A citizen is referred to as a member of a particular political community or nation. An ideal citizen is one who respects other members in the society, one who contributes to the community, and most importantly one who is aware of his or her rights and duties. Ideal citizens ensure that they complete their responsibilities for proper functioning of a democratic government. Nevertheless, some political communities are governed by totalitarian governments, which have absolute power over their citizens, thus hindering them from exercising their rights and responsibilities.
Notably, the Nazi German is a prime example of a totalitarian society. Between 1933 and 1945, Adolf Hitler, using his Nazi political party, had absolute power over Germany. As a result, Nazism in Germany led to the transformation of Germany from a democratic state to a tyrannical state. A totalitarian society is controlled by a cruel and oppressive government. In order to understand how Adolf Hitler transformed Germany into a totalitarian state, it is important to understand the techniques he used. Totalitarian leaders such as Adolf Hitler, tend to lure citizens in order to gain trust from them so that they surrender power to the leader. Hitler utilized various techniques that included of propaganda, scape-goating, and violence. These techniques ensured his long stay in power. After losing the World War I, Germany was faced with an immense economic and social deprivation since the state had to pay compensation to its allies (Magstadt, 2017). The Nazi party, led by Hitler, used propaganda while campaigning, thus promoting hatred against the Jews (Magstadt, 2017). Hitler used Jews as a scapegoat, whereby he blamed them for the social and economic hardship experienced by the state. Hitler promised Germany to resolve the issues and as a result, the Nazi political party won the elections. After the Nazi party had gained power, it used violence to maintain its power, through persecution of the Jews and introduction of laws that eliminated the Jewish rights (Magstadt, 2017).
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From Nazi German, it is evident that tyrannical leadership is oppressive and is mainly dependent on the loyalty of citizens. Therefore, totalitarian political socialization ought to be eliminated. One of the main methods of eliminating an oppressive government is through learning to act as ideal citizens, that is understand their political values. Further, it is important to note that voter apathy, that is the low turnout of eligible voters, promotes stagnation of a totalitarian government, thus it should be eliminated (Neundorf & Smets, 2017). Ideal citizens contribute to the society and are aware of their rights and responsibilities; hence, they should be active in political activities in order to vote out totalitarian political socialization.
References
Magstadt, T. M. (2017). Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues . Boston: Cengage Learning.
Neundorf, A. & Smets, K. (2017). Political Socialization and the Making of Citizens . Oxford: Oxford Handbooks Online.
