The Cognate Philosophies of Control: A Comparative Study of Authoritarian Ideologies, Policies, and Regimes

An authoritarian government is led by a dictator, often with a cult following, who has control over all aspects of the nation’s institutions. The two major authoritarian ideologies, communism and fascism, are on opposite ends of the political spectrum. The goal of this paper is to compare and contrast these two ideologies through the analyses of 20th century regimes and their methods of social control, which will gauge the extent of their influence on authoritarian policies. The examination of these regimes and their methods, both communist and fascist, yielded no significant differences between them in terms of their ideologies. This conclusion supports the argument that authoritarianism itself is the true ideology, with its own platform and goals which surpass the left-right dichotomy.