Abstract
Italian fascism, because it appeared at the same period as German national-socialism and Stalinist communism and presented some similarities with those regimes, is often categorized as a totalitarianism. However, this assertion has been refuted by many scholars, including the French political scientist Raymond Aron (who declared in the magazine "Commentaire" that Mussolini's regime had never been a totalitarianism) and Hannah Arendt in "the origins of totalitarianism".
Indeed, to Hannah Arendt who theorized the concept of totalitarianism, Italian fascism cannot be classified as this political system who combines a single-party system, an ideological monopoly served by propaganda and mass terror, a total control of all the aspects of the society and an aspiration to create a new man. Although the very term totalitarianism has been shaped on the example of Italian fascism and was used a lot by Mussolini himself, it seems that the fascist rehime doesn't comprise all the elements of the definition of a totalitarianism.
