Final answer:
Totalitarianism aims to control every aspect of citizens' lives, from broad social dynamics to intimate personal details, often by imposing a single ideology and using systematic violence and propaganda to maintain power. Notable examples include Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union.
Step-by-step explanation:
The basic objective of totalitarianism, in any form, was to establish complete control over all aspects of the public and private lives of citizens. This type of government seeks to regulate and control activities ranging from political to personal, such as occupation, religious beliefs, and even the number of children in a family. Dictatorships and totalitarian regimes differ in that dictatorships may vary in ideologies and are generally focused on maintaining the dictator’s power, while totalitarian regimes impose an all-encompassing ideology and extend their control to every corner of society, often using propaganda, state monitoring, and repression of dissent to maintain power.
Examples of totalitarianism include the fascist regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany, who instituted a genocidal program against Jews, Romani, and other groups, and the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union, which pursued rigid conformity to Marxist ideology and enforced a state-driven industrialization and collectivization at great human and environmental costs. Totalitarian regimes aim at stifling individuality, fostering a sense of total dependence on the state, and eliminating any notion of self beyond being a 'citizen' — effectively, a captive.
Totalitarian regimes are characterized by striving for a utopian goal that necessitates strict and all-encompassing control over society.