ABSTRACT
This introduction provides a brief overview of the debates concerning “totalitarianism” as a concept, and how these debates point toward the need to investigate vanguard party structures as an overlapping element of totalitarian movements and regimes. The chapter turns to the problem of characterizing totalitarianism primarily as either an ideology or organization. To explain why movements with such radically different aims – such as those of Communism and Nazism – shared numerous similarities, the chapter argues these groups are shaped by a similar ideological “infrastructure” leading to similar organizational configurations. The chapter concludes by showing how it is the vanguard party itself which connects ideology and action within the totalitarian movement.
