Totalitarian democracy claims to reduce social and economic inequalities but requires the exerting of extensive control over these areas in order to achieve its aims. Political democracy, in the sense of apparent popular participation in decision-making on societal issues, may be arranged by manipulation of voting and election systems.
For example, in Turkey in 1983, the military junta manipulated elections and defended its concept of a guided democracy, although it had already behind it several years of rule with mass arrests, detentions and executions of political enemies of the state, and other acts of totalitarian repression.
American society is being transformed at such a rapid pace, during an unending “state of emergency,” that many Americans are finding it difficult to evaluate the changes and decide which are helpful and which are destructive. To assist in the process, I suggest asking one question: Will this change lead to greater dependence or greater independence? If the former, the change is certainly made in the service of a shift toward totalitarianism. Totalitarianism abhors freedom, lusts for absolute control, and demands compliance. If we fail to identify it and push back against it, we will move from an authoritarian to a totalitarian government, and America as we have always known it will be over, perhaps forever.