Abstract

Some states were established, in the twentieth century, which are characterized by the title of “Totalitarian”. They consist of a wide range including conservatives, fascist radical right-wingers, and communist radical left-wingers. The nature and behavioral style of these governments are manifest in their doctrines or policies which are more or less rooted in the past. Hence, some thinkers like Karl Popper and Schopenhauer contain that Hegel was one of the philosophers whose trace of thought can be seen in these doctrines. Now, the main purpose of this article is to clarify the validity of this claim by adapting the most important features of Hegel's theory of state with the doctrines of the totalitarian states of the twentieth century, mainly from Nazi or fascist types in Germany and Italy between the two world wars. For this reason, the main question of the present study is: “has Hegel theorized about his desired state in a way that is consistent with the doctrines of the twentieth-century totalitarian states?” The findings of this study suggest that, although notions may be found in Hegel's thoughts that are misunderstood or misused by totalitarian states, overall, what Hegel has proposed about the state and its features is entirely different from the doctrines of the totalitarian states of the twentieth century. This study is descriptive-analytic with a documentary-historical approach and collecting the appropriate data for analysis is done in a library-based way.