Die Prägung von Mentalität und politischem Denken durch die Erfahrung totalitärer Herrschaft

In contrast to authoritarian systems, the fundamental attribute of totalitarian systems is not only that they exercise political control using surveillance and repression, but that they aim to control the thoughts and will of the people by means of their ideology. Therefore, the essential feature of totalitarian control can be identified in the state’s endeavours to indoctrinate its citizens with that ideology. With this goal in mind, we need to examine to what extent totalitarian regimes are successful in actually influencing their people’s mentality and political thinking, and in what ways this influence persists once a totalitarian state has become a free and constitutional democracy.
This book deals with this central issue in three ways: it analyses the role of ideology in totalitarian systems, examines the methodological questions used in the empirical study of mentalities and political thinking, and addresses the persistence of or the changes in totalitarian influence during the transition from regime to democracy using the example of various subdivisions of society (understanding democracy, political parties’ self-perception, civic engagement etc.)
This book is transdisciplinary, with its authors being experts in politics, history, sociology and psychology, among other subjects.