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Montesquieu on Totalitarianism: Hannah Arendt's Ideology and Terror

In order to conceptualize totalitarianism, Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism turns to Montesquieu. In its final chapter, Ideology and Terror, she applies Montesquieu's categories of political analysis to totalitarianism. Arendt argues that totalitarianism cannot be identified with any of Montesquieu's three types of government. Montesquieu encountered an analogous problem when he was discussing English constitution whose nature and guiding principle were unprecedented. However, unlike Montesquieu’s England, totalitarianism accomplished complete break with the tradition. Totalitarianism makes Montesquieu's categories altogether useless – both the nature of government and its principle are of no avail when trying to get to terms with it. Therefore, instead of defining totalitarianism simply as a new form of government, one should conclude, strictly speaking, that it is not a government at all. Rather, it is a negative mirror image of English constitution, an unheard of structureless movement aimed at utter destruction of human freedom through terror.

Arendt ; Montesquieu ; State ; Totalitarianism ; Freedom

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