book
The Origins of Totalitarianism
Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1951.
Related concepts3 concepts
Concept
Coercion
Coercion names authority maintained through threat or enforcement that strips public interpretation of relevance. Compliance matters; belief does not. Public disagreement functions as self-exposure rather than interpretation, rituals of affirmation substitute for evaluative agreement, and private understanding persists without public consequence. Silence signals uncertainty while visible conformity signals safety. Show trials, denunciations, and orchestrated demonstrations mark the shift—meaning becomes script to enact rather than claim to evaluate. Coercion succeeds when each act of compliance raises the perceived cost for others, when dissent carries not just social cost but extreme risk. At its limit, public interpretation as shared evaluative process disappears, and exposure or reform fail to constrain authority.
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Concept
Legitimacy
Legitimacy names the standing that lets authority coordinate without constant coercion. It becomes important when scale, abstraction, or time separate decision-makers from lived consequence. It helps preserve trust and willing participation, but can fail when smooth operation is mistaken for moral standing or when scrutiny is treated as disloyalty. It differs from alignment because legitimacy still invites proportionate inquiry; alignment can bind through belonging signals alone.
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Concept
Total authority
Total authority names the extreme case where public disagreement becomes life-threatening and independent evaluative institutions are eliminated. Communication may intensify while assessment vanishes—public meaning enacted as obedience, not claim. It differs from post-interpretive authority because total authority extinguishes public evaluative space rather than merely decoupling legitimacy from external interpretation. It differs from interpretive collapse because total authority actively eliminates evaluative activity; collapse can occur without full elimination.
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