror, expressed through constant aggression against the general population, not just the opposition; mass or totalitarian propaganda; and the use of ideology to address the concerns of the governed.

It is an all-encompassing proposal: the State exercises absolute or highly restrictive control over property, eliminating or subordinating assets that do not align with the system's interests. Simultaneously, while the center of power appears stable, the surrounding elements are in constant flux and unstable. However, the most affected by totalitarianism is the human being. The damage suffered is appalling and highly contagious.

Both dictatorships and totalitarianism generate violence and evil; both commit horrendous crimes and are deeply corrupt. However, the only system that is absolutely predatory is totalitarianism, so much so that it led our illustrious thinker to write about "the banality of evil," where an ordinary person devastates their surroundings by following orders without thinking about the consequences, as has happened in Cuba during these last decades.

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».