University of Maryland

Department of Government and Politics

GVPT 888 D

Spring 2008

Professor Vladimir Tismaneanu

Comparative Perspectives on Communism and Fascism

(Graduate Seminar)

This course will examine the main similarities and distinctions between communist and fascist ideologies, movements, and political systems. The course will highlight the centrality of ideology in totalitarian experiments and the relationship between ideology and terror as underpinnings of the ideocratic despotisms. Class discussions will focus on the main theories regarding the rise, structure, and functioning of the the Stalinist and Nazi dictatorships. We will explore the contemporary meanings of Hannah Arendt’s classical study of totalitarianism. Other seminal texts to be discussed are related to the impact of German radical nationalism and romantic anti-capitalism on the rise of National Socialism; the relationship between the Russian revolutionary tradition and the Bolshevik political culture; the interpretation of communisma and fascism as political religions (secular messianisms). Class discussions will explore the relationship between totalitarianism and evil.