In totalitarian states, political power is often held by autocrats, such as dictators ( totalitarian dictatorship), who employ all-encompassing campaigns in which propaganda is broadcast by state-controlled mass media in order to control the citizenry.
It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism. Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regulation over public and private life.
Joseph Stalin (left), leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Adolf Hitler (right), leader of the German Reich - considered prototypical dictators of totalitarian regimes, of the left and right respectively
