Exploring the Differences Between Liberal Democratic, Authoritarian and Totalitarian Political Systems

Exploring the Differences Between Liberal Democratic, Authoritarian and Totalitarian Political Systems

Defining political systems is a difficult thing to do as no single

system is completely static, they often change dependant on things

like war and trends in regimes, such as the recent insurgence in

‘liberal democracies’ means that the classifications of systems

changes over time. The British Westminster system is considered to be

a ‘liberal democracy’ however in the Second World War there were

several powers exercised by the government which do not fit with this

type of system for example control was exercised over the media and

labour and elections were put off. These powers were only used as a

result of the emergency situation, seemingly with the support of the

masses and once the war was over the situation reverted to that of the

pre war era but this illustrate how it can be difficult to apply all

encompassing guidelines which finitely define a certain political

system. Taking this into consideration though it is still important to

have some level of classification in place so that the systems can

first of all be more easily understood and also so that they can be

assessed as to how effective they are and how they could be improved.

In order to consider the differences between three political systems:

‘liberal democratic’, ‘authoritarian’ and ‘totalitarian’ the

individual definitions must first be established then any similarities

and differences evaluated and finally the practical consequences of

these must be highlighted.

Liberal democracy is a very popular political system in modern times.

It has several defining attribute...

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...nce this change has been successfully implemented the system

would then strictly speaking no longer be a totalitarian state and

would simply be authoritarian.

In conclusion authoritarian and totalitarian systems are very similar

though they do have some fundamental differences whereas liberal

democracy is inextricably different from both. The most important

difference is the legitimacy of the power being exercised by the

government. This massively affects the stability of a nation; people

who feel they have control over the politics in their country are much

less likely to revolt.

Bibliography

Ball, AR (2000): Modern Politics & Government, London: Macmillan Press

Ltd

Hague, R (2004): Comparative Government and Politics, New York:

Palgrave Macmillan

Heywood, A (2002): Politics, New York: Palgrave