Similarities Between Nazism And Fascism

As a conclusion, Arendt define totalitarianism as a combination of total terror and ideology with the potential of destructive power existing within both Nazi Germany and Stalin’s rule in Soviet Russia. Arendt’s argument was criticized massively since it draws similarities between a communist regime and national socialism which have completely different economic base and the structure of the party system (Kershaw, 2004 : 239). Moreover, there are differences between Nazism and Stalinism in terms of the role of the leader (Sauer, 1967 : 419). While fascist regimes are identical with their leaders, Bolshevism is relatively less dependent on the leaders in order to survive and maintain the social and political order. (Sauer, 1967 : 419). Sauer

For instance, both Arendt and Mann mentions the concept “enemies of regime” which exists in the Nazi Germany but Arendt conceptualize it as a characteristic of totalitarianism while Mann links it with fascism. This situation is mainly the result of the difficulties to describe fascism and totalitarianism in itself and the result of the usage of these terms as opposed to each other rather than being complementary during the Cold War era (Kershaw, 2004 :

Kershaw claims that what matters is common features not the identity; therefore, Nazism might be defined as “a specific form of fascism or a particular expression of totalitarianism” (Kershaw, 2004 : 241). According to Kershaw, whether it is classified as fascism or totalitarianism there is something missing while defining Nazism (Kershaw, 2004 : 242). Neither fascism nor totalitarian is sufficient to comprehend national socialism entirely due to its unique feature (Kershaw, 2004 :