The diploma thesis Language and totalitarianism deals with the relation between these two phenomena. On the basis of key thinkers dealing with totalitarianism it formulates its own definition of totalitarianism. It presents the communication theory of Karl Wolfgang Deutsch, on which basis it points to the close relation between communication and political systems, concretely between language and totalitarianism. Language is analysed mainly on the thoughts of Ferdinand de Saussure and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Totalitarian language is explained using mainly Orwell's totalitarian language newspeak in 1984. A practical analysis of a sample of Rudé právo form the era of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in the years 1948-1989 shows its manifestations in real use. At the end of the thesis political correctness is introduced as an example of totalitarian tendencies in liberal democracies.

Dissertation Title Polish Workers in Czechoslovakia: Unwelcome Friendship Specific features of temporary labor migration in the socialist system Author Ondřej Klípa Summary The aim of the dissertation is to study the case of Polish workers in Czechoslovakia who were employed on conditions set by intergovernmental treaties. Most of them were women. This case had two specific features. First, it was highly regulated by both of the co-operating states. Second, the state bodies tried to control intensively both the workers in order to isolate them from local population and the public discourse of this topic. In this study I argue that both of the features arise from fundamental elements of socialist system, which are "economy of shortage" and totalitarianism. These elements were identified in the work of Hungarian economist János Kornai. Instead of totalitarianism as a coherent concept I use only certain totalitarian practices that were exercised with variable intensity, depending on circumstances. In the dissertation I examine causality between these two fundamental elements (independent variables) and both regulation and control (dependent variables). For this purpose I consider the studied case as a specific model of temporary labor migration in socialist system. The case is also situated in a broader...

Master thesis The film and politics. Propaganda and political agitation in Czech feature film 1948-1956 regards form and range of political, respectively communist ideology in chosen successful Czech feature motion pictures of the above mentioned time period. Investigates how and how far communist ideology influenced the examined films, even e.g. how much open or hidden agitation and propaganda it was. Main question of the thesis is why these films - which are often designated as propagandistic, agitation or at least ideologically tendentious - were so attractive for their viewers at that time. The thesis is theoretically based on supportive literature on history, totalitarianism and Czech film and practically on analysis of particular movies, which are absolutely essential for that time period.

The main aim of this diploma thesis is analysis of the surveillance and the power relationships in the Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. The thesis attempts to contribute to understanding of the surveillance operation and the power technologies in the Auschwitz by comparison of the Michel Foucault's theoretical concept of power and surveillance with the totalitarian power according to Hannah Arendt. These two concepts will constitute the main theoretical base of this thesis. The thesis attempts to characterize Nazi politics of possible visibility and displayability on the basis of Didi-Huberman's reflection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau visual representation. Keywords: Discipline. Surveillance. Hannah Arendt. Michel Foucault. Power. Totalitarianism.

<p>  </p> <p>This dissertation attempts to explain a uniquely modern phenomenon—totalitarianism—through a case study of Chinese totalitarianism. It seeks to solve the puzzle of why the Chinese people’s inclinations, manners, customs, and morals were particularly suitable for totalitarian rule, and its thesis is that <em>Confucianism</em> laid the moral and psychological foundations of Chinese totalitarianism, paving the way for socialism and communism’s takeover of China in the twentieth century. </p> <p>It is this Confucian substratum that distinguishes Chinese totalitarianism from Western parallels. It is true that socialist and communist ideas were significant in advancing the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship, but the Chinese did not succumb to a socialism or communism imported from abroad. In the West, totalitarian ideologies bewitched masses suffering from economic crises and social unrest, who were thus willing to accept a centralized government led by a “strong man” promising economic renewal and restoral of order. In China, those ideologies only took root because of and on the basis of their accordance with the preexisting Confucianism. </p> <p>This dissertation includes in-depth and extensive textual analysis of original Confucian texts. Its theoretical analysis of Confucius’s original thought, in particular his ethical and political teachings, illustrates how traditional Chinese political culture, nurtured in Confucian ethics, predisposed the Chinese people to a totalitarian solution to political problems. </p> <p>Chapter 2 presents the analysis’s method and terminology, which are unconventional. It explicates a few key terms which are essential to the Confucian canon, but which have long been mistranslated in the English literature. Chapter 3 reviews the literature of totalitarianism and proposes a (re)conceptualization of totalitarianism deviating from conventional treatments. Chapter 4 turns to the analysis of the intellectual characteristics of the ru school of thought, explaining the amenability of Chinese society to a totalitarian rule depending on mass obedience and the inability of individuals to think for themselves. It is shown that human hermeneutics—modes of interpreting and understanding phenomena—are realized fundamentally differently in China than in the West. Chapter 5 examines ru ethics, the moral foundation of traditional Chinese politics, which is here termed <em>family politics</em>. Comparing Western accounts of ethics with 伦理 (<em>lun li</em>) demonstrates the essential differences between Chinese and Western morality. Chapter 6 concerns China’s traditional political culture, which shaped China’s imperial politics and is still robust in today’s China. Finally, Chapter 7 explains why European socialism, an ideology seemingly alien to Chinese culture, nonetheless was able to flourish in China. This chapter also addresses the question of why other East Asian countries, also influenced by the ru school of thought, did not follow the same totalitarian pathway as China.  </p>

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Hannah Arendt analyse dans les origines du totalitarisme les différents événements politiques qui ont participé au développement et à l’implantation du totalitarisme au vingtième siècle. Dans ce mémoire, nous démontrerons que cette analyse impose un constat, celui d’un déclin concomitant du concept d’humanité. Nous proposons donc une recension de ce déclin dans l’ouvrage d’Arendt, en insistant sur son intensification qui se manifeste par une aggravation de ses conséquences pour certaines populations. Ces dernières partagent un sort similaire : elles sont d’une manière ou d’une autre exclues du politique. En effet, le racisme, l’apatridie et l’univers concentrationnaire constituent les différentes formes adoptées par ce déclin. L’exclusion qu’elles mettent en scène est directement liée à ce qui fonde l’humanité selon Arendt, soit l’appartenance à une communauté politique.

