-ēəˌnizəm noun
( -s )
Etymology: totalitarian (I) + -ism
1.
a. : centralized control by an autocratic ruler or hierarchy regarded as infallible
in a democracy, forfeiture of sovereignty by the people means totalitarianism — E.L.Klein
ideally Christianity desires totalitarianism , too, but in the sense that men everywhere come to see the validity of its definition of man — Times Literary Supplement
specifically : despotism
the barbarism of the Turks and the totalitarianism of the Spanish kings — New York Herald Tribune Book Review
b. : the political concept of man as the servant of the state : collectivism
the essence of totalitarianism , in contrast with democracy, is that there is … no area where the citizen's initiative is supreme — Laurence Stapleton
— compare individualism
2. : the quality or state of being totalitarian
Pilgrim and Puritan women … functioned and reacted in the stern totalitarianism of a male and theocratic civilization — New York Herald Tribune Book Review
totalitarianism is … not by accident the distinguishing characteristic of the Nazi state — H.J.Morgenthau
3. : a totalitarian dogma, method, or regime
championship of human values against all the insidious totalitarianisms — New Yorker