We are used to distinguishing the despotic regimes of the twentieth century -- Communism, Fascism, Nat ional Socialism, Maoism -- very precisely according to place and time, origins and influences. But what should we call that which they have in common? On this question, there has been and remains a passionate debate. Indeed, the question seemed for a long time not even to be admissible. Clearly, this state of affairs is unsatisfactory. The debate has been renewed in the past few years. After the collapse of the Communist systems in Central, East and Southern Europe, a -- scarcely surveyable -- mass of archival material has become available. Following the lead of Fascism and National Socialism, communist and socialist regimes throughout the world now belong to the historical past as well. This leads to the resumption of old questions: what place do the modern despotisms assume in the history of the twentieth century? What is their relation to one another? Should they be captured using traditional concepts -- autocracy, tyranny, despotism, dictatorship -- or are new concepts required? This book documents the first international conference on this theme, a conference that took place in September of 1994 at the University of Munich. The book shows how new models by which to understand political history arose from the experience of modern despotic regimes. Here, the most important concepts -- totalitarianism and political religions -- are discussed and tested in terms of their usefulness.

Part 1: Totalitarianism 1. The History of the Concept of Totalitarianism in Italy 2. Luigi Sturzo as a Theorist of Totalitarianism 3. Waldemar Gurian and the Development of the Concept of Totalitarianism 4. Reflections on Russian Totalitarianism 5. Natural Science in the Soviet Union under Totalitarian Conditions at the Beginning of the 1930s 6. The Other Side of Totalitarianism: The state of the debate in Hungary 7. A Glance at the History and Present of the Bohemian Countries Part 2: Political Religions 8. The Religious Use of Politics and/or the Political Use of Religion: Ersatz ideology versus ersatz religion 9 . Terror and Salvation: Experience of Political Events in the Work of Romano Guardini 10. The Concept of 'Political Religions' in the Thought of Eric Voegelin 11. The Modern Despotic Regime and Literature Part 3: General Discussion 12. Concepts for the Comparison of Dictatorships: 'Totalitarianism' and 'political religions' 13. Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe and its Consequences: A theoretical perspective 14. Despotism, Ersatz Religion, Religious Ersatz 15. Reflections on Future Totalitarianism Research 16. The Historicity of Totalitarianism: George Orwell's evidence Part 4: Research Contributions 17. Totalitarianism as a Twentieth-Century Phenomenon 18. National Socialism, Fascism and Authoritarian Regimes 19. Religious and Ecclesiastical Structures in Communism and National Socialism, and the Role of the Writer 20. Enlightenment and Terror: Historico-metaphysical prerequisites of totalitarian democracy 21. On Marxism, Christianity and Totalitarianism