Popular Opinion in totalitarian regimes Paul Corner, University of Siena, Italy
These days, in Europe, people are often asking 'What do ordinary North Koreans think about the regime they live in?' This paper asks a similar question about totalitarian regimes of the past, looking principally at Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and the communism of the USSR and the post-1945 Soviet bloc. The intention is to examine certain very broad topics, without being too specific - topics which relate to the past but which still have relevance today.
'Popular opinion' is just an umbrella term, covering many different issues and questions. For example, were ordinary people simply victims of these repressive regimes (role of coercion) or did they support them willingly (role of consensus)? Did ordinary people have any space for individual action and reaction (role of agency) or were their thoughts and actions always determined from above? Did the 'message' broadcast by the regime always arrive at destination ( message and reception)? And what was the role of emotion in all this? Through the discussion of these and other issues we hope to arrive at a better understanding of the complex nature of life under totalitarian regimes and to go beyond the traditional and over-simplified paradigm of victim/perpetrator.