Le XXe siècle aura légué au monde un phénomène politique inédit que les théories traditionnelles ne pouvaient faire entrer dans leurs catégories : le totalitarisme. Hannah Arendt fut parmi les premières personnes à s'être évertuée à comprendre ce totalitarisme jusqu'alors inédit. La philosophe d'origine allemande ne se contente pas de décrire le mouvement totalitaire, mais de plus, elle plonge dans l'histoire afin d'en retrouver les racines pour en expliquer la naissance. Autour de l'antisémitisme et l'impérialisme, Hannah Arendt trouve ces fameuses sources et ensuite, elle se lance dans une description du système totalitaire. Arendt réalise le tout, dans un ouvrage publié pour la première fois en 1951 Les Origines du totalitarisme. Dans ce mémoire, je me propose de refaire le parcours suivi, par Arendt, afin de déceler les concepts-clés qui ont mené à sa conception du totalitarisme et en conclusion, je présenterai un bilan de sa théorie du totalitarisme de même qu'un commentaire sur des idées politiques utiles à la compréhension de la naissance du totalitarisme et qui permettent, selon Arendt, de l'éviter.

This thesis examines the topic of representation of totalitarianism in videogames. It aims to show how the totalitarianism is depicted in selected games and whether the videogame as a medium has some influence on this depiction. Theoretical part introduces and examines all sorts of different approaches, based on which one can study videogame as a medium. An argument about the videogames as a medium of control is presented further on and is also discussed in relation with totalitarianism. Second half of theoretical chapter focuses on definition of totalitarianism which is used in the case studies later on. Empirical part analyzes four games - Half-life 2, Papers, please, Wolfenstein: the New Order and BioShock with focus on representation of totality or dystopia. The games are analyzed both with regards to their rules and fiction. The conclusion shows that totalitarianism was represented mostly by its outer activities rather than ideology which were usually represented rather marginally. However, in all cases there could be found some examples of how was the representation of totalitarianism used to merge with system of control in games.

O escopo desse trabalho é identificar, na obra da filósofa Hannah Arendt, os conceitos a partir dos quais o pensamento político de nossa autora se estrutura e se relaciona com um possível pensamento arendtiano sobre o Direito. No percurso do texto, iniciaremos com contexto da compreensão do totalitarismo, passaremos a análise dos elementos desse fenômeno que conduziram a crise do Estado-Nação e do fracasso dos Direitos Humanos, estabelecidos a partir das Revoluções Americana e Francesa no século XVIII. Em seguida, faremos uma restruturação dos conceitos filosóficos apropriados por Arendt a partir do mundo pré-filosófico dos poetas e historiadores e da tríade de filósofos gregos Sócrates, Platão e Aristóteles para a construção de seu pensamento político em contraposição ao pensamento político da tradição que sofreu uma ruptura e não conseguiu fornecer um arcabouço teórico para o fenômeno sem precedentes - o totalitarismo. Nossa autora além de realizar sua crítica, também estabelece uma proposta de Direitos Humanos a partir do conceito direitos a ter direitos estritamente relacionada aos conceitos de sua teoria política e seu novo modo de pensar os assuntos humanos, como por exemplo, a pluralidade. No entanto, nossa autora não se restringe apenas a uma nova fundamentação dos Direitos Humanos, a partir crítica aos Tribunais de Nuremberg e Jerusalém, também se direciona a uma discussão de mecanismos internacionais que possam realmente fornecer eficácia a tais direitos Tribunais ad hoc ou de Exceção, Cortes Internacionais, princípios de jurisdição territorial, personalidade passiva e universal, tipificação dos crimes de genocídio e contra a humanidade. / The goal of this work is to identify, in the work of the philosopher Hannah Arendt, the concepts from which her political thinking is structured and related to a possible Arendtian thinking about the Law. In the text, we will begin a restructuring of Arendt\'s philosophical concepts from the pre-philosophical world of poets and historians and the triad of Greek philosophers - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle - to construct his political thought in opposition to political thought of the tradition that suffered a rupture and failed to provide a theoretical framework for the unprecedented phenomenon - totalitarianism. In the context of the understanding of totalitarianism, we will analyze the elements of this phenomenon that led us to the crisis of the Nation State and the failure of Human Rights, established from the American and French Revolutions in the eighteenth century. Our author, besides performing her critique, also establishes a proposal for Human Rights from the concept of \"rights to have rights\" strictly related to the concepts of her political theory and her new way of thinking about human affairs, such as plurality. However, our author is not restricted only to a new grounding of human rights, from criticism to the Nuremberg and Jerusalem Courts, it also addresses a discussion of international mechanisms that can really provide effectiveness to such rights - ad hoc or Exception, International Courts, principles of jurisdiction territorial, passive and universal personality, typification of crimes of genocide and against humanity.