A brief history of the concept of totalitarianism

The paper presents a short history of the concept/term of totalitarianism in its scientific meaning, separating that meaning from the emotional, mostly negative connotations associated with this term, in order to give theorists and scientists in the field of social and political sciences a reliable means of detecting those social and political forms that could be called totalitarian, from those that may not meet democratic and institutional standards, but which from a scientific point of view would be wrong to say that they are totalitarian in full sense of the word. In this search for the original meaning of the term of totalitarianism and in presenting a short history of this term, the author of the paper will return to the classical political thinkers of the 20th century who defined this term. In the central part of the work, the etymology and phenomenology of the term of totalitarianism are presented following the footsteps of the mentioned classical political thinkers of the 20th century, in order to precisely separate those political and social forms to which this term can be applied, from those to which it cannot, in order to protect the scientific use of this term and reduce its political abuses.