Totalitarian Society

Running head: TOTALITARIAN SOCIETY 1
Totalitarian Society
Name
Institution

TOTALITARIAN SOCIETY 2
Introduction
In 1948, the world came together, and through United Nations assembly registered a huge
milestone on human rights through The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Upon this
declaration, all the societies were expected to recognize the dignity and inalienable rights of all
individuals as the foundation of freedom, peace, and justice in the world. The states, through
their governments, were expected to be the custodians of human rights. However, since then
certain governments have not heeded to the plea of the declaration and instead, have continued to
violate human rights. This explains why totalitarian regimes such as North Korea still have had a
space in today’s society.
The totalitarian government is presented through many forms the common ones being
stated control over the means of communication, single-party rule, economy being totally
controlled by the government, police use of terror tactics and force to control citizens and the
military control of the state (McNeil, 2015). North Korea, as a totalitarian society, is endowed
with the above features. The leadership of North Korea does not uphold individual freedom, and
the lives of the citizens have been subordinated to the authority of the state. From the perspective
of a nation aims at controlling all aspects of the citizens’ lives, North Korea is an ideal example
of a totalitarian society. The government does not provide a space for the nurturing of the ideal
citizens who would help the state to achieve its economic, social, and political goals. Ideal
citizen participates in society and community development (Magstadt, 2016). Since almost all
aspects are under the control of the government, the ideal citizens cannot develop to higher
political positions where they can improve society for others.
North Korea can be said to be a single party state since the dominant party, Workers’
Party of Korea (WPK) has been ruling since 1948. Like his successors, the current leader, Kim