Indeed, thinking of these systems I find it perfectly plausible the majority of altruist intentions where successfully channelled and employed by the regimes in question.
Also wouldn’t the term authoritarian be better? Syria and Iran don’t really compare to North Korea.
Most of the time, I find this term devoid of any real meaning. It’s an ideological term of opprobrium, which gives little or no useful information about the structures of authority in the society to which it is applied. It merely communicates that the speaker disapproves of them for ideological reasons. In particular, the academic usage of this term, from Adorno till present day, has been mired in ideological nonsense so badly that I really think the term is better left unused.
You are certainly right that it makes no sense to conflate various mildly and moderately repressive regimes with the greatest extremes like North Korea or Stalin’s USSR under the “totalitarian” label. On the other hand, as long as it’s not diluted by overuse, this label makes more sense than the vague and ideologized “authoritarian” one.
Indeed, thinking of these systems I find it perfectly plausible the majority of altruist intentions where successfully channelled and employed by the regimes in question.
Also wouldn’t the term authoritarian be better? Syria and Iran don’t really compare to North Korea.
Most of the time, I find this term devoid of any real meaning. It’s an ideological term of opprobrium, which gives little or no useful information about the structures of authority in the society to which it is applied. It merely communicates that the speaker disapproves of them for ideological reasons. In particular, the academic usage of this term, from Adorno till present day, has been mired in ideological nonsense so badly that I really think the term is better left unused.
You are certainly right that it makes no sense to conflate various mildly and moderately repressive regimes with the greatest extremes like North Korea or Stalin’s USSR under the “totalitarian” label. On the other hand, as long as it’s not diluted by overuse, this label makes more sense than the vague and ideologized “authoritarian” one.